We want to rearrange our living room, but we are complete interior design tools. Is there a site online where we can plan out a furniture design? How does one figure out to arrange stuff anyway? We have nice matching stuff, it just isn’t configured very well. Anyone here bored enough to want to suggest layouts, if given pictures?
Please stop our furniture asshattery.
Okay, so this one time, when I was a wee undergraduate, I was assigned the task of helping this guy rearrange a rather larger office.
He began by having me measure the whole damn office and making a detailed map of the floorspace, including walls, windows, doors (and how far they swing open) electrical outlets, phone and ethernet jacks, etc. on a piece of graph paper, then cut scale footprints of each peice of furniture out of post-it notes and labled them. (“Desk.” “Short filing cabinet.” “Tall filing cabinet.” “Book case.”) Then we spent f-o-r-e-v-e-r rearranging post-its until he figured out exactly how he wanted the furniture—all before we moved so much as a wastebasket.
I was a little peeved about being his measuring-tape monkey (I thought, who the hell cares how if the lightswitch is 8 inches from the door?), and when he started trimming post-it notes, I couldn’t believe it. I thought he was an utter tool. As a matter of fact, callow youth that I was, I pretty much thought he was a tool through the entire process.
Then, later in life, I had to move the furniture from one office to another, and realized that I should have made a map on graph paper and cut out post-it notes for the furniture! :smack: A little thought before we started moving would have gone a loooonnggg way. Because I thought I was too cool to “waste time” cutting out post-it-note models, I’ve been working in a rather stupidly arranged office for several years now.
So, you don’t need any fancy software, especially if you appreciate the simple joys of cut-and-paste activities!
I second the graph paper and footprint cutout approach. I still have all my templates from all the houses and apartments we lived in. Having the templates for each piece of furniture, and remembering the basics about how much room to leave around things like dining room chairs saved us so much physical labor. Though I will admit that if we were doing the heavy cleaning together (pulling out the couches, etc) more often than not we’d push and shove into new arrangements anyhow.
In fact, when I was a kid, I was only allowed to rearrange my room after making the graph paper diagram and templates. My mom wasn’t big on rearranging, and wanted any of that kind of chaos kept to a minimum, so I had to plan it all out ahead to be positive it would fit.
Oh, and I forgot. You need to think out how you want to use the room, and the traffic flow, and whether the sun will shine in and blind you while watching TV, and where all the plugs are. Do you need an endtable on your right or left to hold your drink and snack while you read, and then where do you want the lamp? I’ve always voted for practical over attractive. Nothing is more frustrating than not having a footrest where you really need one.
I am so way lazier than this. Good idea though. I was hoping for an online lazy solution. One that may involve measuring but not paper craft and anality.
Whenever I have to rearrange something, I use quarter-inch graph paper. I outline the size and shape of the room to scale in permanent ink, label the important things (door, closet, lightswitch, window), and then draw the furniture in with pencil. I can erase and I don’t need to cut out sticky notes.
Here is a site that might help.
I bought one of those interior design software programs when I designed my kitchen a few years back. After many hours of frustration, I resorted to…graph paper and little paper cut outs of cabinets, sinks, refrigerators, etc. It worked very well.
If you are not planning to buy new furniture, you can do what Lisa LaPorta (from “Designed to Sell”) does. She keeps moving the furniture around until she likes the arrangement. 
LaPorta almost always makes the fireplace the focal point of the room and arranges the furniture around it. Looks nice to sell, but not very practical, IMO. MY furniture is arranged around my big-ass t.v. because, whether it’s chic or not, that’s the focal point of the room 9 times out of 10.