Planning a living room: give every seat a reason to be there

Count usable seats

Write down who uses the room on an ordinary evening and how they like to sit. A person curled up with a book uses a sofa differently from someone sitting upright with visitors. A chaise may suit the first beautifully without providing the extra sociable seat its outline seems to promise.

Separate everyday seating from occasional seating. If friends regularly come round, show where the extra chairs come from and where they go. MBIE's room-by-room guidance makes the same useful starting distinction: the number of people and the activities influence the layout.

• Which seats would people choose first?
• Does anyone get the awkward leftover position?
• Can a visitor join the conversation without moving the whole room?

Use honest furniture outlines

Measure the pieces you want to keep. For furniture you have not chosen, agree a realistic size with the designer and label it as an assumption. Include arms, side tables and any part that extends when a recliner opens. A neat rectangle on a drawing can hide quite a lot.

I would cut those shapes out at the drawing's scale and move them around. Keep the route to the room's doors visible. If the only way past a seated person is through the space occupied by their feet, the arrangement needs another look.

• Show where a drink, book or lamp would sit.
• Include the space to get into and out of each seat.
• Check that cupboard doors can open with furniture in place.

Choose what the seats face

A view, a television and a conversation do not always point in the same direction. Rank them rather than asking every seat to serve everything equally well. In a hypothetical household that hosts friends often but rarely watches television together, facing every chair towards a screen would be an odd starting point.

Try a sofa with movable chairs as well as a larger fixed arrangement. Ask whether people can comfortably see one another, and whether the person who wants the outlook has somewhere appealing to sit. A second arrangement should be believable, not depend on carrying a heavy sofa across the room.

Look out from sitting height

Ask for a simple view from the main seats. A window that looks right on an elevation may frame something quite different when you sit down. Consider neighbours, planting and the garden, as well as the distant view.

California House at Waikanae Beach is a useful reference for thinking beyond a distant panorama: its published design description brings gardens and courtyards close to the living spaces. For your home, ask what could make the immediate outlook enjoyable.

MBIE also identifies afternoon glare as a consideration for west-facing living areas. Ask the team to assess sunlight and shading alongside the seating and screen positions.

Rehearse the room before agreeing it

On a clear floor, mark the proposed furniture positions with removable tape and use chairs to try the seating. Sit down, stand up, pass behind someone and bring another chair into the group. The exercise will not reproduce the finished room, but it can expose assumptions that are hard to notice on paper.

Take the marked plan back with three notes: the seat you like, the movement that feels awkward and the compromise you can accept. If you are planning a new home, I am happy to talk through how that living room fits the wider brief.