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Submitted by: Charlotte

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Hi Megha Your new apartment looks great - and what a wonderful chance to have a new building right from the start! I think it is lovely to have a nice open plan space for living room and dining room, but this in itself can lead to challenges with the layout. You need to be careful with the proportions for long thin rooms, like your living room, and use some interior design tricks to make it feel squarer - this can just be things like drawing attention to the end walls with focal points, rather than the long thin walls, and using the right colors. Arranging the furniture correctly can also help - luckily, as you have lots of doors in the room, this does <b>not</b> mean lining up the furniture around the edges of the walls - you get a much better effect if you aim to create activity islands within the centre of the room. For example you may have an arrangement of sofas around a coffee table in the centre of a room - for seating, relaxing and/or TV watching. In another area you might have a study area, activity area, quiet reading/sewing area in a corner ... whatever... Open shelving projecting at right angles into the room can also help divide the room up into different activity areas, or even a sofa or console table can perform this task. Get some more ideas for <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/principles-of-interior-design.html">playing with the proportions of long thin rooms, here...</a> and for <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/interior_designs_living_room.html">open plan living dining rooms here...</a> Continues on next comment....

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Submitted by: Charlotte

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Continued from above comment... For your kitchen you should plan carefully how you wish to use and arrange your appliances. You can think about the <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/decorating-kitchens.html">work triangle</a> (often used by kitchen designers to get a well thought out kitchen) to start you off. A brand new kitchen is a great opportunity to get exactly the layout to work for you, so it is well worth thinking about carefully. Many companies who sell kitchens will offer a free designer who can work with you, incorporating your needs and ideas into a professionally designed and thought-out kitchen, so if you have the opportunity to do something like this, this would be great. For more information about thinking about your kitchen requirements, and getting the most out of your kitchen design, take a look at my <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/kitchen-decorating-tips.html">kitchen design section, here...</a> And don't forget the whole <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/interior-design-tips.html">How to Design section, here...</a> I hope some of these ideas are of help to you in starting to design your new home - it does look a great place - and I do hope you succeed in creating your very own Home Sweet Home. Do let us know how you get on... ...we'd love to see photos of the project progressing <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/home-decorating-projects.html">here...</a> Best wishes Charlotte :)

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Submitted by: Megha Gomes

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Hi, Charlotte Thanks a lot for all the wonderful ideas that you have given to me I hope I am able to use them in designing my home.. Well I still have a few questions that I want to ask and clear out.. You see the living room area is long and narrow but it's not at all like a hallway.the length is 793cms and the width is 375cms .. I have posted the plan to you earlier and as you can see that there is no place on the end walls as there is a huge French door on one side and a small window and a door on the other.. I can't place my television on either of them and so I am really confused where to place it?? The television is going to be a focal point in our living room actually the important one.. We plan to put a big screen there of about 36inches minimum. If I do that I have to place the sitting arrangement touching the opposite wall... If I bring it closer to the TV it will affect the eye's... I am sending you another pic where I have drawn the interiors...well just where I am supposed to put the TV... And the sitting arrangement in the living room... I hope you can understand my drawing...as I am not a professional... I am open to any suggestions.and do let me know what you think about it...also tell me what I can do with the other side of the living room which I have marked with ??? will be looking forward for your reply... Love, Megha PS- i just realized I cannot add pics what do I do???

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Submitted by: Charlotte

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Megha - thanks for leaving me with your email earlier (when you first asked the question) - I am emailing you about the picture... and will wait and do you a full reply when I see it... Thanks Charlotte

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Submitted by: Megha

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Here's the plan... <div align="center"> <img src="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/images/img_0487.jpg" /> </div>

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Submitted by: Charlotte

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Hello Megha Thanks for the email - as you will see I have now added your plan to the thread. In response to your queries... Don't worry about the narrow room information mentioning a hallway - the same principles apply for any long, thin room, so you will still be able to use these ideas in your home. I see your quandries regarding living room arrangement... Firstly, though, if your TV is a widescreen format (16.9) the comfortable viewing distance is actually a lot closer than for a regular (4.3 format) screen. Assuming 20/20 vision (natural or corrected with glasses, lenses etc), for a 36" widescreen TV, optimal viewing distance is between 4.6ft to 9ft distance away... ...(and up to a 30 degree angle viewing position so you don't have to have it square on - think of how wide the seating in a cinema is positioned - this is the best viewing angle) Of course, though, you must position your TV in a spot you are comfortable with watching without discomfort or strain. Looking at your plan, is the furniture to scale? Is your seating arrangement nearly 3 and a half metres long? (estimated from your drawing - about 10ft?) Could the component parts perhaps be split a bit more to make it a less bulky whole? It looks like there is maybe a sofa, some side tables and chairs there, which could perhaps be treated as separate items not as one arrangement? Putting a long sofa up against a long wall will only make your room feel more long and thin - could you arrange the furniture perhaps at diagonals to the wall? ...or pull the whole arrangement away from the walls more into the center a little (just a couple of feet can work). The other thing that concerns me is the space left for access to bedroom 2. Continues on next comment...

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Submitted by: Charlotte

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Continues from above comment... It does not look like there is much space to pass comfortably to access bedroom 2? How about moving the whole arrangement down the room a little - in this way you get: -more access to bedroom 2 -the TV is not right on the corner, where it may impede access or get knocked easily -the seating area can make the most of the french windows, and views out to the balcony -there are less concerns about what else you could put in the spot marked ??? -the seating arrangement fills the room more evenly (you should check, though, that there will be sufficient access via the main door) -you may be able to position the TV in the corner by the french windows? Otherwise, I think it would still be nice to have some kind of seating by the french windows - it would seem a shame not to be able to fully enjoy a nice feature like that - perhaps a couple of chairs positioned right in front, looking out, at angles, and a coffee table? Hope this gives you some ideas about other ways you can fine-tune your arrangements. If you haven't already seen it, take a look at this information on <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/ideal-spacing.html">ideal spacing measurements</a>, just to make sure you do have enough room to safely get where you want to go... Also, I was thinking it might be good for generating more ideas for your furniture arrangement if you made little paper templates of your intended furniture to just play around with, within the space (again, if you haven't already done so). I always find that this naturally brings up arrangements that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/layout.html">Instructions for how I did this in my home, here...</a> <a href="http://www.interior-design-it-yourself.com/furniture-arrangement.html">Some more ideas and tips about furniture arrangement here...</a> Hope this all helps you Megha - you're doing well, keep going :) Do let us know how you get on. Best wishes Charlotte :)

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