A Guide To Combine Two Couches In A Small Living Room
Having a small living room should not stop you from having more guests over. When you are hosting a party or a game night, a single couch might not do the job. A pair of couches would have given you way more flexibility in accommodating your guests. But is it possible to squeeze another couch into a living room that is not flush with space?
Yes, you can successfully combine two couches in a small living room if you follow the right approach. There are many ways to make two couches work in a living room without creating a cluttered vibe. Since couches are the centerpieces of living spaces, it’s important to get the layout right.
How can you do it? Well, let’s find out!
Two Couch Layouts For Small Living Rooms
When decorating a tight space, always keep an eye for congestion. You can’t make the room appear overstuffed. Bringing in two couches in a small living space might sound contradictory. Still, arranging a pair of couches in a small living space without creating a suffocating environment is possible.
Here are a few ways to do it:
Make Them Face Each Other
Simply placing two couches across from each other is one of the easiest ways to arrange the couches. It’s ideal if you have a lot of visitors and you want everyone to be able to see one other during conversations. Keep the couches close and put a center table between the two. The proximity between the couches adds more congeniality to the room’s atmosphere.
Two couches facing each other create a mirror image, which helps to make the room appear more symmetrical. As a result, this set-up seems best in either square or rectangular spaces rather than those with angles. Since most small-sized living rooms match that description, this arrangement will be perfect.
There is one downside to this setup, though. While two face-to-face couches would be great for having conversations, you can’t say the same while watching TV. You will have to place the TV on one side of the room, and everyone will have to turn their heads to watch it.
Want to enjoy a film with your friends? There’s a good chance you will be waking up with shoulder pain the next morning! You will have to think about other options if the living room is the entertainment center of your house as well.
Set Them Up In L Shape
An L-shaped arrangement of two couches is better for group binge sessions. Place one couch facing the TV. Position the other one so that it creates an L shape. Of course, this is not perfect for TV watching since only one couch faces the TV. But, it’s way more convenient than couches put in front of each other.
Will this work in a floating setup? If you properly scale the couches to the size of the room, it will. If they are not oversized compared to the available square footage, the couches won’t take up much floor area and will leave enough space for effortless navigation around the room.
This is not the best option for having a media entertainment zone or having a conversation, but it’s something in the middle. If you don’t prioritize one over the other, this is the setup you should go for.
For a small space, this is the best you can do to watch TVs and play games with your guests. It’s unlikely that you will find enough space to put two couches side by side. Even if you do somehow, it will make the room cramped. So, choosing an L-shaped arrangement is the logical approach for small living spaces with entertainment units.
How To Choose Couches For Small Living Spaces?
Comfort and aesthetics are important factors to consider when you are shopping for a couch. But if you have a small space, practicality should be your number one concern. You got yourself a beautiful sectional couch only to find out it doesn’t fit in your room. That’s a scenario all of us want to avoid!
Here are the factors you should mull over while buying couches for any living space:
What’s Your Desired Seating Capacity?
How many people live in the apartment with you? How many of your friends do regularly drop by? These are the questions you should ask yourself to determine how big a couch you need. If you are tight on space, should you go for two couches or settle for accent chairs? You have a decision to make there as well.
Will It Fit In?
So, you have found your dream couches! Congratulations! But are they practical choices for the space you have? Before going couch shopping, measure the living room dimensions and figure out how much space you can allocate for the couches. Make some scaled drawings on paper to get an idea.
After you set up the couches, there should be sufficient circulation space. They should not hamper the room’s traffic flow, and they should not appear oversized compared to the room. You have to check out all three of these boxes to greenlight the entry of a couch in your room. If a couch doesn’t meet these requirements, you can’t have it in your living room.
You can go for the futons also. Because they fit perfectly in small spaces. Read our best futons for small spaces to get the idea.
What Fabric Is Best For You?
If the design and size work out, look at the fabric of the couch. If you have pets in the house, you can’t choose leather. Leather is highly susceptible to claw marks and tearing, so your four-legged companions won’t leave your new couch in tiptop shape for long. However, leather could be an excellent pick for households with no pets.
You also need to be extra careful about the couch fabric if you have small children in the family. In that case, you would need to go for something that is easy to clean. Microfiber is a great choice in that regard. It’s pretty durable, and you won’t have to give much effort to clean it. Linen is also good for frequent washing.
We have done a comparison between microfiber vs linen and linen vs velvet sofa. You can check it out to know more about ideal couch material.
What Color Should You Pick?
The color of the couch has a greater implication in smaller living rooms. Lighter color tones have better light-reflective capabilities. Therefore, they can boost the natural lighting inside the room and make the space feel larger than it really is. Grey, beige, and white are fantastic color options for couches in small living rooms.
But, that doesn’t mean darker colors won’t work in a small living space. Darker shades like bottle green and royal blue add a touch of gravitas to the room. Couches with darker colors will not make your living room as airy as furniture with softer colors, but they will create a cozy atmosphere. They will also accentuate dark wall colors.
And, now, here are some tips that you should particularly keep in mind when buying couches for small spaces:
Thin Low Arm Is The Best
In a small living room, you would want your furniture to be as subtle as possible. Couches with thick, high arms feel bulkier, and it overpowers the setting. So, look for couches that have thinner and lower arms. They represent the perfect profile for smaller spaces as they have a compact appearance and don’t disrupt the room’s flow.
High Back Couches Are A NO NO
High-back couches will give you the same decorating headaches as high-arm ones in a small living space. They seem disproportionately big in the room, feel too dominant to the setting, and take up way more space than you would want. Lower back sofas, on the contrary, make the room look more spacious.
Can You Use Two Different Couches In A Living Room?
Is it going to be too eccentric if you decide to go for two distinct couch designs instead of sticking to the norm of pairing up two similar ones? Yes, it will be a bit out of the box, but it will not look bizarre. You might even achieve better results than a combo of identical couches if you get the contrast right.
The best way to show off your couches is to select a variety of styles so that each one shines out in the space. Partnering a modern couch with an antique-styled one is a pretty safe bet. Or, you can choose to go with two older styles, just make sure they belong to different eras. A Sheraton sofa, for example, could look stunning by a Victorian couch.
Not sure which colors complement each other the best? By finding the right color combination, you can establish a sense of cohesiveness in your space. Red and green, white and grey, orange and blue are some of the color combos we would highly recommend. Also, try any other color with black. The results should be impressive.
Check out the article Green Velvet Sofa Styling Ideas: What To Pair Up With? This will give you some more styling ideas.
Final Say
Placing two couches in a living room that has enough free space barely, sounds like a daunting interior décor challenge. But, applying the right strategy, you can put two couches in a small living room in a visually appealing and efficient layout.
