If you’ve ever tried moving the furniture around your living room to change things up, then maybe you’ve questioned if the sofa needs to directly face the TV.
The sofa and the TV are the two main components that make up a living room so it’s no surprise that most people face the sofa towards the TV as it is the main feature in the room.
The answer is no, your sofa does not need to always face the TV in your living room, you may even make better use of your living space if your sofa was placed in a different position further away from the TV.
We’ll be taking you through various reasons why your sofa does not need to face the TV and also some great ways to position your sofa in your living room to maximize space and so you can enjoy various aspects of your living without using the TV.
Does the couch have to face the TV?
No, as aforementioned, the couch in your living does not have to face the TV if you don’t want it to.
In contrast to what 90s cartoon TV programs depict, i.e The Simpsons, where they show a family all sitting on one sofa directly in front of the TV, you can position your sofa wherever you want in your living room.
However, there are some situations where the couch is best positioned facing the TV to avoid people constantly walking in front of it due to the doorways being in an awkward position.
If you’ve also got a coffee table or side tables in your living room, then this may also limit where you can position your sofa so directly in front of the TV may be the only option in this case.
A corner sofa is sometimes more difficult to position in a living room without it facing the TV, especially if the room is square and fairly small. Whatever works for your space and what suits your needs is fine.
If you’ve got bad or restricted eyesight, then maybe you would benefit from having the sofa positioning facing the TV so you can see everything you’re watching in front of you. Although most experts do recommend there to be at least 10 feet between your sofa and your TV.
Why not have your sofa facing the TV?
One reason to not have your sofa facing the TV is that it can look symmetrical in the room and often make the room lacking in character or personality as it will look like a cookie-cutter living room.
If you’re prioritizing your sofa to face the TV, then it may make other activities more difficult to do on the sofa.
If your sofa is placed in the center of the room directly in front of the tv, then it’ll be harder to have floor lamps or table lamps near you without having wires trailing across the room, which would be a possible tripping hazard.
Therefore, you won’t have adequate lighting to read a book, magazine, or even just to write a to-do list without having the main light on in the room.
Remember that whilst your living room is a place to relax and enjoy good TV, it’s also a place where you can hang out with family and friends, hold dinner parties or even just read a good book.
So the placement of your sofa will also need to be allocated to these activities, otherwise, it could prove to be difficult to get everyone in and comfortable at once.
To open up your living room to become more sociable, consider putting your TV off-center or in the corner of the room so it is not the focal point of the room and you’ll have more freedom of where to put your sofas.
If you’ve got your sofa positioned facing your TV, but it’s also surrounded by lots of other furniture or decorative pieces in your living room, then this can cause the room to look unbalanced, especially if the sofa is big and bulky.
Try shuffling the furniture in the room around to see if you can make better use of the space and make the room look more balanced, with equal amounts of furniture spread across each area of the room.
It can be tempting to push sofas directly up against walls to try and maximize the floor space in the middle of your living room, but sometimes this can cause the room to either be smaller than it is or makes the space in the middle of the room empty if you have nothing to fill it.
Where else can I position my sofa?
If you’ve got more than one sofa or chairs in your living room, then try positioning them so they face each other to encourage social interaction when you and your family are relaxing in the same space.
This is not always possible in small living rooms, but if you’re lucky enough to have an open plan living space or just a fairly large living room, it’s a great way to make the most of the space.
In front of the window
One good place to position your sofa is directly in front of the window, this is more recommended for people who have low sofas so it doesn’t cut off the window.
You may want to bring the sofa forward a couple of inches to make sure any cleaning products you use on the window or the ledge don't fall onto the material.
Placing your sofa in front of the window will allow you to make the most of all the natural light coming through the room, whether you’re having a lie down for 5 minutes or sitting down to enjoy a good book.
Facing the window
There is another great thing to enjoy when sitting in your living room and that’s the view from your window, so why not try positioning the sofa facing the window so you can see what’s going on outside.
