A mother and daughter sitting on a large couch.

How To Arrange Ottomans and Coffee Tables

Transformer Table

July 18, 2022

Most people are very meticulous and detail-oriented about how they position furniture within their homes. This preciseness is even more important when arranging centralized seating and storage areas, which is why it’s so important to get how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table just right for your unique home environment.

Compared to couches, chairs, and other large pieces of furniture, ottomans and coffee tables are sometimes overlooked by their owners. But they shouldn’t be thought of as second-class furniture. Ottomans and coffee tables have the ability to bring an entire living room space together, creating a homely and welcoming environment for friends, family, and guests alike.

So what are some of the things to keep in mind when deciding how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table in your own living room space? Luckily, we have some recommendations that will help you establish a quaint home environment that works for your unique needs.

What to keep in mind when arranging ottomans and coffee tables

When deciding how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table, one of the best ways to start the process is to think about the feelings you want to create for yourself whenever you walk into the room. Think about how the arrangement of the furniture makes you feel so that you can create a layout that allows you to feel comfortable in your own home.

You also want to take into account that you will occasionally have guests over to visit the house. A well-arranged ottoman and coffee table gives those guests extra seating if you’re all congregated in the living room as well as a perfect place to set down your coffee or drink of choice while conversing with others in the room. Focusing on how you want people to feel in the room will help you find the answer to how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table.

Comfort

This is one of the most important feelings that should influence how you arrange furniture. What is it that people want to feel when seated in a living room? They want to feel comfortable, content and relaxed within the space. By arranging an ottoman and coffee table in a way that enables the most comfortable seating arrangement for everyone in the room, you can feel confident that you have a layout that will work for the long haul.

Practicality

Another basic feeling that will help with your interior decoration plans is to arrange furniture for practical reasons. What’s the best use case for each piece of furniture in the room? For an ottoman, it can function as an extra seating area as well as a storage space for books, magazines, and all other small items. A coffee table’s most practical use is when arranged in the middle of the seating area so that everyone can comfortably rest their drinks.

Aesthetic value

Third on the list of most important feelings to base decorations upon is the feeling of an aesthetic seating arrangement. You want your furniture to look good and you want people to take notice of how well it looks. If the furniture looks good, it increases the aesthetic appeal of the room as a whole and, potentially, the house in total. Make sure you’re selecting an ottoman and a coffee table that will add to the aesthetic value of your home, and you’ve got a win!

Multipurpose use

Flexibility is not something that most people think about when arranging furniture. After all, most pieces of furniture are set and fixed with no room to maneuver the pieces once they’re in the room. However, by investing in a modular coffee table, you can add or remove space that it uses based on the occasion. If you have people over, simply add in the extra panels to extend the reach of the table. When it’s just you at home alone, you can remove the panels and keep the table for its basic use case.

Substitute and save space

Let’s say you have a small living room and not much space for different varieties of furniture. You could eliminate side or end tables next to your couch and insert the ottoman as the resting place for those items used on an end table. It’s a great way to keep up that aesthetic value of the room without giving up the necessary resting space for all of the items you need to keep in the living room. Have an open mind to make those substitutions and make them work for you!

What to avoid when thinking about how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table

As many positive attributes that you want to keep in mind when deciding how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table, there are many negative feelings you don’t want to draw from to complete your arrangements. Like with many things in life, it’s best to focus on the positive and avoid dwelling on the negative.

One of the things to avoid is the mistake of buying furniture that’s out of scale with the dimensions of the room. For example, an ottoman with skinny legs might look appealing in a very small living room space. But what if you have a large room with high ceilings and lots of natural light? Suddenly, that smaller-looking ottoman isn’t as welcoming. Always keep the dimensions of the room in mind when deciding on the aesthetic look and feel of your furniture.

Another thing to keep in mind is the established height of your couches and chairs. An ottoman and especially a coffee table that is higher or lower than the seated height of your existing furniture will stand out, and not in a good way. Make sure these dimensions all match so that you can create the most comfortable living room space possible in your established room.

Learn more about the benefits of modular furniture

For all of these reasons, one of the best ways to decide how to arrange an ottoman and coffee table is to use modular furniture when completing the arrangements. With modular furniture, you can make arrangements that you’d otherwise be unable to do. You can condense or expand the size of the furniture to make it fit into carefully selected arrangements, ensuring you have the most inviting home living room space possible.