Living Room Essentials: What You Really Need to Furnish a Room

Short answer: A living room needs six things: a sofa or other main seating, a rug, a coffee table, somewhere to put a drink beside each seat, one extra chair, and storage for what you own. Buy them in that order, because the sofa decides the size of everything that follows. Art, cushions and lighting can wait until the room is in use.

Furnishing a whole room at once can feel like a hundred decisions. A fixed order turns it into six, and each one narrows the next. The sections below say what each piece does, which of our sizes to compare, and what to leave for later.

On This Page

1. What are the essentials for a living room?
2. Step 1: start with the seating
3. Step 2: add a rug to anchor the seating
4. Step 3: choose a coffee table and side tables
5. Step 4: add one chair
6. Step 5: plan storage for what you own
7. What makes a living room modern?
8. What can wait
9. Our recommendation
10. Explore our living room range

What are the essentials for a living room?

Each essential does one job. When a piece does not have a job, it is a candidate to skip. Here are the six, with the sizes of our versions to compare.

What are the essentials for a living room?

The order matters more than the exact pieces. Everything else is a choice, and none of it affects whether the room works.

Step 1: start with the seating

Seating takes the most floor space and sets the palette, so it comes first. Our sofas are modular, which means you build the size and shape from seats, arms, corners, chaises and ottomans, and add to it later where the collection allows.

Start with the room, not the sofa. Measure the wall, then check the walkway. As a general guideline, keep walking paths at least 30 inches wide, and 36 inches is more comfortable on busy paths. That is general advice, not a product specification. Our sofa size guide turns those numbers into a width and a depth.

Then decide what the seating needs to do:

• Compact rooms: Cassini is 60.6 inches wide as a two-seater with arms, Neptune is 64.6 inches, and Gaia is 67.7 inches. An armless Gaia corner layout measures 65.4 x 65.4 inches.
• Deeper, more relaxed seating: Ciello Regular is 74.75 inches wide as a two-seater with arms, and its seat module is 37.4 inches deep.
• Seating that stores things: the Ciello storage ottoman holds 75 L and the Neptune storage ottoman holds 32 L (1.13 cubic feet), so blankets and remotes can live inside the seating.
• A guest bed: our sofa beds add a sleeping surface without another piece of furniture. A Neptune three-seater opens to about 60 inches from the back of the sofa, so leave that much floor in front of it.

Step 2: add a rug to anchor the seating

A rug turns a sofa, a table and a chair into one group. Without it, the pieces can look as if they are floating separately in the room.

Our washable rugs come in 5 by 8 feet, 8 by 10 feet and 9 by 12 feet, among other sizes. A common guideline is to choose a rug large enough that at least the front legs of the sofa and chairs sit on it. The smallest of the three suits a small room, and the largest suits a sectional. Our rug size guide goes through each room.

Choose the rug after the sofa and before the coffee table. Then you know how much floor the seating group needs, and the table can sit inside it.

Step 3: choose a coffee table and side tables

The coffee table sits in front of the sofa, and side tables sit beside it. Together they give the room the surfaces it needs.

For the coffee table, a common guideline is 14 to 18 inches between the sofa and the table, and a height at or just below the seat. Our fixed-height coffee tables run from 13.3 inches for the Ombra to 16.3 inches for the Mensa. The Eclipse is round at 31.5 inches across, and the Tessella is 67.6 x 27.0 inches, long enough for a wide sofa. The Stella coffee table is modular and adjusts from 18.5 inches to 26.4 inches high. Our coffee table guide compares them.

For side tables, the footprint is the main number. The Mensa side table is 19.7 x 19.7 inches, the Tessella side table is 20.1 x 20.1 inches, the Eclipse side table is 19.9 inches across, and the Solis is 21.7 x 12.8 inches with an adjustable height of 20.7 to 30.7 inches. One at each end of the sofa is enough for most rooms.

Step 4: add one chair

An accent chair adds a seat that can be pulled in for guests and pushed back afterward. One chair is enough to start, and it helps a room feel finished.

• Vela: the smallest footprint at 30.5 x 22.9 inches, with a 16.3 inch seat height. Its covers are not removable.
• Naos: the roomiest, at 31.9 inches wide and 31.7 inches deep, with ash wood arms and legs in oak or walnut. Its covers are not removable.
• Mira: a steel frame with a sling seat, 33.5 x 27.6 inches, with a 19 inch seat height. Its covers are removable.

Our accent chair guide and our guide to pairing a sofa, chair and coffee table cover fit and finish in more detail.

Step 5: plan storage for what you own

Sort what you own before you shop, then buy storage for each group. Media equipment and cables need a low, closed piece. Books and objects you like to see suit open shelving. Blankets and everyday items suit storage inside the seating.

• Media and tech: the Aurora credenza is 32.1 x 15.0 x 18.5 inches per unit, and two units measure 64.2 inches and three measure 96.3 inches across. It comes in oak, walnut and Dove, with four door styles (Solid, Slat, Chevron and Rattan), and its product page lists built-in ventilation and wire management.
• Units with or without doors: the Stella media unit works as a single unit that you expand by adding more units, and each unit measures 22.4 x 15.0 x 15.7 inches, and a unit with a door measures 22.4 x 15.7 x 15.7 inches. Each unit is made of 18 mm MDF with a melamine finish.
• Wall storage: the Altitude storage cabinet is 32.1 x 9.4 x 9.8 inches, has a magnetic push latch and fits into a wall system in oak, walnut, black wood or Dove. Themis combines shelves, cabinets and a desk in oak, walnut or Dove, and each shelf, cabinet or desk holds 50 lb. Each colored Themis door is reversible. The yellow/white and green/white options are designed to be flipped during assembly.
• Storage in the seating: the ottomans in Step 1 hold blankets without adding another piece.

Our living room storage guide explains how to match storage to a wall, and our credenza guide helps you size a media unit.

What makes a living room modern?

A modern living room is not a set list of pieces. In our experience it comes down to a few choices, and these are general advice.

• A clear layout: a few well-sized pieces with room to walk between them.
• One repeated material: our Eclipse and Mensa tables and our Vela and Naos chairs come in oak and walnut, and our Tessella table uses an ash wood veneer over MDF, so wood tones can run through the room.
• Closed storage for technology: doors on the media unit keep cables and devices out of sight.
• Pieces that can change: modular seating and tables that you can add to or rearrange.

For color, our neutral palette guide helps you pick one main color and one accent.

What can wait

Some things add comfort but do not affect whether the room works, so they come last. Cushions, art, lighting and plants are the usual examples, and most people add them after a few weeks of living in the room. Waiting also lets you see what is missing. You may find that you want a second chair, a larger rug or more storage, and that is easier to judge once the main pieces are in place.

Our recommendation

Pick by the size of the room, then add pieces in order.

• Small living room: a Neptune or Gaia two-seater, a 5 by 8 foot rug, an Ombra coffee table at 21.7 inches deep, and a single Aurora unit.
• Average living room: a Ciello Regular with a chaise or a longer layout, an 8 by 10 foot rug, an Eclipse coffee table, one Vela, Naos or Mira chair, and an Aurora credenza.
• Large living room or hosting: a sectional, a 9 by 12 foot rug, a Tessella coffee table, two chairs and a side table at each end.

In each case, tape the footprint on the floor first and check the walkway.

Explore our living room range

• Sofas
• Lounge chairs
• Tables
• Washable rugs
• Living room storage

Product specifications can change. Check the current dimensions on the product page before ordering.