Pretty room. What are the dimensions of the room, piano and the sofa? What other activities and items are you planning for the room ?

I think this room calls for a love seat. Sorry DH:(
With a smaller sofa, it will look more balanced in front of the fireplace. I would put two small club chairs on either side of the fireplace.
I would put the piano on the staircase wall.
I am curious what the previous owner did in this room.
I know you say you can't float a sofa, but, if there is enough room to walk behind it, you can put it in front of the opening.
I live in a small house too. One of my neighbors put her sofa in front of the entry to the living room. Hers now faces the fireplace.
I have mine in front of the window to the left with chairs across. I don't have anything looking directly at the fireplace.

Where do you have the piano now? Is it working in that spot?

I thInk the idea of putting the piano on the stair wall is a good one . I wouldn,t worry about centering the couch to the fireplace . I think I would get rid of that white thing(heater?) to the side of the fireplace and put in something more modern and efficent elsewhere, if its in the budget of course. That would also open that corner up to put something in that space. Depending on how you use the space maybe double chairs with a table between them over there or a chair were there currently is one and a desk or secretary where the heater is. If you went with a desk in that corner and needed more seating then a chair floating a few feet from the piano angeled to face the other wall and the fireplace wall with a skinny table between it and the couch would work well in that space.

II'd want that nice room to look as comfortable and inviting as it is pretty. For me that means plenty of comfortable and intimate seating. Also reading lamps, etc., but those are details. :)

So, main sitting around organized around the wall opposite the staircase, not including the fireplace, but with a side chair to the left of the doorway (swivels?) we can't see on the left turned toward it as part of it.

The fireplace is for pretty as you look into the room and for separation of the entry, but also part of both groups.

Piano on inside wall to left of door we can't see. My own very comfortable but dainty upholstered settee against staircase (yes, I'd claim the whole room for living). It holds 2 comfortably, sloped slightly backwards, and is not much more than 4' long. One of my best-ever purchases and my best guess for accompanying us to assisted living some day, if I don't drop dead working instead. I recommend one. There's always room for it somewhere.

How abut floating the sofa perpendicular to the fireplace? This will give you a defining entry. A narrow sofa table behind the sofa to throw keys,mail etc. (into a decorative basket, of course) when you walk in the door. Two chairs opposite the couch. A round coffee table in-between.
Piano on the staircase wall. You can put a small scale chair next to the piano.
Again, DH has to be on board with smaller scale sofa.

Some great ideas. Thanks! The furniture in the pics is all they had. They spent most of the year teaching overseas, so they weren't here that much.

I think the key is our sofa. I originally wanted the piano by the stairs but with the sofa against the back wall, there's not enough room. The piano would fit if it were just for decoration. But if you pull the bench out to actually play, it would be wedged against the side of the sofa.

We have 2 young kids who like to play on the floor of the living room, so for now we'd like to keep the middle of the room fairly open.

The piano is currently on the short side wall with the window. It looks awkward there but we had no where else to put it. It is currently pushed to one side, but I wonder if it would look better centered in front of the window...but that's not great for the piano.

It will help greatly if you can provide the room dimensions along with those of the furniture pieces you list above. Perhaps draw a floor plan of the room with the windows and doorways noted and all measurements included.

I've linked some free software apps below that may also help you.

Here is a link that might be useful: 10 Best Free Online Virtual Room Programs and Tools

I updated the post with a layout of the room with dimensions. Those aren't the pieces I have in there, but it matches, size-wise. Thanks, my3dogs for the link!

Here is a link that might be useful: living room layout

This post was edited by tblmom on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 15:45

This tool is great!!!! I wonder if something like this would work better. I feel like a small apartment size modular sofa would work well in that corner by the stairs. I wouldn't have a faux entry way anymore, but we have a mudroom off the kitchen where our coats are kept and we already turned the closet at the base of the stairs into an all shoe closet. So we don't actually need an entry way, functionally. I think that it feels cozier this way and we'll have more options in terms of seating when we have guests.

The only problem is the piano in front of the window. I wonder if I could hang a heavy tapestry or curtain behind it to weather proof it. We don't open the curtains on that side too much since it looks into our neighbor's house and not a lot of light comes in from that side anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: living room possibility

So you want to use the living room for children's play, TV watching, piano playing and entertaining guests? That's a lot of function for a small room.

I'm wondering, do you have a dining room and what do you use it for? If you have a dining room, but mostly eat in the kitchen, you could easily turn the dining room into a piano room and play room for the next couple of years, until the kids don't need a play room anymore.

Then you could have a living room with furniture that can float away from the walls. You could have adequate seating for guests, without cramming toys and a piano in there. Your options would be greatly expanded.

Maybe you don't have an eat-in kitchen and this idea simply wouldn't work in your house. But it just seems to me that you are trying to fit so many different functions into this one room, and if there's any place in the house you can move one or two functions, you would have a much easier time decorating this room. Don't lock yourself into what the name of the room is; look at each space in your house in terms of what functions it can best support.

It won't be the kids' main play area. We have a basement playroom. But they still like to play there. All their toys are stores in the basement.

Our house is tiny, 1500 sq feet (our trade off for being in an amazing school district), so we don't have an eat in kitchen. Our dining riom is our only available eating space.

The main function would just be a family hangout room. We don't entertain all that much....just on kids birthdays, holidays with family and small playgroups.

What about playing with angles rather than perpendicular or parallel lines?

You might be able to angle two loveseats or a loveseat opposite two chairs so that they are facing the fireplace. So you have somewhat of a triangle with the fireplace being the bottom of the triangle, if that makes sense.

That might give you enough room to sit at the piano and also enter and exit through the doorways.

Just an idea and thinking outside the box (literally!).

If the piano would fit under the staircase, I'd put it there. It does best if it's not on an outside wall.

I think the short wall should be where the sofa should go...get a rad cover to use that as an end table on one side and maybe fit an end table on the other depending on the size of the sofa. You should have room to park a coffee table in front. Then put a chair with it's back against the wall opposite the fireplace, and float another nearby angled toward the fireplace and sofa. Get a large area rug to tie it all together. Normally, I'd want a seating arrangement closer together, but if kids use it as play space, they need space.

Definitely be hyper-aware of scale when you buy any pieces for the room. Look for "apartment sized" furniture or look for vintage pieces. Smaller spaces like this can easily get overwhelmed with furniture designed for mcmansions.

I think you're on the right track on using the whole room. I love dedicated entries too, but having the fireplace right there to the door's right seems to satisfy something for me at least. :)

BTW, for fun I inserted the design website name in a new window, opened it, told it I wanted to start a NEW plan and it "started" not by presenting an empty box but by presenting a design clearly of yours--showing a sectional in the corner and stairs added. I'm guessing the program somehow made a connection between my computer and your designs since I had looked at ones you posted in the Gardenweb window and assumed...something. In any case, you have your designs saved, right? I did a back-page to before I opened since it wouldn't allow me to open a new window without "saving" or deleting your design.

How about two love seats facing each other perpendicular to the fireplace? A nice area rug and a coffee table between them, The kids can have space back where the white chair is. Put a nice piece of furniture under the window that can act as storage. I.E. throwing all the kids junk in there for a quick clean up. You can put a club chair (Or is the white chair yours?) in the corner, with a standing lamp. A cozy reading corner.
I agree with Annie to look at smaller scaled furniture. pottery Barn has for the small apartment. Look at it for purposes of scale.
I still like the piano on the staircase wall. annie had a good point of keeping it in an interior wall.
Show your DH this thread. I know he really wants to keep the other sofa, but in this case it will overwhelm the room.
I have living in small spaces, and always felt that less is more.