Ever wonder what to do when you have multiple windows and doors in one room, therefore very little wall space? Recently this design dilemma was posed to me and the best answer? Floating furniture. The image here shows a variant on this dilemma–awkwardly-located doorways and entrances–that get the same answer.
“Floating” is the design term used when all furniture in a room is not backed up to walls, creating aisle space around it. Floating furniture is not a new concept and is common not just for design dilemmas, but as a way to direct traffic flow as well. An example is how you place a dining room table and chairs in the middle of the room, in that case, to maximize traffic flow.
Floating furniture in other rooms is very much the same concept, however with many added bonuses. Most commonly, floating can create multiple seating areas in larger rooms. An example of how to use floating to break up a large living room might be: four upholstered chairs and a coffee table create one casual seating area, while two sofas facing each other create a second — more formal — one.
But floating can also be used to allow the focus of the room to be directed to a focal point such as an accent wall, a view out a window or into an adjacent room, or gathered towards a fireplace which might not be in the center of a wall. When doing this, I prefer to anchor furniture on an area carpet to identify the space and zone. This is how I advised using floating to solve the design dilemma of multiple windows: she pulled the furniture away from the walls to keep the traffic flow around the seating area, not through it and placed her main seating grouping to focus on her favorite view.
So why not float this idea in your mind for your home?
Photo courtesy of www.divineconsignoakpark.blogspot.com