A floor plan looks like a technical drawing, but most of what a room will feel like is already decided on it: where the light comes from, which way people walk, and where a sofa or a table can actually stand. Reading the plan for these three things before choosing furniture saves expensive corrections later.
Open-plan spaces show this most clearly. In a combined living and dining room, such as the one in the Yeşilyaka Su villa in Büyükçekmece, the same window wall, the same entrance and the same kitchen opening serve both zones, so every furniture decision affects the other half of the room.
Start with orientation: where the light falls
Mark north on the plan first. In the northern hemisphere, a south-facing room typically receives strong light for most of the day, an east-facing room gets bright morning sun, a west-facing room gets low, warm afternoon and evening sun, and a north-facing room has softer, even light all day. This shapes how and when each zone will be used.
- Seating: place the main sofa so daylight comes from the side. Facing a large bright window causes glare; sitting with your back to it puts faces in shadow.
- Screens: a TV wall is usually placed at a right angle to the main windows, never directly opposite them.
- Dining: an east-facing dining area suits breakfast; a west-facing one is pleasant in the evening but may need curtains at dinner time.
- Leather: in a west- or south-facing room, keep leather upholstery out of the strongest direct sun where you can, or choose a colour that will look good as it softens in the light.
Map the routes before the furniture
Next, draw lines between the points people move between every day: the entrance, the kitchen, the terrace door, the stairs and the bedroom corridor. These lines are the routes the room has to keep open, whatever furniture you choose. A common rule is to allow 90–120 cm for main routes and 60–75 cm for secondary ones, such as the space between a sofa and a coffee table.
The most frequent mistake is a route that runs straight through the seating group, so people walk between the sofa and the television. It is usually better to let the route pass behind the sofa back, with at least 90 cm of clear floor, or along the edge of the zone. Also draw the swing of every door: nothing should stand inside that arc. We cover this in more detail in how circulation patterns influence furniture placement.
Decide what each zone needs
Once light and routes are marked, the space left over shows the real size of each zone. Measure it rather than estimating from the room's total area.
- Living zone: for easy conversation, seats are typically placed within about 2.5–3 m of each other, with the coffee table 40–45 cm from the sofa front.
- Dining zone: allow 75–90 cm behind each chair so it can be pulled out, and more where a route passes behind it.
- Fixed points: check where the plan places ceiling light outlets, floor sockets and radiators. A dining table normally sits centred under the pendant point, and a sofa standing away from the wall needs a floor socket nearby for a lamp.
In an open plan, the back of a sofa can define the edge of the living zone without a wall. An L-shaped model from our sectional sofa collection, such as the Athena corner sectional sofa, closes two sides of the seating area and leaves the route to the dining table outside it. Where a route has to curve around the seating, a rounded back such as the Janette curved sofa makes the passage feel easier than a sharp corner does.
Draw the furniture plan to scale
Draw the furniture on the plan at 1:50 or cut paper shapes at the real dimensions. Use actual depths, not only widths: a sofa is typically 90–105 cm deep, an armchair 80–90 cm wide, and a round dining table of about 120 cm seats four, while 140–150 cm seats six. Rooms often feel crowded because depths were underestimated.
The plan also shows the delivery route. Measure entrance doors, lift doors and stair turns, and compare them with the height and depth of the largest piece. If the plan shows a recess of, say, 260 cm, a sofa can be made to that width on request; at Sitdesign, custom dimensions are available on request, and upholstered pieces take 3–4 weeks to make.
Check the feel before you commit
A plan is seen from above; a room is seen at eye level. Before ordering, mark the main pieces on the floor with masking tape and walk the routes. Sit where the sofa will be and check what you see: the window, the entrance, the kitchen. Look at the space in the morning and in the evening, since the light will change the room more than any accessory.
Finally, stand at the entrance. The first thing visible should be something considered: the front or side of the seating group, a console, or the view to the window, rather than the plain back of a sofa a metre from the door.
Every Sitdesign piece is handmade in our own factory in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul, on a kiln-dried beech frame with high-resilience foam and sprung seating. If you have a floor plan with your measurements, send it to us and we will prepare a quote for the pieces in the sizes you need, together with leather samples on request.
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