Open Plan Rooms

Planning an extension or taking walls down? Before you commit to open plan living, think about where the sofas will go, what happens to the rooms you already have, and whether anyone will be able to find a quiet corner. Sometimes, a family home works better with a wall in the way.

There are some purchases for your home that you can make fairly casually. A cushion that doesn't quite work can move to another room, a lamp can be returned and even a paint colour, annoying though it might be, can be painted over.

A sofa is rather different. It's usually one of the most expensive things you'll buy for your living room, it's physically enormous, and once it's sitting in your house it has an irritating habit of dictating almost everything else that happens around it.

Which is probably why so many of our clients arrive at The Living House with a sofa tab that's been open on their laptop for approximately six months. They've found one they love, then another, and another. They've ordered fabric samples, measured the wall, asked their partner's opinion, gone back to the first one and eventually become so confused that doing nothing starts to feel like the sensible option.