Here are a few tips that will make your living room a convenient place to stay and make you feel comfortable throughout the day. Draw the layout plan of the living room on a piece of paper and it will be even better if you can use the computer.

Measure the different pieces of furniture and write down the measurements on paper and paste them on the furniture. Then, you can move them around and experiment.

Determine the focal point of the living room. Is it the centre table or fireplace or any entertainment centre holding the sound system or television? Also, it might be a large window with a panoramic view.

Keep the largest piece of furniture that is most likely a big sofa, against a wall. This will help to increase the overall space in the living room and you can get more room to walk freely. It does not mean that you have to place the large furniture against the wall with hardly any gap at all.

Try to keep the other furniture in a U-shape around the focal point. That furniture can face the focal point directly or they may be angled a bit. Take care to use all the available space in the living room in the best possible way.

You can also place acrylic tables in the living room. Since they are slender, they will blend into the living room well. Apart from this, you can also use nesting tables, since you can remove them when not in use. If the room is quite long or rectangular, then you can place sitting things separately. You may like to read books or have a cup of tea in the room. For this purpose, you can always keep an upholstered chair and a small table by its side. If your living room is not wide enough, you can place a small table and some chairs for your family members to sit together and play any indoor game or solve puzzles. One more option is to place chairs at random facing each other with a table in between. This will help the kids and teens to have fun with their friends and also have a feeling of privacy in the room.

If you want to place any table lamp or floor lamp, then find out a suitable place in the room so that the light illuminates the whole room. To conserve space in the room, you can use any furniture that will serve a dual purpose. For example, you can use a trunk as a tea table. Place the larger and heavier furniture across from each other and this will help in having a balanced feeling in the living room. You can position two sofas across one another having the focal point at one end.

(Manisha Koushik is a tarot card reader, numerologist and Vastu Feng consultant. She can be contacted at www.askmanisha.com)