Living Room Remodel Checklist

A living room remodel is a golden opportunity to rethink and redesign the core space of your home so it fits your actual needs, as opposed to how the original designer or builder thought it might be used. A living room remodel is a chance to make your living room more livable. The following checklist can help you assess what currently works and what doesn’t in your living room, and then you can develop your own list of features you’d like to add or change for the room remodel.

Living room features

Decide which features you want in your remodeled living room, and which you don't.

Layout

Ideally, a living room floor plan should be designed around its furniture. After all, the furniture determines the main activities in the room, and it’s where we spend most of our time. If you use (or would like to use) your living room primarily for conversation and small gatherings, plan for a central space with a comfortable seating area. To accommodate larger groups, include additional seating along the edges of the central space, using window seats or smaller, secondary seating areas. If you’re a reader, be sure to reserve a cozy corner for your favorite reading chair – and plenty of lighting.

When grouping two or more chairs together, it’s usually best to arrange them so they face one another in a roughly circular or square pattern. This facilitates conversation and allows for uninterrupted traffic lanes around the activity area. In primary seating areas, arrange the sofa and opposing chairs 5 to 7 feet apart: This is the most comfortable distance for conversation. Leave at least 3½ feet of width for all main traffic paths and 2 to 3 feet for secondary paths, such as between a seating area and a fireplace.

Living room seating

Your living room furniture arrangement should facilitate conversation.

Focal Point

Every living room should have at least one focal point – a dominant or compelling central feature that draws your attention and lures you into the room. While a fireplace is the most common focal point in living room plans, it can really be anything that you want to set the tone for the space: perhaps a large window with an enticing view, a nicely appointed built-in, a piano or prominently displayed artwork. The focal point not only guides your eye as you enter the room, it also serves to “anchor” the main activity area, such as the primary seating group.

Living room with fireplace

A fireplace is the most common focal point in living room plans.

Walls and Ceilings

Walls and wall openings are critical to the feel and function of a living room. The size and placement of walls often dictate where the furniture goes, while wall openings establish the traffic patterns into and around the space. Adding walls increases the sense of enclosure inside the living room, making it more private, while removing walls opens up the space to adjacent rooms and traffic areas.

Ceilings are largely a matter of personal preference. Some people like the soaring, 16-foot-high ceilings of the modern great room, while others like the proportions and sheltered feeling of standard, 8- or 9-foot ceilings. One way to bring down a high ceiling is to frame in a lower ceiling along the room’s perimeter or just over an alcove or an intimate seating area. Raising a low ceiling isn’t always an option, but it can often be done in single-story homes with conventional rafter roof framing (not truss framing).

Windows

The living room is one of the best places to add or enlarge windows, and there’s no better time to do it than during a room remodel. As with the other major elements, plan windows to complement – not compete with – furniture and the primary activity areas.

Living room with light

During renovations is the best time to add windows and light to any room.

TV/Media

Whether or not to include a TV in your living room is up to you. While a TV should not be used as a focal point in the decorating sense, it should be the focus of a dedicated seating area, with the seating at an appropriate distance from the screen (based on the screen size and height above the floor). To minimize the TV’s dominance as a room activity, try to plan areas where people who aren’t watching can read (earplugs, anyone?), play a game, etc.

Living room with tv

While a TV shouldn't be the focal point of your living room, it requires dedicated seating.

Storage

If your living room shares some of the storage burden for the household, or if you’d like some dedicated space for special display items, now’s the time to plan for built-ins, shelving, closet space or storage-savvy furniture pieces.

When remodeling your living room, think about incorporating natural light into the area. Are new wood floors in the picture? What about a new lighting scheme? Think carefully about your needs before settling on a living room remodeling plan.

Talk to a remodeling contractor about including desired elements in your renovated living room. Fill out the form below.

Philip Schmidt is a home improvement author and editor based in Colorado. He enjoys honey-do lists and boring his family with random facts about houses.

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