How-To Decorate When Your Front Door Opens Into Your Living Room
When your front door opens directly into your living room, decorating can be really hard. It’s one of the biggest design dilemmas that comes up in older neighbors.I love a classic floor plan with defined spaces, but many times they lack an entryway. This leaves the front door opening straight into the main living area. Here’s how to decorate a living room that doubles as your entryway.
In a charming colonial home built in the 1920s in Atlanta, this was the exact design dilemma. Despite its historic charm, the house had had minimal updates, which left radiators under the windows, paint peelings off the walls and the front door leading directly into the busiest room—the living or family room. If that wasn’t hard enough, every wall was occupied by windows, stairs, doors, or a cased opening, making it tricky to create a functional and stylish layout. Figuring out how to design this space I used four different options that can be helpful when for decorating when your front door opens into your living room.
Here’s a look at the floor plan:
You can see how busy each wall is!
My goal was to make this room the main family or living room of the house, but also feel like an entryway. I scoured endless sites and created a lot of floor plans to look at the different options against a list of requirements.
Requirements:
Create space that feels like an entry where you can drop keys, etc.
Frame out a seating area
Have a space for a TV
Keep the walking paths clear
The options I worked through focused on creating zones for a drop-spot for keys when you walk in and a zone for a more casual relaxing, sitting or watching TV.
Option 1: Place the sofa perpendicular to the door frame
I found placing the sofa perpendicular to door frame to be the most popular advice for this type of room and situation. I have seen this setup in a lot of different homes because it creates a clear framing for the seating area and makes the space behind the sofa a walkway. You can add wall hooks and a bench right by the door acts as the drop spot and the back of the couch and runner directs the traffic.
I couldn’t do this in my living room because the front door was in the center of the room, so placing the sofa perpendicular to the door was too close to the door and made the room feel smaller. See what I mean…
Option 2: Use an entry table
If you are lucky enough to have the right space to place the sofa perpendicular to the door, it’s even better to put a table behind it. This addition dresses up the space, makes the sofa feel less like it's just floating in the middle of the room and gives you a nice drop spot for keys. Here's what it looked like when our couch was right next to the front door.
Option 3: Add a runner to frame the space
Behind the console, I put a bench to create a drop spot for purses and shoes and a rug to direct the flow of traffic. This did a nice job creating a clear walk path for incoming traffic that was separate from the seating area. I also liked that this was by the stairs which felt like a good spot to grab things before heading out the door. But, this layout didn't really work for my room. The spacing was off with the couch being in the middle of the room, so when anyone opened the front door they walked into the couch. I gave it a good try though and kept the room like this for about two weeks to feel out the foyer and seating space, but I got antsy.
Option 4: Place the sofa on your largest wall
If options 1-3 don’t work in your space, then I’d recommend putting your sofa on your largest wall. This solution worked the best in this space and let me create the different zones I talked about.
The winner: A sectional on the biggest wall
Even though the front door opens in and looks at the couch, I found it to be the best set up to allow for a walk flow to all the doors that go in and out of this room. The sectional frames the seating area without getting too close to the front door. The wall next to the stairs was the perfect size for the TV and still allowed the walkway to the office to be open. I also like how I could pair two French chairs in front of the fireplace for a cute seating area.
I love this set up so far. The chest by the door is where I drop off things when walking in the door and the set up of the couch and bench makes the room feel structured when you first walk in but can be cozy at the same time.
