The Unfortunate Couch Angle That Is Keeping Your Living Room From Looking Organized

Stepping into an inviting, well-organized room is a treat. But sometimes you walk into a room and things seem a bit off, and you can't put your finger on why you're unsettled. Even a well-decorated room with great natural light and warm wood floors suffers if the furniture is placed poorly. And a couch set at an unfortunate angle rather than perpendicular or parallel to the walls throws everything else in the room off-kilter. 

Aesthetics aside, a badly positioned sofa can present other problems, like blocking a doorway, staircase, fireplace, or a path through the room. It can force the other furniture into an unorthodox configuration, or become a trip hazard in the dark. Throw rugs might wind up in odd places, and larger rugs — if the couch is centered on them — might not fit the room. A couch at an angle takes up more floor space, not because it's larger, but because it makes more of the floor unusable. Having nontraditional furniture placement can make a room look disorganized and untidy.

This is not to say that an angled couch is never appropriate. An angled couch with two side chairs facing it can make an overly large room feel more intimate. A room with nontraditional walls benefits from having the sofa centered on an accent wall that's not square with the others. But the best reason for arranging your furniture the way you like it is just that you like it, even if the sofa trend has been deemed outdated by the experts.

If you're still unsure of the best way to furnish your living room so that it looks organized, choose a focal point in the room and position the couch facing it. A focal point catches your eye, it's not something you'd turn your back on. It can be a large window, a fireplace, or even a television in a room that's used for watching movies. If the room still seems disorganized, it may be cluttered with too much furniture, you might be using clashing colors, patterns, and textures, or you may have not chosen the right sofa shape for the room.

Followers of the principles of feng shui believe that furniture placement affects the harmony between humans and their environment — an angled couch might not jive with these principles. A properly placed couch has a view of the entrance of a room and something solid, like a wall, behind it. Other furniture should be placed symmetrically around the couch in a way that encourages conversation, pathways around the couch should be clear, and there should be no sharp corners — in feng shui, sharp corners can bring negative energy.