Ask HN: What does a living room not centered on a TV look like?

2 points·mdlm··4 comments

Almost all of the living rooms I have ever seen are centered on a TV. The TV holds the most prominent and visible place in the room. There's a couch facing the TV and all of the remaining stuff - chairs, tables, lamps, plants - supports watching TV.

What does a living room that is not centered on watching TV look like?

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We have two sofas facing one-another with a table in-between, window to one side of the table.

In houses here in Norway living rooms are often divided into 2 or 3 sections, where there is a dining area, a sofa(s) & chairs around a table area and a TV 'corner' with what I believe Americans call a 'lazy-boy' (a reclining, swivel chair?) pointing at a TV. In our house we don't have the TV area because computers have replaced the TV but this is considered very poor by some people who think watching on anything smaller than 50" is like washing dishes in a filthy stream.

My best interior design skills would tell me to have part of the room with seating facing inward, maybe toward a fireplace, for conversation. And then maybe a more open area, with a coffee table perhaps?

You don't want all the seating to be in a big circle around the room. I'd break it up into groups of seating focused on different parts of the room.

Almost all of the living rooms I have ever seen are centered around a table. The table holds the central place in the room. There's couches surrounding the table and all of the remaining stuff - speakers, lamps, plants, crap on the table - supports doing drugs.

Our living room is centered around the fireplace. In our last home—which didn't have a fireplace—the (very small) living room had furniture arranged in a semi-circle, opening toward the doorways.

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