5 Effective Seating Ideas for a Small Living Room

5 seating arrangement ideas to help you maximize and get the most of your small and narrow living spaces. Written by : Andre A & Roomdsign.com Editors | Last Updated : November 14th, 2023

As a place where your families and relatives will spend a lot of time together, the living room should be comfy and relaxing to make those times enjoyable.

However, this can be quite difficult to achieve if you have a small living room. With limited floor spaces, obviously, you can’t put a large sofa set to give a lot of seating space to accommodate everyone. Or maybe you can, but it can take too much available space so you can put any other essential furnishings such as cabinets or tables.

There are two important keys to these kinds of situations. First, set up the layout ideally so it can accommodate all of your needs. And secondly, choosing the right furnishings.

For a small living room, using only one small couch can be the best approach. However, if you need additional seating to accommodate your guests or families, you can add one or two pieces of ottoman or accent chairs that can be easily moved around and re-arranged to adjust your seating needs.

In this article, we will try to help you make the most of your small living room by sharing 5 effective seating arrangement ideas.

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Couch Only

Seating ideas for small living room using single couch
Small living room with a single couch

For any young families, especially those who don’t have any children, then obviously this can be the best choice. A couch can be enough to fit you and your spouse to sit, relax, and enjoy any entertainment inside your living spaces, but in a smaller size compared to a sofa.

This option also gives you plenty of extra available spaces that can be used for any other important functions, such as extra storage space to keep your living room stay organized.


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Couch and Armchair

Narrow living spaces with couch and armchair
Small living room with couch and armchair

The problem with couch-only seating is that there are no extra places for any guests or relatives who may come to visit. So alternatively, you can add one piece of armchair next to the couch.

The one extra seating space may not seem as much, but trust us, in a small living room, that can be really helpful and beneficial to avoid the awkward situation when there is no available place to sit when some guest comes to your home.

However, some armchairs may come in quite large sizes that can take up a lot of important space, and if you don’t want to waste away those precious floor space, then the next choice may be better for you.


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Couch and Ottoman

Narrow living room with a couch and an ottoman
Small living room with couch and ottoman

In most cases, an ottoman may work better than an armchair, as it has a relatively smaller size. Plus, it can be very easy to move around, so when it’s not in use, you can move it to the corner or against the wall to make your living room look more spacious. And that’s why, adding an ottoman as additional seating for a small living room will bring a lot of benefits.

Additionally, some ottomans are built with storage spaces that can be very helpful in bringing extra space to keep and organize your daily items.

However, as the ottoman is not as comfy as other kinds of chairs, surely you must sacrifice the comfort and prefer the effectiveness and functionality that it brings.


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Two Armchair

Small living room with two accent chairs
Narrow living room with two chairs

If you want a more flexible arrangement, then rather than using any couch, you can go with two or more armchair set as the primary seating for your living room.

These settings will bring some extra space compared to any typical couch, and additionally, it can be easier to move the chairs whenever you need to adjust your living spaces.

We love to use this configuration for any narrow living room, as you can easily set the placement of both chairs to maximize the space.


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Two Chairs and Ottoman

Small living room with two chairs and one ottoman
Narrow living room with two chairs and ottoman

This is the upgraded version of the previous option, with the additional seating using ottoman.

All of those objects are very flexible and easy to reconfigure, not to mention their size which is relatively small so won’t take up a lot of precious space in a small living room.