open plan Archives - Interior Design Ideas For Your Home

September 21, 2026

Large Living Room Inspiration: Corner Sofas That Maximise Every Inch

Large living rooms present the opposite challenge to small ones: there is plenty of floor space, so the difficulty lies in creating intimacy and purpose. A corner sofa is one of the few pieces that can do both, provided it is floated away from the walls so its back forms a boundary and its L shape encloses a defined seating zone. This article covers how to scale furniture properly in a generous room, why undersized pieces look marooned, and when to create a second seating group at the far end of a long space. It also addresses the vertical dimension that large rooms expose, with advice on tall storage, oversized art, arched lighting and full length curtains, alongside three worked layout examples for square, long and open plan rooms. Lighting is addressed separately, since a single ceiling fitting leaves the edges of a large seating area dim and flattens the textures around the sofa....

September 20, 2026

How to Fit a Corner Sofa Into a Large Living Room Without Crowding It

Large living rooms present a problem that smaller ones do not: furniture pushed to the perimeter leaves an empty middle, and the space ends up feeling both bare and awkward. This guide explains how to place a corner sofa in a generous room so it anchors the space rather than retreating from it. We cover floating the sofa away from the walls to create a defined seating zone, the walkway clearances that keep traffic out of the seating area, and using a slim console table to finish an exposed back. There is practical advice on rug sizing in large rooms, balancing the visual weight of an L shaped sofa with long low storage opposite, scaling the sofa itself so it does not look undersized, and lighting the perimeter rather than relying on a single ceiling fitting. Planning circulation routes and filling the middle distance complete the approach. Acoustics in large rooms are also addressed....

September 18, 2026

Is a Modular Sofa Right for Your Home? Here’s How to Decide

Modular seating has become a practical option rather than a design statement, but it suits some homes far better than others. This guide explains what separates a true modular system from a fixed corner sofa, and sets out the real advantages: easier delivery through tight stairwells, layouts that can change with the room, and more usable seats within the same floor area. It is equally honest about the drawbacks, including greater seat depth, visible joins, connection quality and the risk of buying into a range that is later discontinued. We cover the rooms where modular works best, the rooms where a fixed frame is the better answer, how to plan a configuration around doors, radiators and daylight, and the construction details worth checking before you order. There is guidance on budgeting section by section, styling a wide low arrangement so it does not leave the room bottom heavy, and living with the format day to day....

September 18, 2026

Where Should a Modular Sofa Go in Your Room?

A modular sofa can be arranged almost anywhere, which is exactly why so many rooms end up with it in the wrong place. This guide works through the three positions that suit most British living rooms: floated to zone an open plan space, cornered to keep a compact room walkable, or run along the wall facing the entrance. We explain how to find the true focal point before moving anything, the walkway and coffee table distances that keep a layout comfortable, and how windows, door swings, radiators and socket positions quietly dictate what is possible. There is also a simple masking tape test worth doing before you buy, plus advice on rug sizing, console tables behind floating seating and adding units later on....

September 18, 2026

What Size Sofa Suits a Living-Dining Room?

Choosing a sofa for a combined living and dining room comes down to circulation as much as comfort. This guide sets out the measurements that matter, from the 90cm walkway behind dining chairs to the gap between sofa and coffee table, and explains why depth often matters more than width in a dual purpose space. It compares compact three seaters, paired two seaters, corner units and sofa beds, then looks at how a sofa back can divide the room without adding a wall. You will also find layout suggestions for long, square, L shaped and bay window rooms, plus advice on matching table scale, planning lighting per zone and choosing a fabric that copes with being near a dining table. A short testing method helps confirm the size before you order....

September 14, 2026

What Do Britons Keep in Sideboards? Survey of 2,000 UK Households

The sideboard has outlived the room it was invented for, and where it now stands decides what goes inside it. In this 2026 report, UK furniture retailer Furniture in Fashion states plainly that it has not surveyed 2,000 households and that no published dataset records the contents of British sideboards, then examines the question qualitatively instead. The strongest available evidence is the furniture itself: cupboard volume has grown relative to drawer count, adjustable shelves have replaced fixed ones and the lined cutlery drawer has become the exception, which is what you specify when you do not know what will be stored. The report traces how a hallway sideboard becomes an entry console, how wall mounted televisions turned the living room sideboard into a media unit, and why the open plan kitchen diner has returned the piece close to its original tableware function. It closes with the depth and height figures that make a sideboard workable in a narrow British hallway....

September 13, 2026

A Brief History of the British Living Room: From Parlour to Open Plan

The British living room changed because the walls moved, not because tastes did. In a new editorial analysis, UK furniture retailer Furniture in Fashion traces the main room of the British home from the sealed Victorian parlour, created by the cost of a second fire and standardised by byelaw terraced housing, through the housing reforms that followed the Tudor Walters Report and the space ambitions of the Parker Morris era, to the open plan kitchen and living spaces common today. The report argues that central heating, rather than interior fashion, removed the fireplace as the organising point of the room, and that open plan layouts have transferred the job of defining rooms from walls to furniture. It sets out the furniture implications by build era, including why storage rather than seating is now the defining problem of the contemporary living room, and offers practical clearance and zoning guidance for real UK homes....

September 6, 2026

Dining Stools on Social Media: A UK Trend Analysis for 2026

Dining stools photograph well and fit badly, and Furniture in Fashion's 2026 analysis identifies the specification gap behind that. A stool has no back to interrupt a sightline, which is why it appears so consistently in styled kitchen imagery, but the same absence limits how long anyone will comfortably sit. The decisive measurement is the clearance between seat top and worktop underside, which should be 25cm to 30cm. Because British kitchens contain three distinct surface heights, a standard worktop at roughly 90cm, a raised breakfast bar at around 105cm and a dining table at 75cm, a stool bought for one is unusable at another, and that is the error behind most returns. The report also sets out 60cm to 70cm of counter width per person and a minimum 25cm overhang for knees. No engagement or trend volume figures are claimed, because no attributable public source measures platform interest by furniture category....

September 5, 2026

The Breakfast Bar Trends Forecast 2026

Furniture in Fashion sets out its editorial forecast for breakfast bars, and the direction is towards the lower of the two standard heights. Where kitchen seating was once installed at tall bar height as a visual statement, the counter that now works hardest in a British home sits level with the worktop, because it has to serve as a place to eat, to work and to supervise homework rather than to perch with a drink. That change carries specification consequences. Seat height must fall to suit a 90cm counter, knee overhang becomes the measurement that decides comfort, and stools need backs and footrests once people sit at them for an hour rather than five minutes. This forecast is a judgement rather than a measurement: no dataset predicts kitchen furniture demand, and we have not invented one. What we have set out is the dimensional logic behind the shift and what it means for anyone specifying a counter....

September 4, 2026

New Build Homes and LED Lighting: The UK Space Squeeze Report

Ceiling height, not light output, is the binding constraint on lighting in compact UK new build rooms: that is the headline conclusion of this 2026 report from Furniture in Fashion. The analysis works upward from the dining surface, showing how the 75cm to 85cm clearance a pendant needs above a tabletop consumes vertical space that tight new build rooms cannot always spare, and why the flush and recessed LED fittings households choose instead produce a narrower, flatter light distribution. It identifies the recognisable result, a room that is technically well lit and visually flat, and argues the remedy is distributing light at more than one height rather than adding ceiling output. Open plan kitchen diners are examined as a multi-zone problem under a single ceiling, with furniture-mounted lamps presented as the most effective intervention. LED dimming mismatch is covered as the usual cause of flicker. Specification-led editorial assessment, no survey fieldwork....

open plan Tag

Large Living Room Inspiration: Corner Sofas That Maximise Every Inch

How to Fit a Corner Sofa Into a Large Living Room Without Crowding It

Is a Modular Sofa Right for Your Home? Here’s How to Decide

Where Should a Modular Sofa Go in Your Room?

What Size Sofa Suits a Living-Dining Room?

What Do Britons Keep in Sideboards? Survey of 2,000 UK Households

A Brief History of the British Living Room: From Parlour to Open Plan

Dining Stools on Social Media: A UK Trend Analysis for 2026

The Breakfast Bar Trends Forecast 2026

New Build Homes and LED Lighting: The UK Space Squeeze Report

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