If you’re lucky enough to have a fireplace in the corner of your living room or family room, you know that it can be both cozy and confounding. You might wonder how you should orient your couch and rug. And where should the TV go? Doorways, tight square footage and other variables can make those decisions even harder.

These rooms feature fireplaces built at an angle in the corner. Check out how home professionals and homeowners approached this common design challenge and read some helpful tips. Then, if you’ve designed around a corner fireplace, tell us how and post a photo in the Comments.

Arranging Seating 

Sofas and Chairs 

A fireplace is an architectural focal point — and furniture is usually directed toward a room’s focal point. So why is it hard to find a couch facing a corner fireplace?

While every room is different, designers often advise against that layout, since it causes a couch’s corners to stick out awkwardly in the room, impeding flow. Instead, orient a couch and rug parallel to a wall. A chair or chairs can then be placed at an angle.

Hot Tip: 

• Draw it! Map how you think you want your furniture arranged and how traffic is likely to flow through the room. Then make sure large and sharp-edged pieces of furniture aren’t in that path.

Another Option: 

Place two chairs or a loveseat facing the fireplace and at 90 degrees in relation to the couch, to create an L shape. A feature wall, facing the couch, is a secondary focal point.

A room could have a second seating area, which is a nice addition whenever space allows. An armchair next to the fireplace, paired with a side table, creates a cozy reading spot that can still feel connected to the conversation area.

The furniture placement in a living room with a large opening into adjacent rooms can be challenging, as the busy travel path goes right through the middle of it all. To keep the path as clear as possible, scale down a rug, chose tailored pieces and push the couch and chair against the walls.

Hot Tip: 

• Swivel chairs let you change your orientation from the conversation area to the television or the fireplace.
• You’ll want at least 3 feet of width for paths of travel. If there’s a rug in that path, opt for a thin flat-weave and make sure there’s a nonslip pad underneath.
• Rounded furniture, such as circular coffee tables and rounded-back chairs and sofas, also deemphasizes angles in awkwardly shaped rooms while being easy to navigate around.

Sectionals

An angled sectional is conducive to conversation, but it can create a pleasing continuity with the angle of the adjacent fireplace.

Placing a chair directly in front of a fireplace is best avoided if possible. But it can work if the fireplace isn’t frequently used and the chair is visually light and easy to move out of the way.

Hot Tip: 

• In a small room used mainly for conversation, consider omitting a couch altogether. Instead, group four comfy club chairs around a circular coffee table in front of the fireplace.

Adding A TV

On The Adjacent Wall 

Optimal TV viewing height is eye level when the person is seated, and heat and electronics don’t mix. So placing a television above a console or a built-in entertainment unit versus above the fireplace mantel is often the best solution.

Because the fireplace and the entertainment center are on adjacent walls, those seated on the couch can enjoy both. Two additional chairs opposite the couch can be placed so they don’t block the view but do allow for conversation.

Even though the television becomes the dominant focal point an angled sectional can help to invite the fireplace into the furniture grouping.

On Another Wall

Doorways, windows and other architectural elements also can leave few places for the television. But wherever the TV ends up, the seating arrangement ideally will allow for comfortable viewing of both it and the fireplace.

Hot Tip: 

• A neutral, monochromatic palette keeps a room with multiple focal points from looking cluttered.
• Echo the materials and design of your fireplace surround in other elements of your room to create a cohesive look.
• If your room’s proportions allow it, place the longest side of your sectional toward the focal point you want to emphasize.
• Another way to avoid the big-black-box look is to use a Frame television, which resembles artwork when it’s off.
• When you have a corner focal point, populate the room’s other corners to create symmetry and balance.

Above The Fireplace 

The concept of placing the TV over the fireplace sparks a lot of debate in the design community. If you have a low, linear fireplace that doesn’t emit much heat, or if your seating is far away from the set, it can work well. But the configuration can be bad for your TV and a pain in the neck — literally and figuratively.

But there’s no denying that installing a television above the fireplace is popular, and it has the advantages of being space-efficient and creating a single focal point in a room.

Hot Tip 

• If you’re still scratching your head about where to put the TV, consider a pull-down screen and a projector.

Placing A Rug

Rugs are great for grounding conversation groupings, but they can conflict with hearths and draw attention to awkward angles. A round rug, resolves the “In which direction should the rug go?” question.

Hot Tip: 

• Organically shaped rugs, such as hides and sheepskins, faux or real, and multiple rugs layered to create asymmetrical shapes also can help to ground a seating arrangement and add softness without having a distinctive directionality.
• Designers usually advise having all furniture legs, just the front legs or no legs at all on top of an area rug.
• Wainscoting or built-in cabinetry can help to spread out the visual heft of an ornate fireplace so the room feels more balanced.
• If you have a wood burning fireplace: prevent sparks and embers from lighting your rug on fire, place the rug at least 12 to 18 inches away from the fireplace and invest in a pretty fireplace screen. Flame-retardant hearth rugs are available as well.
• Read: 11 Area Rug Rules and How To Break Them