Blocking the living room window

[Night Elf]

I'm ready to move furniture in the living room again. Right now our front bay windows are not obstructed at all. It's a lovely thing to sit and look out of those windows. However, we have a piano shoved into a corner and is so close to the sofa that we use the piano bench as an end table. Do you put furniture in front of a bay window? We had it that way once years ago but wanted the window open. Now I'm just feeling one side of the room is heavy with too much furniture while the other room is light with hardly anything. I don't know what we'll do if we ever have to sell this house. I wouldn't buy a house seeing furniture not fitting into this room like this. It looks like the space isn't large enough for living in.

 

Oh, there is no window seat in the windows.

[Melissa in Australia]

I HATE furniture over windows. something low in front of the window, like a coffee table, but a piano or a bookshelf make the room look incredibly cluttered and closed in.

[kiwik]

having an unobstructed view out makes the room seem bigger.

[Melissa in Australia]

grrr edit won't work..

I was trying to write something low in front of the window looks OK, but something that blocks the window like a piano or bookshelf makes the room look incredibly cluttered and closed in.

[Night Elf]

It would be the loveseat. It does have a high back and the view would certainly be cut off. I have the piano and loveseat on the opposite wall. The piano is in front of a side window and the loveseat is right against it. You can't sit at the piano and play. When we viewed the house before we purchased it, there was only one sofa and a couple of tables. They didn't even have a tv. After we moved in and started to bring in furniture, I wondered about that. I think they staged the living room and it never occurred to me that they were doing that. We have 5 people in our family so we have to have a sofa and a loveseat so everyone has a place to sit. We also have a tv stand and a piano. There's simply too much stuff in this room. I don't know when we'll sell, but we'll have to do the same thing the previous owner's did to make the space look uncluttered.

[Wheres Toto]

If I could buy new furniture, I'd probably replace the loveseat with two chairs and put the chairs on either side of the window (maybe partially in front of it) with a small table in between.  Less cluttered look, not completely blocked but still using some of the space. 

 

As soon as we can afford it, I'm pushing dh to get rid of our couch in favor of a love seat and a chair.  It will make arranging the furniture so much easier in our small living room.

 

[KatieJ]

WE have a picture window that we did build a window seat into.  I keep a very large plant on it as the house across the street  looks straight into our house.

 

We have a couch and a love seat that face each other.  Couch is at the end of the room on a wall, the love seat is in the middle of the room with a coffee table between them.

Previous owners  (Before we put in the window seat) had one chair and a small table in front of the window.  It looked lonely to me.   :)

I had a digital piano until our son moved out (It was his) and it was on the wall facing the window..  That area now has grandkids toy box etc on it. 

The last wall has bookcases on it.

 

 

[Night Elf]

Alright, I'll leave the window open. It's really pretty outside with the green grass and tall trees. If I moved the loveseat there, I would never get to gaze out of the window because I sit on the loveseat as my regular spot. We will probably get new furniture in a year or so because what I have is getting old but we can't afford a purchase right now. I like the idea of a couple of chairs near the window, especially if they are comfy chairs.

[Guest]

I had two ottomans in the bay window, in my other house.  This gave a place to sit to watch the world, without blocking the view for everyone else.  

 

My current living room is modeled on a bowling alley (scowl) with the bay window where the pins go.  It's too small to have *any* furniture in it given the fact that we came with a piano and an enormous sideboard, which only increases the bowling alley effect.  What I have had to do is sort of *angle* two chairs with a big ottoman in between them with trays on top to serve as "coffee table" (or if we have a lot of company, we can move it out and use it for seating).

 

I like having something in front of the bay window, so it is inviting, but not as a blocker.  That said, windows that go to 6" above the floor are just asking for it. 

 

[JFSinIL]

One of our front room windows is behind the sofa, faces south, and I have it not only covered in black paper, but also keep the curtains drawn over it. Why? Because the only place in the room (this is a 1906 house, btw) for the telly is in a the corner facing that blasted sunny window.  I hate reflected light, etc. on the telly.

 

There are two other windows in the wall facing the street, those I didn't cover.  The Labrador peers out and barks at squirrels all day long (one bark per squirrel. He doesn't go on and on).

[Wilma]

Don't worry about when you move - just do what you like! Whenever the time comes, you'll be shifting things around and probably putting 1/3 of everything in storage anyway.

[wendy not in HI]

We have a huge window in our living room.  It is not a bay window, but it is huge - bigger than our large couch!  It takes up most of the wall.  We have the couch in front of the window and I love it there!  I can sit in my favorite corner of the couch with a book or my laptop and look out over the couch at see the bird feeder and the lawn and the horse pasture across the street.

 

Our window does not go all the way to the ground, but it is about a foot lower than the back of the couch.  We have had the couch across from the window, but with a love seat, piano, large book case, and tv stand there are only so many places to put it, and in front of the window is my favorite.  The couch sits about a foot away from the window, so the drapes hang well, and kids can walk back there to dust mop the wood floors.

 

The couch does not look too strange from outside.

 

Anyway, if I were you, I'd slide the couch over and see how it feels there. Maybe you will like it! 

[Catwoman]

This may be a stupid idea, but is it possible to move a large piece of furniture completely out of the room, to give you more breathing room?