Chairs provide a very simple yet effective way to relax and spend some good time in a comfortable body posture. But not all chairs are designed to "relax" . This is especially true about chairs in the workplaces. In the workplaces we are supposed to be alert hence the office furniture is designed to be alert at work. They keep your body in a manner which will keep you from relaxing.

But things are different in a living room. the whole and sole purpose of chairs in the living room are to provide better comfort and maximum relaxation. But there is one more important aspect to this situation.

let's see a small experiment. If you have been given a choice in a living room to watch a good movie and provided with two different types of seating arrangement. First a big stuffed leather sofa and a small chair with fair amount of seating space a person should have, which one would you choose to sit. Of course most people will unconsciously choose to sit on a large sofa and ignore the chair altogether.

Why does this happen? It's simple a sofa has a much different psychological impact on the human mind because of its sheer volume and form. Because of his a chair in a living room is always considered as a "option" for seating arrangement. If your more friends join the movie viewing with you then you might consider getting a few "chairs" to sit around the TV and fulfill the need of emergency occupancy.

So chairs are always considered a fillers rather than core furniture elements in a living room. But this same principle can be very effectively used, let's see how.

If you observe the furniture arrangement in any living room you will notice that sofa sets are arranged in living rooms that overlook some object of interest such as a fireplace, TV, outdoor patio, backyard etc. So such kind of arrangement is used to create a focus in the living room. Go right now to images.google.com and search for "living room" images. View at least 10 images and you will see that all attention has been focused around this furniture arrangement.

We can easily use this method with chairs as well. An arrangement of chairs in a large living room will definitely be used to balance the attention elsewhere and create another focal point. For example if the exit to patio has been overlooked an arrangement of even 4 chairs with a small coffee table will make the space look more used and balanced.

In this way chairs do have a lot of "power" in decorating when used in groups and with creative arrangements. I hope this article has shown you the importance of chairs as a design element in living rooms.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya