Feng Shui Room Planner
Plan a living room layout on a grid and check the relationships that matter — the sofa against the door, the window and the television.
Plan your living room
How to use it
- Pick an item type and click the grid to place it.
- Place a door, a sofa and ideally a window or TV.
- Read the layout notes and fix the conflicts in order.
The living room rules this planner checks
The living room is where a home does its social work, and it is where feng shui rules about furniture position are most often quoted and least often applied. The planner tests the three that actually change how a room feels.
- The coffin position. A sofa placed directly in line with the door, so you open the door onto the back of the sofa. It is called the coffin position for a reason: it traps the person sitting on it and forces them to twist to see the door. The rule is to rotate the sofa 90 degrees so it faces across the room, or at least at an angle.
- Sofa against a wall with no window. A sofa with its back to a solid wall is fine and is in fact the command position when you can see the door from it. A sofa floating in the middle of the room is neither supported nor commanding.
- Blocking the light. A sofa or a television directly in front of a window cuts daylight and traps qi against the glass. It also makes the room feel smaller and the screen harder to watch.
The command position
When a sofa is placed with its back to a solid wall, positioned so that you can see the door without being directly in front of it, you are sitting in the command position. It is the best seat in any room and the position most feng shui advice assumes you already have.
To find it, sit in your sofa, look at the door and check whether you can see it by turning your head slightly rather than twisting your whole body. If the door is directly in front of you, move the sofa. If the door is well behind you, you cannot see anyone entering — which is a security and comfort issue before it is a feng shui one.
The command position applies to the bed in a bedroom too, and it is the reason the bedroom layout generator scores it.
Small living rooms and odd shapes
Most living rooms are not rectangles, and the awkward ones often need the most help. Three principles cover most of it.
- Anchor the longest wall. Put the sofa against the wall with the most uninterrupted length. This gives the room a centre and makes it read as larger.
- Keep the middle clear. The centre of a room is where qi circulates. A coffee table is fine — it is low and permeable — but a large ottoman or a pile of boxes in the middle stops the flow.
- Round the corners. If a corner is unavoidable, soften it. A plant, a floor lamp or a curtain in a sharp corner both softens the geometry and reduces the 'poison arrow' effect of a hard point aimed at a seated person.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a sofa facing the door bad feng shui?
Facing the door directly is workable but not ideal. The clear problem case is a sofa with its back to the door — the 'coffin position' — which traps you and gives you no view of who is entering. A sofa that faces the door at an angle, with its back to a solid wall, gives you both the view and the support, which is the command position.
Should a coffee table be in the middle of the living room?
Yes. A coffee table is low and you move around it, so it does not block the flow in the way a solid object does. It also anchors the seating group, which is what a room needs. Keep it 40-45cm from the sofa — close enough to reach a cup, far enough to walk past.
What if my living room has no proper walls to back the sofa onto?
Use a low console, a shelving unit or a plant grouping as a soft back. It gives the sofa something to anchor against, defines the seating zone and stops the room feeling like a waiting area. Half-height walls and glass partitions work for the same reason.
How do I use this with the bedroom generator?
Different tools for different rooms. This planner covers the living room geometry — sofa, door, window and TV. The bedroom layout generator has a deeper rule set for the bed, mirror and window, because the bed is the single most consequential object in the house.