You’ve just purchased new sofas and loveseats and perhaps entertainment centers for the home. However, you feel like your living room has become a jigsaw puzzle or you’re playing a maddening game of Tetris trying to get everything to flow nicely. Before you purchased that furniture, I hope you took the right measurements. Even if the entertainment center fits in the room, it still might be too big compared to all the other furniture.

In order to achieve a serene design, furniture needs to be similar in scale. A balance of different heights, widths, and lengths will create harmony and good proportions. The room should also have a good balance of symmetry and asymmetry. Symmetry promotes rest, while asymmetry promotes motion.

Not everything needs to be placed against the wall, this can be rather dull and boring, especially in the living room. Chairs and tables can be angled! Before you waste too much time moving everything around again and again, sketch out a few different designs. But you won’t know until you try, so don’t get frustrated if the first two arrangements don’t work. Rearranging your furniture from time to time is also a great way to change up the room. It’ll give the room new life.