The Great living room shuffle.

[From the archive of things-I-didn't-get-round-to-posting-at-the-time]

Since i moved in nearly 4 years ago I've been moving the lounge around bit by bit trying to find the best use of space and as yet I've not really found anything which is satisfying. Its get better each time, but never really been "perfect"

The latest arrangement I did about 5 months ago and it almost exactly the opposite of what it was when i move in (at least for the TV/Sofa anyway) and works pretty well. But still isn't what I envisage or exactly right, but i guess its the best i'll get.

The TV unit got moved from the right-hand wall to the back wall of the house, but the window faces directly into the sun, so wasn't ideal.

The sofa sectioned off the bar/bookcases from the main lounge and really didn't help when there were more than a few people round. (shown mid move, it was normally further away from the back bookcases)

The dining table was against the wall, which was fine until it was used. You ended up eating facing a wall, with the only light source in the room behind you, eating in the shadows. Plus the chairs and table got in the way of the cupboard door.

One day, move ALL the things! The TV unit came apart as it was too big to fit where the table was without obstructing the door a lot so it was reduced in size (too much as it turns out, but i'll post about that another time)

The TV ended up where the Table was, the table went by the bar and bookcases and made a kind of dining area, and the sofa went on the opposite wall to the TV. The downside of this is that the TV is a long way from the sofa, and despite being 40" looks, dare I say, small. Pulling the sofa into the middle of the room means there's a lot of dead space behind it.

UPDATE:
Alas, since writing this and before it was fully sorted, (although much tidier and better laid out than this) It's come up that I'll likely have to move this year, so all of this is for nothing. Back to square one for somewhere new!

TV Unit. Version 4... :(

UPDATE:

As part of the Great Living Room Shuffle and subsequent discovery of needing to move this year, the TV unit ended up being moved and redesigned. Fortunately it's been in the new state for quite a while, which at least means the unit worked while it was where it ended up at the end of this post when originally written.

(Spring 2013)

The TV unit as for quite a while taken up a good area of my lounge and housed plenty of equipment and with the speaker stands as well, it's most of a wall. The problem now is to move it to what is, in all honesty the place it should always have been, it needs to be shorter, so the center third is coming out.

The sub is moving behind the sofa and the HTPC in the bottom left is just coming out of the unit all together as it wasn't getting used.

With the top removed and the two end sections pushed together the top has to be cut down. Sadly, all the cabling i'd carefully done had to be picked apart to put a new shelf in to allow a few extras to be added.

One cut with the power saw, and it's done.

The amp, CD and DVD player all stayed in the same place, although the two players are now on their own shelves with the switch behind the CD player. The other side has the Xbox, Sky receiver and more consoles on the bottom shelf.

Once the cables are in, the unit needs a back on some of it to help make it stable, it's not much but it does a lot to stop it swaying.

The only things thats not changed is the Amp has been replaced with a newer AV receiver and the TV is say on top of a larger center speaker. At least it survived the upgrade and still worked well enough.