Tips on Rearranging Your Room

Function and Style

• Deciding on the intended use of a room can assist you in developing an efficient plan for rearranging it. After determining the room's function, establish which furniture pieces need to be removed from or added to the room. Also consider your preference in design style -- casual, elegant, feng shui -- and determine who will be using the room. Children, pets and handicapped individuals may require special, accommodating room arrangements.

Focal Point

• Determine the focal point of the room. The focal point in a living room is often the fireplace, a large window or a special architectural feature. Sometimes a room's focal point isn't apparent and you may need to create one, such as a bed in a bedroom. Arranging furniture pieces around the focal point draws attention to its importance. Begin rearranging the room with the larger pieces first, helping to anchor the rest of the room. For example, after determining a living room's focal point is the fireplace, position the sofa in front of the fireplace to assist in anchoring chairs, end tables and a coffee table.

Traffic Patterns

• Leaving ample space for walking around furniture and through doorways creates a good traffic-flow pattern. Cluttered rooms can create unsafe walkways, which may contribute to accidents -- tripping and falling over furniture pieces. According to the Sheffield School of Interior Design's website, a minimum of 36 inches inches should be left free and clear of furniture in front of a doorway.

Layout and Balance

• Sketching a pencil drawing of your room rearrangement provides a visual look at the space before actually moving furniture pieces and accessories. The room deserves to have balance, which occurs when the visual weight of the furniture on one side of the room is about the same as the weight of the furniture on the opposite side. Sketch a pencil outline of the room and insert furniture and accessories to determine if your room is in balance. Next, divide the room into four equal squares. If the furniture and accessories are evenly distributed throughout the squares, the room is in balance.