Keeping furniture away from walls

[kitty]

I am itching to rearrange our family room and I always hear that you are supposed to keep your furniture away from the walls.  I can't figure out how you plug in lamps and stuff if you do this.  Do the fancy houses on houzz just all have custom placed outlets in the floor?  Are the lamps put there just for show?

[ktzmoh]

I always assume the houzz houses have the fancy floor outlets, but idk. You could try running cords under carpets, but then you can always feel it.

[Deleted]

Yeah, this is more of a "Well on the internet!" sort of situation.
Meanwhile, back IRL, I think the rule is more, "Just don't shove everything you own against every wall in your house." It's okay to slide side chairs and the like into the middle of the room but if you need the couch and endtables to the wall to get the outlets to work and make sure no one is tripping over a cord, then that's how it has to be.

[FoxInFiji]

Yes I would assume fancy floor outlets. Also some of the smaller lamps may be battery operated. The whole pull furniture away from the walls thing only really works if you have a big space anyway. I am a fan of the console table behind the couch thing that boiler and few bloggers have done though. It gives you a place to put those lights and still gets the couch more in the center of the space.

I think the best solution would be to just put in more overhead lighting and get rid of all but the task lamps. That is what we are doing in our LR someday (the only room where we use lamps right now). We'll have the recessed lights on two different sets of switches (one with a damper) so the main walkway area behind the couch can be controlled separately than the rest of the LR.

[TBM]

I have wanted floor outlets since I first heard of them, over 30 years ago. I always thought that I would put them in if we ever had a home built. *sigh*

I guess it wouldn't be that difficult if your home was built over a basement or crawlspace, but we ave a slab.


Like Dairy so eloquently put it... "Just don't shove everything you own against every wall in your house."


By taking advantage of strategically placed floor lamps and console tables, we've managed have lamps and to float furniture in our very small family room without tripping hazards, and it works so much better...even in the small space.

[simpsongal]

My folks have a stratgically run extension cord under their rug. I like the idea of floor outlets but I think there would have to be a definite configuration for the room (the outlets could otherwise 'stick out')

[Deleted]

I posted about this a long time ago and got advice to move my sofa away from the wall. I tried if and it looked awful and had terrible flow, despite the results being praised on this site. I think it doesn't work in many rooms, especially those on the small or narrow side.