232 FURNITURE ARRANGEMENT

Two points of emphasis in the living room, the center of inter-
est and the principal group of seating furniture, can sometimes be
combined, thus securing a unified effect.

The major conversation group of furniture is the most impor-
tant furnishing in the living room. It should be so well placed
and so comfortable that it is conducive to conversation. This
group should seat about eight persons, without the necessity of
dragging up chairs. In Modern or ranch houses part of this seat-
ing furniture may be built-in and finished with foam cushions.
In a Modern living room a conversation corner is often arranged
with an L-shaped sofa, with built-in seats, or with sectional seat-
ing units that turn a corner satisfactorily, accommodating several
persons on each side of the corner.

In a living room with a fireplace, the main conversation group
may consist of two sofas or two love seats, one on either side in
front of the fireplace, possibly with chairs at the ends toward the
room. Instead of two sofas, one only need be used, opposite a
pair of identical chairs. In a small room the sofa usually stands
against the wall across the room from the fireplace.

Where a window is the nucleus of the main conversation group,
a sofa or love seat may well be placed so that it faces the window
with two comfortable chairs of different types at right angles at
the ends, or the sofa may be at right angles to the window wall
with two identical chairs opposite. The featured window should
frame a view, or hold glass shelves with plants, or be curtained
very well, or have distinction in some other way both by day-
light and by lamp light. Page 240 shows a summer arrangement.

Sometimes a rug that is just large enough for the main group
of furniture serves to unify it as on pages J9 and 240. Necessary
adjuncts in a group of seating furniture are a large, low coffee
table in front of the sofa and large lamp tables at the ends of the
sofas and between the pair of chairs, The comfort which a room
offers depends partly upon how well it is supplied with these
conveniences.

Furniture that is arranged for comfort usually looks well, too.
If the living-room chairs are "all out of place" after guests have
departed, it may indicate that the usual arrangement was less inter-
esting as well as less convenient, and it may be well to let them
remain as the guests left them-