Can You Put a Sofa in Front of a Window? The Pros and Cons

Setting up the sofa in front of the window - is it a design crime or a pro move? We ask our interior design team to spill the beans:

We often see the clients at our showroom be confused about the right placement for their sofas - especially when there’s a beautiful window with a view in the room. Whether you like the idea of having a sofa there or not - in some cases, it’s simply unavoidable because of the room’s layout or the size of the sofa. 

Let’s start by having a look at the pros and cons of such a placement:

It is often the most functional layout

“In my opinion, placing the sofa in front of the window is completely okay as long as the window is not completely blocked by it,” says our senior designer, Cristina Chirila, “I would rather focus my energies on creating an aesthetic and functional layout for the room and place whatever works best in front of the window - if it happens to be a sofa, I would happily proceed.”

In many cases, placing the sofa in front of the window creates the most practical layout for the room so it's impossible to avoid it when there are no better options. 

It can block the light

Fresh air and sunlight can brighten up any room so you might not be willing to block it. However, there’s an easy way around this as you can simply opt for a low-back sofa or even a sofa bench.

Luckily, low profile sofas are incredibly popular for living rooms these days, especially if you want a contemporary-looking space. 

It can cause your sofa fabric to fade out

Yes, if direct sunlight is falling on your sofa, it might cause the fabric or leather to lose its colour quickly. But this issue is only seen with low-quality sofas.

So the solution to this would be to invest in a high-end sofa as they’re made from premium quality materials.

Our sofas, for example, are known to retain their natural shine and colour even after decades of use and despite being placed right in front of windows - because we make sure to work with selected brands that are known for their strict quality control measures. 

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If you still want to take some precautionary measures, you can have blinds or curtains installed in the windows to control the amount of sunlight entering the room. You can also use a throw on the back of the sofa for additional protection. 

It’s not good for Feng Shui

According to Feng Shui experts, it’s not recommended to place your sofa in front of a window as it can disrupt the flow of positive energy and calmness. However, they also recommend that if you must place your sofa next to the window, then go for two sofas and place the smaller one against the window. And you know how our team has always been in favour of having two sofas in the living room. 

How to Set up the Sofa in Front of the Window?

Below we're sharing some examples from projects that our team has recently completed so you can take some cues from how they chose to set up the sofa next to the window:

It's been a while since we completed this one but this Elm Park, Kensington project continues to be our favourite and also of the interior design industry as this project won the award for 'Interior Design of a Private Residence in London' by the International Property Awards.

Our interior designer and business development manager, Benjamin Ibanez worked on this one in collaboration with Rina Vastu, and for this living room, they went with two leather sofas in green colour to complement the Fall palette and the chandelier in the room. 

Another stunning living room on which Benjamin worked in partnership with Fabio Dovico Lupo, for this living room, once again there was no choice but to arrange the sofa in front of the window, so they went with an L shaped sectional sofa.

You'll notice how the colour scheme for the sofa, window blinds and rug has been kept neutral to make this space feel more open and welcoming. 

Arranging furniture in open plan rooms can be particularly challenging. For this open-plan game room in the Coulins project, our designers chose a modular sofa to create a comfortable sitting area next to the window.

However, since the window was right next to the door which led to the outdoor area, we had to leave some space between the window and the sofa so that the passage was not blocked.

Placing a bespoke rug under the sofas further helped in marking out the area and improving the flow of movement. 

 

For our Valley road project, we had not one but two living rooms to work with, one of them being a part of the open-plan dining area. And for both these spaces, the ideal arrangement involved using the windows even though we went for an L-shaped sofa in one space and a 3-seater with armchairs in the other one:

 

What are the alternatives to putting the sofa in front of the window?

Still not convinced about placing your sofa in front of the window? No worries because there are many different alternative sofa placements that you can opt for. Here are two of our team’s favourites:

Putting armchairs in front of the window

Use a single sofa chair or two accent chairs and set them next to the window, you can then set your sofa at a right angle to the chairs or on it can be facing the chair(s). We made this arrangement work beautifully in our Reddington road project's living room:

This setting works very well for not just living rooms but also the bedrooms, as you can see in this bedroom that we furnished for the same project: 

Setting the dining table in front of the window

If your living room is big enough to accommodate the dining space, you can place your dining table in front of the window instead of the sofas.

For the living room shown below, we practised the same and we believe it worked out for the best as natural lighting is far more important in the dining area as compared to the living room. 

Summing Up

Whether you choose to place your sofa in front of the window or not depends on several factors, including the room layout, sofa size and the flow of traffic in the room. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with both arrangements so you should choose one that best fits the function and style of your room - be it the bedroom, the living room or any other space. If you need any help with finalising the sofa or setting up the room, book an appointment and our expert interior designers will be in touch with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How to make a couch in front of a window look good? 

The colour of the sofa should not be too dark or too bold, it should preferably be neutral, so the sunlight falling on it creates a warm and relaxing ambiance. You can also use different accessories, such as cushions and throws, to make the sofa feel cosy.

Q. What kind of sofa can you put in front of the window? 

You can essentially put any kind of sofa in front of the sofa but sectionals and smaller sofas as well as love seats, are some of the most popular options. 

Q. What should be the distance between two sofas?

Generally speaking, there should be enough distance for you and your guests to move freely around the room. In most cases, this means that if they’re facing each other, the sofas are 3.5 to 4.5 feet away from each other but this distance can vary based on the size of the room, the size of the coffee table between the sofas and the overall layout of the room.

Q. How far should a sofa be from the window? 

This depends on the layout of the room, the size of the window and the size of the sofa. It’s completely okay for the sofa to be attached to the wall, but if you have full-length curtains, it’s equally acceptable for you to leave a small gap. For some projects, we have even chosen to keep a narrow console between the window and the sofa’s back so the client can place planters or accessories on it - this creates a very pleasing and picturesque spot in the room.