3x4 living room layout: three plans for a 3 m × 4 m room
Put the sofa on a 4 m wall and the TV on the wall opposite. Across the 3 m width, a 90 cm deep sofa, a 40 cm gap, a 45 cm coffee table, a 90 cm walkway and a 35 cm TV unit add up to exactly 300 cm. A 200 cm sofa takes a 160 × 230 cm rug, and from it you sit about 2.35 m from the screen, which suits a 55–65 in TV.
A 3 × 4 m living room is 12 m². You find it in flats, new-build terraces and the front rooms of older houses. It is about 5 m² under the 17.1 m² average for a living room in a new British home (LABC Warranty, via Statista), so every centimetre counts. The good news: the room follows a few numbers, and one sum decides most of it.
Below are three plans drawn to scale. We checked every one: nothing overlaps, the door opens fully and the main walkway stays 75–90 cm wide. After the plans come the sofas that fit, the rug and the TV.
The sum that sets a 3 m wide room
With the sofa on a long wall and the TV facing it, five things have to fit in a row across the 3 m width:
| Across the room | Depth (cm) | Running total (cm) | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sofa | 90 | 90 | Most 3-seaters are 85–100 cm deep (Furniture Choice) |
| Sofa to coffee table | 40 | 130 | 35–45 cm (Castlery UK) |
| Coffee table | 45 | 175 | A slim table, 100 cm long: half a 200 cm sofa (Castlery UK) |
| Walkway | 90 | 265 | 75–90 cm (Emily Henderson; Jackie Barnes Design) |
| TV unit | 35 | 300 | A shallow unit |
It comes to exactly 300 cm. So in a 3 m room the sofa's depth is the number to watch: every 5 cm of extra depth comes straight off the walkway. A 100 cm deep sofa leaves an 80 cm walkway, still inside the 75–90 cm designers use. Hang the TV on the wall and skip the unit, and the walkway grows to 125 cm.
Plan 1: the sofa on the long wall
The sofa takes the long wall and the TV faces it across the room. From the sofa to the coffee table is 40 cm, and from the table to the TV unit 90 cm: that is the route from the door to the window. An armchair in the corner by the window gives a second seat without blocking anything.
The rug is the clever part. A 160 × 230 cm rug runs 15 cm past each end of the 200 cm sofa. In a wider room it would tuck 20–30 cm under the sofa's front. Here it starts 20 cm from the wall and slides 70 cm under the sofa, so its far edge stops 5 cm past the coffee table, not 45 cm into the walkway. The sofa's front legs stand on it, and so does far more than the third of the sofa that IKEA asks for.
From this sofa your eyes are about 235 cm from the screen. The TV section below shows what that means for the screen size.
Plan 2: a corner sofa
A corner sofa seats more people on the same floor. Here its long side, 240 cm, runs down the 4 m wall, and its short side, 180 cm, runs along the bottom wall. The coffee table sits 40 cm from both seats, and the TV unit faces the long side.
This plan needs the door at the other end of the room. The route then runs from the door to the sofa and stops, so the 55 cm between the coffee table and the TV unit is only a way to the TV. That is inside the 45–60 cm designers accept for a path few people use. If your door is beside the corner instead, choose Plan 1.
A reading chair sits under the window, 20 cm from the radiator, which is HOFOR's minimum. The 160 × 230 cm rug tucks 20 cm under the long side and 30 cm under the short side. Corner sofas are big, so before you order one, check it gets through the door and up the stairs with our sofa fit calculator.
Plan 3: living room with a table for two
If the room also has to hold a table, give it the window end. An 80 × 80 cm table and two chairs sit under the window, the table 22 cm from the radiator. Each chair has 60 cm behind it to the wall. That is less than the 36 in (91 cm) the NKBA gives for someone to walk behind a seated diner, so the plan keeps people from walking there: the route comes up from the door and arrives at the right-hand chair.
The sofa moves down the long wall to make room, and leaves 65 cm between its end and the nearest dining chair. The rest is Plan 1: 40 cm to the coffee table, a 90 cm walkway and the TV unit opposite. A floor lamp stands between the sofa and the table.
The squeeze: the rug ends 23 cm from the bottom wall, just above the 20 cm designers treat as the least that looks deliberate. Its top edge stops 32 cm short of the dining table, so the chairs stay off it.
Which sofas fit a 3 × 4 m room
| Sofa (cm) | Floor at each end of the 4 m wall | Walkway left | Rug | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-seater, 160 × 85 | 120 | 95 | 160 × 230, 35 past each end | Fits easily |
| 3-seater, 200 × 90 | 100 | 90 | 160 × 230, 15 past each end | The best fit |
| Large 3-seater, 230 × 95 | 85 | 85 | 200 × 290, 30 past each end, but it reaches 40 cm into the walkway | Fits, with a rug compromise |
| 4-seater, 250 × 100 | 75 | 80 | 200 × 290, 20 past each end, 35 cm into the walkway | Tight, and it fills the room |
| Corner sofa, 240 × 180 | – | 55 to the TV unit | 160 × 230 | Only with the door at the other end |
How we worked it out, in cm: floor at each end = (400 − sofa length) ÷ 2. Walkway left = 300 − sofa depth − 40 − 45 − 35. For a rug 200 cm deep that starts 20 cm from the wall, its edge is at 220 cm, and the walkway starts at sofa depth + 85. Designers' rough rule of a sofa about two thirds of its wall (Livingetc) gives 268 cm on a 4 m wall. So in this room, depth is the limit, not length.
The rug and the TV
Rug. UK shops stock 120 × 170, 160 × 230, 200 × 290 and 240 × 340 cm. For a 3 × 4 m room with a sofa up to 200 cm, 160 × 230 cm is the one: it runs at least 15 cm past each end of the sofa, the least Emily Henderson suggests. A 120 × 170 cm rug is shorter than most sofas, so it cannot run past their ends. Our rug size calculator picks the stock size for your own sofa and room.
TV. We take your eyes as about 35 cm behind the front edge of the seat (our working figure), so on a 90 cm sofa they are 55 cm from the wall. With the screen about 10 cm off the opposite wall, you sit 300 − 55 − 10 = 235 cm from it.
| At 235 cm, the guide says | Screen |
|---|---|
| THX 40° (sit 1.2 × the diagonal away) | 77 in |
| SMPTE 30° (1.6 × the diagonal) | 57 in |
| THX's farthest seat, 28° (about 1.75 × the diagonal) | 53 in |
| What people chose in one Japanese lab study | about 42 in |
A 55 in TV sits at 1.68 times its diagonal, and a 65 in TV at 1.42 times: both inside THX's range. The lab study points the other way: people there chose to sit further back than the cinema figures. So if 65 in looks too much on a 3 m wall, 55 in is the middle ground. Put the centre of the screen at your seated eye height, about 100–110 cm on most sofas. Our TV height and distance calculator works it out for your own sofa, and our guide to a living room layout with a TV covers chimney breasts and corners.
Five mistakes in a 3 × 4 m living room
- The sofa on the short wall. The TV ends up about 3.35 m away, and a long empty strip runs down the middle of the room. If your room is longer than about 5 m, see our long, narrow living room layouts.
- A deep sofa. A 105 cm deep sofa leaves a 75 cm walkway, the least designers use. Check the depth before the length.
- The route through the seating. If the only way from the door to the window crosses between the sofa and the coffee table, the room never feels settled.
- A rug across the walkway. Slide it further under the sofa, so its edge stops at the coffee table.
- A corner sofa by the door. Everyone walks past the TV to reach a seat. Put the corner at the far end.
Before you buy, measure the way in. The most common internal door in England and Wales is 762 mm wide (Howarth Timber), and the gap you can carry a sofa through is smaller still. The sofa fit calculator checks the door, the hall and the stairs. For more room shapes, see our small living room layouts, and for every clearance with its source, the living room clearances guide.
Try the three plans in your own room
No real room is exactly 3 × 4 m, and no door sits exactly where these plans put it. Snuug, the iPhone room app, rebuilds your own living room in 3D from one walk round it, to within about 3% of its real size in our tests of ten homes. Move the sofa in 5 cm steps and watch the walkway, paste a shop link and see the corner sofa in your corner before you order it, and paint the wall behind the TV before you buy a tin. Our team checks every room by hand before it reaches you, and your first room is free.
Questions
Is a 3x4 m living room small?
Yes. At 12 m² it is about 5 m² smaller than the average living room in a new British home, 17.1 m² (LABC Warranty, via Statista). It still fits a 3-seater sofa, a coffee table, a TV unit and a 90 cm walkway, as the plans here show.
What size sofa fits a 3x4 living room?
On the 4 m wall, a 3-seater of 200–230 cm fits, with 85–100 cm left at each end. Depth matters more than length: across 3 m, every 5 cm of sofa depth comes off the walkway. A 90 cm deep sofa leaves a 90 cm walkway; a 100 cm deep one leaves 80 cm.
Can you fit a corner sofa in a 3x4 living room?
Yes, in a corner, with the long side on a 4 m wall. Plan 2 here uses a 240 × 180 cm corner sofa. It works best when the door is at the other end of the room, so the route reaches the sofa without passing between the coffee table and the TV.
What size TV for a 3x4 living room?
With the sofa on the long wall, your eyes are about 235 cm from the screen. THX's 40° and the SMPTE 30° figure give 57–77 in for that distance, and THX's farthest seat allows 53 in. A 55 or 65 in TV fits.
What size rug for a 3x4 living room?
160 × 230 cm for a sofa up to 200 cm: it runs 15 cm past each end. In a 3 m wide room, slide it further under the sofa than usual, so its far edge stops at the coffee table and not in the walkway.
Should the TV go on the long or the short wall?
On the long wall, facing a sofa on the other long wall. From a sofa on one short wall, a TV on the other is about 3.35 m away, which suits a screen of 75 in or more by the THX and SMPTE figures, and leaves an empty strip down the middle.
Editorial notes
Written by the Snuug team and checked on 1 November 2026. A number with no source beside it is a designers' rule of thumb, not a study.
- LABC Warranty via Statista, Average living room size in new British homes, 1930–2020
- Emily Henderson, Living room rules to know (walkways 30–36 in; 18–24 in in a tight room). The page refused our fetch; figures from search summaries, checked 15 Oct 2026
- Jackie Barnes Design (21 Jan 2026), Key measurements every homeowner should know when designing a living room
- Castlery UK (5 Aug 2026), Coffee table dimensions (35–45 cm from the sofa; half to two thirds of its length)
- Livingetc (Wolfe, 22 Aug 2025), The two-thirds rule (sofa about two thirds of its wall; 12–18 in of floor around a rug)
- Emily Henderson, Living room rug size (6–8 in past each end of the sofa; checked 15 Oct 2026)
- IKEA UK, How to choose the right rug size (at least a third of the sofa on the rug; checked 31 Oct 2026)
- Love-Rugs, Rug size guide UK (120 × 170, 160 × 230, 200 × 300, 240 × 340 cm)
- Furniture Choice, How to measure a sofa (most 3-seaters 85–100 cm deep; checked 31 Oct 2026)
- NKBA, Kitchen Planning Guidelines (36 in to walk behind a seated diner)
- HOFOR (1 Jan 2021), Let the heat spread throughout the room (at least 20 cm from a radiator)
- Howarth Timber (Green, 14 Sep 2026), UK door sizes (762 mm is the most common internal door in England and Wales)
- Wikipedia, Optimum HDTV viewing distance (SMPTE 30°, THX 40° to 28°; checked 31 Oct 2026)
- Journal of the ITE of Japan 65 (2011), preferred viewing distance of HD LCD TVs (we read the abstract only)