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The Solid Wood Living Room Guide

Solid wood living room furniture rarely gets bought all at once. A coffee table one year, end tables three years later, and every piece still has to look like it belongs with the rest. This guide covers the sizing and the matching that makes that work, in the order the decisions come up.
SHOP LIVING ORDER STAIN SAMPLES

What Decides a Living Room Layout?

Four fixed points decide a living room before any furniture is bought: the television, the fireplace, the main walkway and the window wall. Work out where those sit and the furniture has far fewer places it can go than the floor plan suggests.

Living rooms are harder to arrange than any other room because they have two centres. A television and a fireplace both want the seating pointed at them, and in most houses they are not on the same wall.
Fixed point What it decides Check first
The television

 Where the main seating faces and how far back it sits Glare from a window opposite it
The fireplace

 The second thing the seating wants to face Whether it competes with the television
The main walkway
 Which strip of floor the furniture cannot have
 Doors that swing into the room
The window wall

 Where nothing tall is allowed to go Low pieces only, or you lose the light

Settle the conflict between the two centres before anything else. Angling the seating to catch both is the usual compromise, and it only works if the room is wide enough to lose a corner.

What Does a Living Room Need?

Three groups furnish a living room: the seating, the tables that serve it, and whatever holds the television. Between them they cover 520 pieces, which is more choice than any other room in the house.

Seating comes first because it sets the geometry. Tables are sized against the seating rather than against the room, and the television wall is sized against the wall it sits on.
Living Seating

Seating

Sofas, loveseats, recliners, gliders, rockers and ottomans in solid hardwood frames.

Keep the Chip You Order Today

The end tables you add in three years have to match the coffee table you buy now. Order the samples at the start and keep them somewhere safe, because a stain is far easier to match from a chip than from memory.
SHOP SAMPLES

What Size Should the Tables Be?

Living room tables are sized against the seating, never against the room. A coffee table is judged by the sofa cushion, an end table by the arm beside it, and a sofa table by the back of the piece it stands behind.

Get the heights right and a room reads as planned even when the pieces arrived years apart. Get them wrong and matching wood will not rescue it.
Table Height it wants Where it sits
Coffee table

 Level with the seat cushion or slightly under Roughly 16 to 18 inches out from the sofa
End table
 Level with the arm of the chair it serves

 Beside the seat, not behind it
Sofa table
 Just below the back of the sofa
 Behind the sofa, against its full length

Coffee Tables

The coffee table is the piece people misjudge in length rather than height. A table much shorter than two thirds of the sofa leaves the arrangement looking unfinished.

Storage matters more here than anywhere else in the room, since this is where remotes, coasters and everything else accumulates. Our Finland has a drawer, and the Lenexa lifts on a counterweighted top so the surface comes up to you.

The limit is traffic. A long coffee table narrows the gap people walk through, so measure the route past it as well as the distance to the sofa.

End Tables

An end table only has to do two things, which are hold a lamp and sit at the right height beside the person using it.

Size is the decision, not style. Our Berkley comes in small, medium and large in the same design, so a narrow chair and a deep sofa can carry the same table at different scales.

The limit is the lamp. A tall lamp on a tall table puts the bulb at eye level for anyone seated, which is the most common lighting mistake in a living room.

Sofa Tables

A sofa table is long, narrow and built to stand behind a sofa that floats in the room rather than against a wall.

It suits open plan spaces, because it finishes the back of the sofa and quietly draws the line between the living area and whatever sits behind it. Pushed against a wall instead, it works as a console.

The limit is depth. A sofa table has to be shallow enough that nobody walking behind the sofa has to turn sideways.

SEE ALL LIVING ROOM TABLES

Which Seating Should You Choose?

Count the seats the room fills on a normal weeknight rather than at Christmas, then add one that does something the others cannot. A room of matching upholstery seats people. A room with a recliner or a glider in it gives them somewhere they actually want to be.

The four below are the seats a living room draws from, in the order most rooms acquire them.

Sofas and Loveseats

A sofa is the anchor and a loveseat is the same piece at two thirds the length.

The choice is decided by wall length rather than by how many people you host. A loveseat plus two chairs seats the same number as a sofa and gives the room more flexibility, which is why it suits square rooms and rooms with two focal points.

The limit is comfort for one. Nobody stretches out on a loveseat, so if the room is where someone watches a film lying down, the sofa earns its length.
Browse seating
Amish London Swivel Glider-Glider-The Amish House

Recliners

A recliner is the chair somebody in the house will claim permanently.

Ours are built on hardwood frames with the mechanism inside, so it does not have to look like a recliner to work as one. Several come in more than one style on the same frame, which means the reclining chair no longer has to be the piece you apologise for.

The limit is the space behind it. A recliner needs clearance to open, so it cannot sit tight against a wall unless it is built to.
Browse recliners
Amish 8675 Shaker Gateway Swivel Glider Recliner-Recliner-The Amish House

Gliders and Rockers

A glider travels forward and back on a mechanism, while a rocker moves on curved runners.

Both suit a corner rather than the main run of seating, and both earn their place in a house with a baby in it or a reader in it. A gliding ottoman in front of either turns the chair into the seat nobody gives up.

The limit is floor. Rockers need room to travel behind them, and on a rug a runner can catch the edge rather than riding over it.
Browse gliders
Amish 5600 Series OLDE Shaker Chairside End Table-Table-The Amish House

Ottomans and Footstools

An ottoman works as a footrest, extra seating and a surface, depending on what the evening needs.

It suits rooms that are short of seats occasionally rather than constantly, and one in front of a glider does more for comfort than a second chair would. The smallest footstools are the cheapest useful thing in the room.

The limit is that it is none of those three things properly. An ottoman is a compromise by design, so it does not replace a chair, a table or a footrest if the room genuinely needs one.
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Two Focal Points Is the Hardest Room to Plan

If the television and the fireplace sit on different walls, tell us how the room measures and where each one falls. We will work out which arrangement holds and which piece has to give.
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Where Should the Television Go?

Put the television on the longest uninterrupted wall, and size the furniture under it to the wall rather than to the screen. A console noticeably narrower than the television looks like a mistake from every seat in the room.

What sits under the screen is really a storage decision. The four options below hold very different amounts and take up very different quantities of wall.
Amish Cambridge Tv Stand with Two Sliding Door

Television Console

A console is a low, long cabinet built to carry a screen on top with storage underneath.

It suits most living rooms, and it is the option that keeps the wall above the television free for anything else. Several of ours are offered with a choice of console configuration on the same design.

The limit is height. A low console puts the screen low, which is correct for a seated room and wrong if people watch from a kitchen island behind the sofa.
Browse television consoles
mccoy tv console in white oak with lace stain

Media Stand

A media stand is taller and usually narrower, with enclosed storage taking up more of the piece.

It suits smaller rooms and households with equipment, records or games to hide. Enclosed doors are the difference between a tidy wall and a shelf of black boxes.

The limit is screen size. A narrow stand cannot carry a wide television safely or convincingly, so measure the screen before the furniture.

Entertainment Center

An entertainment center is a wall unit, with the console as its base and bookcase towers or bridging cabinets built around it.

It suits a room where the television wall is the main wall and there is nothing else to look at. It also solves the display problem and the storage problem in one piece, which is why it costs what it does.

The limit is commitment. Some are ordered as a base with the surrounding pieces specified separately, and once the wall is built around a screen it is difficult to rearrange.
Browse entertainment
Amish Mission Stereo Cabinet with One Door and Two Drawers

Stereo Cabinet

A stereo cabinet is built for audio equipment and records rather than a screen.

It suits anyone who still has a turntable, and it keeps the components together at a height where you can use them standing up. Records are heavy, which is the reason a shelf built for them is built differently.

The limit is its range. A stereo cabinet holds audio and nothing else, so in most rooms it stands alongside a console rather than in place of one.
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What Else Does the Room Have to Do?

Most living rooms are asked to display something, store something and sleep somebody at least once a year. Those three jobs are handled by four pieces, and none of them are the ones people plan for.

Work out which of the three apply to you. A room that never has guests does not need a sleeper, and a room with nothing to display does not need glass.
gatehouse curio 745 in red oak

Curio Cabinet

A curio cabinet is glass on several sides with shelving inside, built to be looked into from across a room.

It suits collections, inherited pieces and anything that is worth seeing rather than storing. Ours come in three sizes in the same design, so a corner and a full wall can carry the same piece at different scales.

The limit is contents. A curio with three things in it looks emptier than no curio at all, so it wants a collection rather than a few objects.

Bookcases in a Living Room

A bookcase in a living room does something different from one in an office, because it is read from a seated position across the room rather than from a foot away.

It suits the wall beside a fireplace, where a pair either side is the oldest arrangement in the book and still the best one. It also absorbs the objects a curio would not suit.

The limit is depth against the wall. A deep case beside a shallow chimney breast breaks the line, so measure the breast before you choose the case.

Sleeper Sofas and Sleeper Chairs

A sleeper is a sofa or a chair with a mattress folded inside it.

It suits houses without a spare room, turning the living room into accommodation twice a year and costing nothing the rest of the time. They are built in the same hardwood frames as the rest of the seating.

The limit is weight and depth. A sleeper is heavier and deeper than the equivalent sofa, so it needs to be measured as the larger piece it is.
Browse sleepers
Amish Kingston Recliner

Occasional Chairs

An occasional chair is the seat that does not match anything, brought in for the evenings when the room is full.
It suits the corner nobody uses and the gap beside a bookcase, and it is where a different wood or a different upholstery is allowed without the room looking unplanned.

The limit is comfort. A chair chosen for how it looks is the chair a guest gets given and quietly regrets, so try it before it becomes the spare seat.
Browse chairs

Which Style Should You Choose?

A living room shows its style more clearly than any other room, because the pieces are low, spread out and seen all at once from a seated position. Wood and finish stay open across all six below, so what changes is the leg, the edge and the amount of detail on the front of a cabinet.

Pick one and let a single occasional chair break it. A room that holds one style everywhere reads as a showroom, and a room that holds four reads as an accident.
Mission

Mission

Slatted sides, square posts, flat arms. Reads heaviest of the six and suits a room with beams or brick in it.
Traditional

Traditional

Turned legs, shaped skirts, panelled cabinet fronts. The style that suits a formal front room.
Farmhouse

Farmhouse

Planked tops, chunky bases, wood grades where the character shows. Sits well with painted walls and layered textiles.
Transitional

Transitional

Familiar shapes with the detail pared back. The safest choice in a house that has not settled on a direction.
Shaker

Shaker

Straight legs, plain fronts, nothing applied. Disappears politely and lets the upholstery lead.
Contemporary

Contemporary

Thin tops, low profiles, simple hardware. Makes a small room feel larger than a heavier style will.

Fabric or Leather?

Our upholstered seating is offered in fabric or in Buckeye leather on the same hardwood frame, so this is a choice about how the piece lives rather than how it is built. Fabric is warmer, quieter and cheaper. Leather is tougher, cooler and improves with age.

The frame underneath is the same either way, which is the part that determines whether the seat is still in the room in twenty years.

What Each One Suits

Fabric suits rooms with hard floors and high ceilings, because it absorbs sound that leather reflects. It is also the warmer of the two to sit on in a cold room.

Leather suits households with children, pets and food in the living room, since it wipes rather than absorbs. It starts cool and firm and softens where it is used.

Neither wins outright. A sunny south-facing room is hard on leather, and a house with a cat is hard on fabric.

How the Wood Choice Carries Across

The upholstery is the visible half, and the wood is the half that has to agree with everything else in the room.
Our gliders and rockers are offered in six species and the tables in seven, which is why a glider and an end table bought two years apart can still be specified as the same wood and stain.

The limit is availability across pieces. Not every frame is offered in every species, so check the combination before you plan a room around it.

Adding to It Later

A living room gets completed over years, and the pieces added last are the hardest to match.

Note the species and the stain on every order, and keep the physical chip rather than the name alone. Stain names tell you very little once a piece has been in daylight for a while.

The limit is natural variation. Wood is a growing material, so a piece added later will be a close match rather than an identical one, and that is normal rather than a fault.
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Where the Living Room Meets the Dining Room

In an open-plan house, the two rooms are one sightline, and the wood and stain have to agree across both. If the dining end is still to come, it is worth specifying the two together rather than matching the second to the first.
BROWSE DINING

What Does It Cost and How Long Does It Take?

Living room tables start around $514, seating from $148 for the smallest footstools, and entertainment furniture from roughly $1,155. Most pieces are built to order and arrive in 8 to 12 weeks, with in-home setup at a flat $239.

Because this room gets furnished in stages, the delivery fee is worth planning around. One order carrying four pieces costs the same to deliver as one order carrying one.

What Happens After You Order

Lead time Most living room pieces are built to order and arrive in 8 to 12 weeks, depending on which workshop is building yours
Quick Ship
 Selected pieces and configurations ship in 3 to 5 weeks, plus two more weeks for delivery
Delivery
 Flat $239 across the lower 48, with in-home setup. Alaska and Hawaii excluded
Warranty
 One year against defects in materials and workmanship
Financing
 Available at checkout on eligible orders

Group what you can into one order and space the groups rather than the pieces. Two deliveries of three items is a better plan than six deliveries of one.

Explore more guides

The Dining Room Guide

The Dining Room Guide
The Bedroom Guide

The Bedroom Guide
The Home Office Guide

The Home Office Guide
Choosing Your Wood

Choosing Your Wood

Settle the Seating and the Rest Follows

Find the fixed points first, then place the seating against them, then size the tables to the seating rather than to the room. Choose the television wall, decide whether the room has to display or sleep anybody, and settle the wood and the upholstery last so every later piece has something to match.

If you would rather not guess, call us at 615-819-2772 with the room dimensions and where the television and the fireplace sit, and we will work out an arrangement with you.

You can also browse the full range of Amish living room furniture at your own pace, or try the recliners and gliders in our showroom on Nolensville Road. We are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, on our upholstered seating. Each piece is offered in fabric or in Buckeye leather on the same hardwood frame, chosen when you order. The frame, the species and the stain are specified separately, so the two decisions do not constrain each other.
Yes. The Shaker Gateway range includes a sleeper sofa with a 60 inch mattress and a sleeper chair with a 24 inch mattress, built on the same hardwood frames as the rest of the seating and offered in fabric or leather.
Yes. Several of our recliners are offered in three or four styles on the same frame, so the mechanism stays the same while the back, the arms and the proportions change. It means a reclining chair does not have to look like one.
At least as wide as the screen, and ideally wider. A console narrower than the television reads as a mistake from every seat in the room. Measure the screen corner to corner including the bezel rather than trusting the advertised size.
On many designs, yes. The Berkley end table comes in small, medium and large in the same design, which lets a narrow chair and a deep sofa carry matching tables at different scales.
Yes, though they do not have their own section yet. The Leda curio comes in small, medium and large, and you will find all three within the living room range. Call us if you would rather we sent the three together.
That is what it is for. The Lenexa lifts on a counterweighted mechanism so the surface comes up and forward to roughly the right height for a plate or a laptop, then lowers back to a normal coffee table.
No, and it is not ordered as one either. Wall units are built as a base with the surrounding towers and bridges specified alongside it, which is why some listings show the base on its own. Tell us the wall width and we will work out the combination.