How to Work a Long Skinny Room

The key to successfully staging a long room is to not try to make it look like one continuous space. Instead, consider what uses the room may have and then break it up into a couple of different zones. For example, one side may be for entertaining guests, so it could contain a small couch and a couple of chairs facing each other with the fireplace as the focal point. The other side may be used for TV watching and lounging, so it would have a sectional sofa and a television cabinet. You can physically divide the two spaces by using a console table or a room screen, or you could just use area rugs with different patterns in coordinating colors to clearly define each space.

It's important when considering furniture placement to identify traffic patterns within the room. For example, you wouldn't want the main traffic route to the television area to cut through the entertaining area, so you would need to keep this in mind when arranging the entertaining area. You also wouldn't want to put the TV on a main traffic path, unless you want some agitated viewers. And here's an important design tip: In order to minimize the awkwardness of the room, don't face any furniture toward the short walls.

The best place to start decorating your long, narrow room is at the focal point. Do you have a fireplace, or a window with a great view? Built-in cabinetry or a stunning piece of furniture or art? If the room doesn't have a natural focal point, you can create your own. You want to ensure the eye will be drawn to a great feature of the room, which will help distract from the fact that its silhouette closely resembles a hallway. A word of caution: You definitely don't want the focal point to be on the end wall -- this will just accentuate the shape of the room.

Paint is a great way to help shape up an awkward room, too. Cool, light colors make the walls seem like they're receding, so they're best used on the long walls. Warm, dark colors will work best on the shorter walls to make them seem like they're advancing toward you, and this combo will help to visually balance out the room. Also, a linear arrangement of bookshelves on the short wall is a great way to make it look a little wider.

Lighting is another way to trick the eye into thinking the space is less awkwardly shaped. Recessed lighting creates pools of brighter light that help your eye focus on smaller areas of the room, rather than viewing the room as a whole. It can also be directed toward items in the room that you want to draw attention to, such as a collection or a piece of art.