2. Place furniture in a corner arrangement with the foot traffic angling across open space. In this living room, the door opens right into one side, and a console table keeps you from walking straight down that side. But because the furniture has been placed in a nice conversational grouping in one corner, people can easily walk through the room past the furniture at an angle across the carpet.

They were wise to avoid trying to put another chair in here, which would have made the pass-through too tight a squeeze. The screen in the corner is also a nice touch in a narrow space because it visually changes the shape of the room a bit, rounding out the corner.

Tip: Just say “no” to too many pieces of furniture. We are often tempted to cram in an extra chair for the maximum seating, even when we only have guests a very small percentage of the time. Instead, consider double-duty pieces like the ottoman in the above photo which can work as seating when extra people are there.