Furniture layout is the practical translation of a floor plan into livable space. It answers: where does each piece go, how does the eye move through the room, how does a person move through the room, and where do the conversation, viewing, and traffic zones sit?
A few principles that underlie good layouts. Conversation zones work when the seating is close enough to talk without raising your voice (call it 8 feet or less between people facing each other). Traffic flow needs at least 30 inches of clear path through main routes. TV viewing distances depend on screen size (a rough rule: distance in feet ≈ screen diagonal in inches divided by 8 to 12). And no single piece of furniture should block the natural traffic line into and through the room.
Furniture layout software — including AI-driven planners — can generate viable layouts quickly given a room shape and a list of pieces. The output is best treated as a starting point rather than a final answer; layouts also need to feel right when you stand in the room, which is something the software can't fully evaluate.