Decor Score

Question: We are redoing our Great Room and thinking of putting a flat-screen TV over the fireplace. Since we'll mainly be looking in that one direction, it seems logical to arrange all the seats to face the fireplace, but I don't want the room to look like a movie theater. What kind of furniture do you recommend? There are five in our family and always the kids' friends, too.

Suburban Sprawl: Everyone has ample room to relax on this handsome sectional sofa.

Viva the sectional!

Seating that comes with built-in flexibility will be your best bet. You can just keep adding sections until you have space enough for everybody. Allow a few independent chairs, too, so when more friends arrive-or you prefer conversation to TV-everyone can easily pull into the grouping.

Sectionals lend themselves to cohesive arrangements, carving out a visual room-within-a-room, especially when they're underscored by an area rug. Note how neatly the cocktail table fits into the el of the four-piece sectional in the photo we show here (starring Bernhardt's Brandeis sectional; bernhardt.com).No matter where a person sits along the length of the piece, it's an easy reach to put down a drink, a dish or book on the low table or its matching end table.

Another plus: Because sectionals are open-ended-this one includes a chaise longue on one end-they attract more sitters than ordinary three-cushion sofas, in the middle seat of which nobody likes to sit. People would rather perch on the arms or back of an old-fashioned sofa than land in the center seat. Study the crowd at the next party you attend and you'll see what I mean. Sitting between two people on a regular sofa can make you feel you're watching a tennis match ... left, right, left ...