If you’re thinking about rearranging your furniture in the near future, or you’re moving into a new space, keep these two rules in mind when deciding where to place everything.

1. Create two entries: Each seating area (if your space is big enough to have more than one) should be accessible via two different pathways. This way when you have guests over and you move from the living room to dining room or living room to kitchen table you won’t have a bottleneck of people trying to change locations.
2. 18-inches is the magic number: That’s how much space should be between each piece of furniture (think sofa and coffee table or sofa and accent chair) so guests can comfortably pass between the two pieces.