Modular vs 3+2: Which Lounge Layout Suits an Open-Plan Australian Home?

In a closed living room, the sofa furnishes the space. In an open-plan home, the sofa has to build the room first — and that changes which lounge you should buy. Most Australian homes built or renovated in the past twenty years have one long living-dining-kitchen zone, and the lounge is the only thing standing between it and a hall. This guide is about that decision: 3+2, modular, corner with chaise, or sofa bed. If you have not yet read our sofa buying guide, start there for the basics on fabric, construction and colour — this one goes straight to layout.

What open-plan asks of a sofa that a closed room never did

The sofa becomes a wall. The back of the lounge is the line that says "this is where we sit". A sofa with its back to the kitchen zones the room more effectively than a rug ever will — and it needs a walkway behind it. Our rule is 90cm of clear floor between the back of a divider sofa and whatever is behind it. Less than that and the person carrying plates to the table brushes the cushions every night.

The sofa is seen from every side. You see the back from the kitchen, the end from the hallway and the front from the television. Modulars and corner lounges with a finished back — the Brighton corner modular is photographed from the back on its product page for exactly this reason — earn their place here.

Scale is judged against the whole space. A three-seater that fills a 4m closed room looks like a bench in a 9m open-plan zone. Open plan usually wants a larger footprint for the same number of people, and that is the strongest argument for a modular.

The four layouts, by footprint

Measure your living zone — television wall to the edge of the dining table — before you compare these. Every figure below is from the product specifications so you can draw it on your plan.

3+2 suite. Two separate sofas, usually at right angles, with a coffee table between. The Ava velvet suite is our best-selling lounge of the past year and a typical footprint: the three-seater is 225cm long and 92cm deep, the two-seater 180cm by 92cm. In an L they cover roughly 225cm by 270cm including the corner gap. The advantage is flexibility — the two pieces can sit apart, face each other, or move rooms later. The disadvantage in open plan is the corner gap, which reads as a hole from the kitchen side; a side table or floor lamp fixes it.

Corner modular. One continuous L with seating on both arms. The Brighton in leather is 321cm on each side and 94cm high, with adjustable headrests and silver stainless steel legs that lift the frame off the floor. This is the layout that most clearly draws a room within a room: long side to the dining zone, short side to the television. It suits large spaces; in a zone narrower than about 4.5m it will own the floor. In genuine and split leather, black or cream, it is also the fabric choice for a divider with a kitchen on one side — see the leather lounge collection.

Corner with chaise. An L where one arm is a chaise for lying down rather than a full seating run. The Hamilton sleeper modular is 240cm long and 152cm deep at the chaise — a much smaller footprint than a full corner, which is why it is our most-ordered modular. The Savannah takes the same idea and rounds the chaise end into a sculptural curve, at 340cm long and 150cm wide at the chaise, on a solid timber frame. A chaise is the right answer for most apartments and mid-sized open-plan homes: the zoning effect of an L without giving it the floor.

Sofa bed and sofa-bed-with-chaise. A lounge first and a guest bed second. The Nora is the useful reference because the specifications give both numbers: the three-seater sofa bed is 235cm long and opens to a 145cm by 190cm bed; the two-seater with chaise is 299cm long and opens to a 124cm by 255cm bed. Sketch both states on your plan — a sofa bed that blocks the hallway when open is one you will never open.

Left-hand or right-hand chaise: decide it before you order

This catches people out because the answer depends on which way you stand. Our convention: stand facing the sofa, as if about to sit down. Chaise on your left is left-hand facing; on your right, right-hand facing. The Hamilton is ordered either way.

The chaise goes on the open side. The chaise is what people walk around, so it should point towards open floor, not a wall or a doorway. If the television is on the left as you enter and the dining table on the right, the chaise almost always belongs on the right, so the long back forms the divider.

Draw it, then walk it. Tape the footprint on the floor — the full 240cm by 152cm of the Hamilton — and walk from the kitchen to the television as you would at night with the lights off. If you clip the tape, swap sides or choose a smaller layout.

Television, conversation and the angle problem

Face the television with the long run, not the chaise. The long seating run should be square to the screen so four people can watch without craning; the chaise is for the person lying down and can sit at a right angle.

The 3+2 wins on conversation. Two sofas at right angles give a conversation angle a single L cannot — people on a long modular run sit in a line and talk sideways. If the zone is mostly for people rather than screens, the suite is the better layout, and the Ava's swivel armchair turns to face whichever conversation is happening.

Recliners change the depth you need. The Cleo boucle electric modular is built from four components — two powered corner recliners, a corner piece and an armless seat — and the recliners tilt back at the touch of a button with powered headrests. It measures 295cm by 296cm, and a reclined seat needs clear floor behind it — if the Cleo is the divider, the 90cm walkway is a minimum. Its boucle is soft to sit on and forgiving in charcoal; in light grey, with a dog, it is a commitment. See the fabric lounge collection for the boucle and linen-look ranges.

Modular means you can change your mind later

The word gets used loosely. A true modular is a set of independent pieces that connect in more than one arrangement; a "modular" that arrives as one fixed L is a corner lounge. The distinction matters because families change shape.

The Cleo reconfigures. Its armless seat can be added anywhere in the arrangement, so the L you buy for a first apartment can flex into a different shape in the next house. That is a lounge that survives a move.

The Hamilton is a fixed L. Its chaise pulls out to a bed and it is ordered left- or right-hand facing, but its L is its L. Choose it when the room is settled and you want the seamless line of a single piece. The Brighton sits between the two — a corner configuration in sections; ask in store how they separate.

Modulars are the tight-access lounge. A fixed three-seater with rolled arms needs a doorway of roughly 80cm and a clear turning path; a modular arrives in sections that fit through a standard door, up a stair landing and into a lift. The Cleo requires sofa and leg assembly on arrival for the same reason. If you are in an apartment or a townhouse with a tight staircase, tell us.

Guests: the sofa bed is a lounge with a second job

A good sofa bed in the living zone is the answer for homes without a guest room, and the modern ones are lounges first.

The Hamilton hides its bed under the chaise. The L-shaped sleeper converts by a pull-out mechanism, and the storage ottoman — 88cm by 58cm — keeps the guest bedding out of sight the rest of the year. Upholstery is a soft Nubuck fabric over a harvested-timber frame, in light grey or dark grey.

The Ava puts the bed in a velvet suite. Black, dark grey or champagne velvet with gold trims, matching cushions included, and a sofa-bed mechanism in the three-seater. The velvet is a flat pile chosen for its resistance to the friction of repeated conversion — the lounge for the open-plan home where the living zone is the first thing visitors see. The velvet lounge collection and our fabric lounge care guide cover what it is like to live with.

The Nora gives you the numbers. Two pillows with every piece and a 190cm-long bed from the three-seater. If a guest will sleep on it more than a dozen nights a year, choose by the bed dimensions first. Browse the sofa bed collection and the chaise sofa beds to compare.

Anchoring the zone: rug, coffee table, storage

The rug defines the edge. In open plan the rug does what the walls used to. It should be large enough that at least the front legs of every seat sit on it — for a corner modular that usually means 240cm by 340cm or larger. A rug that floats in front of the sofa with every leg off it makes the zone look temporary. See the rug collection for the sizes we stock.

The coffee table should suit the layout, not just the sofa. Inside an L, a round or oval table keeps corners out of the walkway. A nesting set such as the Layla nesting coffee table lets you pull one table out towards the chaise and keep the other in the centre. Our coffee table size and height guide has the numbers; the coffee and side tables collection has the pieces.

Storage on the open side. A divider modular has a back on show and nowhere to put things down. A slim console behind the sofa, or a low entertainment unit beneath the television, gives the zone its hard edges. An ottoman inside the L adds a seat without another arm in the walkway. Our luxury living room ideas page walks through complete open-plan schemes.

Bring your floor plan, then come and sit on it

June is when many households finally make the lounge decision they have been putting off, and the mistake we see most often is the same every year: a lounge chosen from a photograph that did not fit the zone it was meant to define. Everything here comes down to two measurements — the living zone and the walkway behind the sofa — and both are easier to check with the piece in front of you.

Every layout above is on the floor in our four showrooms, seven days a week: Braybrook, Dandenong South and Truganina in Melbourne, and Auburn in Sydney. Bring your floor plan with the living zone measured, a photo of the space from the kitchen looking towards the television, and your doorway widths. Lie on the chaise, recline the Cleo, pull out the Hamilton's bed. If the honest answer is a chaise rather than the full corner you had in mind, we will say so. Start with the lounge collection and the modular lounge collection, shortlist two, then come and sit on them.