One of the things that should be on your mind when you think about how your living room will look is symmetry. The placement of living room furniture and other items in this space can play a critical role in whether the room looks symmetrical or not. While your room doesn't have to be perfectly symmetrical to the point that one side is a mirror image of the other side, you generally want to ensure that there's some sort of visual balance. For example, you don't want all of the furniture at one end of the room with the other end left open, as this will make the former end feel heavy. One way to achieve visual symmetry is to buy pairs of certain pieces of living room furniture.

Side Chairs

While a lot of people will buy one side chair for their living room, think about buying a pair if space allows. Having a pair of these identical chairs will not only provide more seating options for your family and your visitors, but will also help you to achieve visual symmetry. There are many different ways to situate the chairs. For example, if you have a sofa on one side of the room, you might think about placing the two chairs on the other side to help balance the space visually.

End Tables

Buying a pair of end tables for your living room offers a lot of functionality. There will be more places for your guests to set down their glasses, as well as for you to hold books, magazines, and other items. In terms of visual symmetry, having two end tables will work well. If you were to have just one table at one end of a sofa, you'd fail to achieve your goal of a symmetrical look. You can create symmetry, however, by having a table at each end of the sofa.

Ottomans

Another idea to consider is buying a pair of ottomans to use in your living room. In many layouts, it's easy to add two of these pieces of furniture. For example, you can simply place one in front of one sofa and the other in front of the other sofa. Other options, depending on the layout of the room, could be to use one ottoman in front of a sofa and another in front of a side chair.

Visit a furniture store in your community to look at its selection of living room furniture and consider what items you can buy in pairs to create visual symmetry.