For many of us, the living room is often the center of the home. Whether watching television on Sundays or having intimate conversations with friends and loved ones while relaxing on the couch, the living room is a cross between comfort and casual congregation. According to consumer data from Statista, the living room furniture market reached a revenue of $223.6 billion in 2024, with researchers expecting continuous growth at an annual rate of 4.07% until 2029. This shows how much homeowners value making their living room perfect.
At the same time, the living room — or often, the living room couch — is also a staple on television screens. In particular, many iconic sofas in TV shows can be associated with the sitcom genre. Understandably, as these types of television shows often feature larger ensembles, furniture pieces like a living room couch are usually the only physical spaces that can accommodate many characters in one scene.
Among the many kinds of living room couches, one stands out among the usual silhouettes. While the stark, orange-colored Chesterfield couch will forever be associated with the Friends gang’s favorite hangout spot, Central Perk, you may be hard-pressed to think of where you may have seen the unique silhouette of the L-shaped sofa. Still, if you know where to look, the L-shaped sectional has made its mark in some of television’s most beloved shows. Below, we’ll look at some of the most iconic L-shaped sofas featured in TV shows:
New Girl
A hallmark 2010s sitcom, New Girl was led by actress Zooey Deschanel and the three single guys her character moves in with after a rough breakup. With four people — and the occasional guest star or two — sharing the loft apartment, one of the central locations of the show is the L-shaped couch. While an L-shaped couch is often associated with luxury and richer characters, New Girl’s set design does a great job of covering up the L-shaped couch with a bunch of surrounding furniture so that it doesn’t stand out, keeping a sense of organized clutter expected of a shared living space.
For those looking to get the look of the loft in New Girl, sticking with the warm beige color palette contrasted with a blue paint job will get a similar feel. Similarly, the brown leather L-shaped couches from Living Spaces will complete the warm look of the New Girl loft. A good match would be the Lukas Caramel Brown Faux Leather set. Of course, you can always put your own twist on the color scheme by going for cooler sofa colors and complementing it with a monochromatic palette if you’re gunning for a more minimalist look.
Arrested Development
Another TV appearance for the L-shaped couch is the cult classic sitcom Arrested Development. The now 20-year-old Arrested Development is a blueprint for the “riches to rags” TV trope later picked up by newer shows like Schitt’s Creek and 2 Broke Girls. As such, a set design featuring the luxurious L-shaped couch may come as no surprise, considering the upper-class background of the show’s characters. However, the L-shaped couch, in this case, isn’t technically a highlight of the show. In fact,
Still, the L-shaped couch appears in the model home where the Bluths live and is used as a corner sofa. The couch is complemented by a coffee table throughout the show where George Michael Bluth and Maeby typically do homework and share conversations. The L-shaped couch is almost similarly colored to Lucille’s couch, with a slightly darker tint, with an out-of-place single red cushion as an accent piece—a nod to the Bluths’ financial downfall and inability to style and decorate their home to their liking.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Finally, while not technically a sitcom, a reality television show following Hollywood’s most chaotic family can arguably be viewed as one at times. In a previous post, we covered Kim Kardashian’s second baby bar failure as she discussed her frustrations of fulfilling her dream of becoming a criminal lawyer. Kardashian needed a 560 out of 800 to pass and scored a 463, which she admitted was “a little bit worse” than the first time. In many aspects, the Kardashians are precisely the kind of family to own an L-shaped couch or two… or three.
Like the Bluths in Arrested Development, the Kardashians are mega-rich. As such, the L-shaped couch is a no-brainer piece of furniture for the family, just as it was with the Bluths, even if under different circumstances. Throughout the run of the Kardashians’ show, viewers have had a view of the many homes and living rooms of the Ks, and more times than one, an L-shaped couch has taken the spotlight, featuring different shades and materials.
