How to make room for a majlis in a flat
How to seat guests in a flat with low seating, cushions and a rug, taking ideas from the majlis.
Many homes in the Gulf have a space set aside for welcoming guests, called a majlis. Plenty of people in flats want to bring some of that welcome into a smaller home, and it takes less room than you might think.
What a majlis is
UNESCO added the majlis to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2015, as a cultural and social space, after a joint nomination by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. It describes a sitting place, typically a large room with carpets on the floor and cushions along the walls, usually with a stove for coffee and hot drinks.
It’s more than a room. People gather there to talk about local events, exchange news, receive guests, offer condolences and hold wedding receptions. How a family arranges and uses theirs is theirs to decide, and this guide doesn’t try to say how it should be done. It’s about the furniture and the floor space, for anyone who wants a room that works for hosting.
Why a flat is a different problem
A flat usually can’t spare a large room. The practical question is how to seat a good number of people in a room that also has to do everyday jobs.
Seat people around the edges
Seating around the walls, facing inward, keeps the middle open and lets everyone see each other. In a flat, that tends to mean:
- A low sofa or a run of floor seating along one or two walls. An L shape fills a corner well.
- Floor cushions that can sit against the wall when nobody’s there and come out when people are.
- A big rug under the front of the seating, so that everyone sitting is on something soft.
As a rule of thumb, allow around 60 cm of seat width per person. That’s a loose figure, so adjust it for how your family and guests like to sit.
Somewhere to put the coffee
Guests need somewhere to put a cup. A low table in the middle is one answer. A tray on a small stool, or a narrow console against the wall, also works and leaves more floor free. If you’ll serve something to eat with the coffee, a small dish needs a spot too.
As another rule of thumb, keep a walkway of about 80 to 90 cm to the door and to wherever the coffee is made, so the person serving doesn’t have to step over anyone’s feet.
Plan for more seats than you use
This is a hosting tip rather than a tradition. Guests arrive in different numbers than expected, so it helps to have extras that live somewhere out of the way: stools, poufs and floor cushions that stack, or ottomans that double as storage.
Light it warmly
Lamps at a low height, in a warm white, make the room feel like a gathering place after dark.
For help with distances, the spacing rules for a small room cover the walkways and rug sizes that apply here too.
