Rising industrialization, urbanization, and population growth have impacted rural and mountainous spatial paradigms, leading to fragmented village layouts and ecological degradation, profoundly affecting the Quality of Rural Life (QRL). Although the Chinese government has issued many policies and regulations, most do not target the improvement of QRL, resulting in implementation challenges and social controversy. This study develops a QRL model that quantitatively links external spatial factors to QRL outcomes at the village scale. Using the Shuicheng District in the Wumeng mountainous region in China as a case study, we employed a positivist quantitative approach, combining structured resident surveys, geospatial data collection, and regression analysis to identify key spatial determinants of QRL. Results indicate that the proportion of arable land and distance to nearest town are the most significant spatial predictors of QRL, while factors such as distance to cities and irrigation water sources showed limited influence. The model offers a practical decision-support tool for improving village site selection and layout planning, helping to mitigate the issues of the low rural living quality caused by irrational land layout. This research contributes to rural revitalization efforts and supports more sustainable, QRL-centered development strategies in mountainous regions.