I’ve never truly loved my family room. I’m holding out love waiting for new furniture after the kids are a bit older. For now, I’m making do with black leather bachelor furniture that came with the husband almost 12 years ago. I figured they’ve both lasted this long, sooooooo… lol.
Do you have a room like this? It’s a room that leads to other rooms resulting in a lack of wall space and awkward traffic patterns. When you have French doors, a large entry way from another room, and lots of windows, you have fewer options.
If sans kids, I’d pull the furniture away from the walls and really have some fun with it, but for now we need room for rumpus play.
First, the layout – it was a bit off balance to allow for free flowing traffic through the living room in the warmer months, and so the big chair could be by the corner windows.
Before
Now here’s the tweaked arrangement – we brought up a mildly attractive area rug from the basement in an attempt to better balance the room. I think a larger rug would be more effective, but the price was right for this one {wink}. I’m holding out on any shopping for this room til I get to do the whole room they way I want to.
After
Now for some “real” pictures. Note that we also tweaked the tired old mantel display. We used existing frames I found in the basement and printed out some vacation pictures in black and white. I also spotted a couple lovely black and white vases that I brought up. Plus we pulled out a few minor Halloween décor items (copper pumpkins).
First, the view from the kitchen:
Before
After
And now, the view from the Living room.
Before
After
Just for kicks, here’s how it looked before we moved in (saved the old MLS listing photos – that’s all I ever saw before moving in – hubby picked out the house without me):
MLS Photo - Waaaay Before!
I guess the moral of the story (if there is one) is always check in your basement before you go shopping!
What “use what you have” stories to you have?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I have an open floor plan so I know how hard furniture placement can be. To top it off, I have a 90″ picture window taking up one wall (with a baseboard heater strip below it). That pretty much renders the wall useless for the sofa or chair. I put a sofa table in that space with some light loving plants on it. I am always moving stuff around looking for “the perfect layout.” One of these days I am going to have an ah-ha moment and that will be it.
Big improvement! I do this for clients but find it’s much harder to do it in my own home. So hats off to you! BTW, I just added a heavy-duty shelf in my basement that’s dedicated to my “rotating” decor items. So I do feel like I can go shopping in my basement!
Hi Mary – I think it would be ok to put a sofa in front of a window – at least in summer. Wouldn’t want to block the heat in winter though! Meanwhile, keep moving it around…at least it keeps it interesting!
Diane – thank you for acknowledging the challenge of doing your own home! Love the shopping shelf idea – hey, you should blog about that!
Love your re-design with what ya got! I have switched the items I have from one room to another many times and then find it was just what the space needed!
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I do have an idea you’ve never tried, but you didn’t mark the registers.
Looks much better. I used to do this all the time too, moving and moving things around until they fit just right. I’m a big proponent of setting things on the diagonal in any difficult room. Doesn’t always work but it’s always where I start because it’s the most creative way. If that doesn’t work then you don’t spend so much time stressing your brain for new ideas. You did a great job.
Hi Mom – we have baseboard heating which is along the left wall as you face the fireplace. Looking forward to your visit and hearing your idea!
Cherry – thanks! I love using angles! I’ve done a couple angled arrangements in this room, but keep coming back to whatever allows the most room for wild rompus play for now. Some day! {sigh}