Q: I'm hoping someone can help me with ideas for harmonizing my L-shaped living/dining room - especially with carpet/curtain/wall color ideas to harmonize my black leather couches and lighter wood furniture. I'm interested in eco-friendly products esp for carpeting and would love suggestions on that. Admittedly I think I have way too much furniture in general and recognize the need to downsize the clutter!
Sent by Sarah
Editor: Sarah- It's hard to tell without a floorplan, but the furniture arrangement doesn't seem that functional, at least in terms of the TV placement. Right now, the placement of the couch between the bookcases seems crowded, and the art is rather high (though that might be because of that cute little one on the floor). Some closed storage might be useful for you- if those are Ikea bookcases, you can buy doors that fit which would be a good alternative.
We like the carpet you have in the living room right now, but if you're looking for a replacement, Flor carpet tiles might meet your needs because they are so customizable. Readers, do you have any recommendations for Sarah and her family?
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Comments (9)
Here are some ideas:
Put all the bookshelves (assuming they're moveable) all the way to the left of the wall they're on, or maybe one on the wall opposite of it, and put comfy chair next to them to create a reading nook. Put the loveseat so its back creates an imaginary wall that separates the reading-nook area from the living area. Put the TV either between the windows or in the corner where the solo bookshelf is, and put the black chair approximately where the loveseat is. Use the area rug between the TV, chairs, and loveseat. That way, you can look out the window or watch TV from the couch and chairs, and you can see the TV from multiple locations in the room. Find some bold, colorful art work (child's art work?) for the wall above where the chair would be, and move the smaller pictures to a smaller wall.
When you do rearrange/redecorate, please post new photos. :)
asdf3001 has given you a great start and I would add
if it is financially feasible to get bookshelves that only go half way up the wall. The Ikea Billy bookcase series comes with lots of options, are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased with doors. Tall bookcases are very dangerous with little ones who love to climb. They can topple over even if attached with a tether to the wall. An accident waitin to happen...plus it will open up your space to use bookcases at half the current height.
Ditto on the great ideas by asdf3001. It looks from the pics like the cabinet and shelves in the dining area are a little empty. Is it possible you can consolidate all the stuff so you need less furniture/shelving in this space? Also, I agree the rugs are fine, but the one in the living room is kind of just floating in the middle and would probably look better under the chairs to tie all that furniture together. The rug under the dining table is too small. Some charcoal or red cushions on the dining chairs would help harmonize the space with the living room. Finally, some new curtains may help. The windows are beautiful and a nice, rich color running along the wall would help unify the space too. All this said, I think your space is very nice and neat. Good luck!
Figuring out your seating arrangement will be much easier without having to take the bookcases into account. First thing I'd do is sell them. Then I'd put up shelves all the way across the upper part of that wall.
Different curtains that pick up a color in the rug (which I agree is fine) would balance it. And if it's possible, I'd think about selling the armchair and replacing it with something lighter, leggier and more modern. It plus the loveseat plus the bookcases just make the room feel really heavy.
A floorplan would definitely help. Also, what you have looks usable it just needs re-arranging. You mention you'd like eco-friendly suggestions, and one of the greenest things you can do is Reuse what you already have, especially since it looks pretty nice.
move those book cases out of the living room and put all of your storage along that under used wall beyond the dining table.
it would be best to have some sort of unified storage furniture along that wall, but just getting all of that stuff out of the living room will help a lot
You've hit on the right idea with the word "harmonize". This space has no harmony. I mean, you have three different styles of shelving in the same room! Of course it looks fragmented!
Get rid of all of the bookcases and replace then with built-in shelves, situated in the niche near the dining table - it could almost have been made for built-in shelves. Get some cabinet doors from IKEA for the bottom shelves so that your baby can't get into them or climb it.
If necessary buy some storage furniture - wooden chests, big lidded baskets, small low IKEA cabinets - to store toys and other items unsuitable for the shelves.
As for the layout, I'm assuming that there's a door in the middle of the wall adjacent to the TV. That makes arrangement difficult. Shifting the TV to the opposite wall might make it more visible to the couch. Alternately if you swap it with the armchair, then turn the armchair to face the windows, that might work.
I like the existing rug and the wood floors, and the matt black furniture is fairly low-key. The whole room has a rather Scandinavian retro vibe for me. I think if you introduce other large scale, colourful objects into the room (big artworks or artwork clusters, rugs, a potted tree etc) it will balance out the furniture.
I like the gauzy white curtains - perhaps just tart them up with a fine strip of colour down one edge? Something that matches the rug. I also like the plain white walls - it's that Scandinavian thing again.
As others have said, it's hard to tell without a floor plan, since we're not sure the exact space you have to rearrange...that said, what about putting the sofa with its back to the table and perhaps with a console (sofa) table behind it. this would create serving space for the dining area and a visual barrier between the two space. That would also free up the wall the sofa is currently on to move the TV to a more functional spot. The chair could stay in its current location, but maybe pulled out from the wall a bit to let those curtains flow. I agree that I like that rug, but if you want eco-friendly, FLOR uses recycled materials in many of their products, not to mention being kid friendly since if your child destroys one spot you can simply replace that one tile. I also think you could use some more color, either on the walls, while keeping your current drapes, or if you're not wanting to paint, get some more colorful curtains to enliven the space. As others have said, I think that unifying the storage a bit will also help harmonize the space.
Lots of good suggestions here...good luck!
From a Feng Shui stand point this room seems to be a little bit to cluttered since it is multi functional (kids play room, den, living room, etc.) A reading might be the way to go. In Feng Shui your house has a great impact on your health, prosperity and luck. Based on the sitting and facing of your home a compass reading with an exact 15degree direction needs to be established, then by knowing the year of construction energy patterns can be mathematically determine which colors to use as far as wall colors/ fabric colors. Feng Shui can help you providing the best environment for you and your family. A floor plan is needed since your l-shaped dining room is just one part of your home. Stay away from Feng Shui books because they do only approach the Feng Shui from a New Age aspect which is not valid and will only lead to wishful thinking.