apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have been struggling with my own living room for over a year now so I have great sympathy. I can't really tell how large the room is but it does feel like the sofas are overwhelming it. At the same time there seems to be a good bit of unused space behind the sofa where the brown drapes are.
Can you break the room up into separate areas? Maybe place the smaller sofa in front of the fireplace with side tables or an ottoman style table. Put the armchair to the right of the fireplace where the windows are.
Or perhaps try placing the entertainment pieces in front of the partial wall where the sofa sits now. That would take the stereo stuff out of the main view and also open the room up a bit.

Those two suggestions don't really jibe with one another, but right now it feels like the room is just a space with all the furniture pushed against the walls. You aren't getting the most out of the wonderful windows in the corners, the fireplace or the partition wall. There are so many great decorating things you could do with that open space in the partial wall. And I assume the sliding doors are behind the brown curtains. Why are you hiding them? Unless they are hideous they should be seen as an asset. I would kill for that much light. I'm in a basement apartment that faces north.


I would also get rid of the dark brown curtains. They suck the life out of that room. They also contribute to the feeling of a hodgepodge of decor. Better to have less and have some continuity of style. Why not duplicate what you've done with the windows? It's not stunning, but it is light and airy and doesn't detract from the room. Those brown curtains are, well, pretty awful.

Here is a possible layout for you. Down the road think about purchasing smaller scale furniture for that room.

Put tv where large couch currently is located.
To the right of tv put large plant to block view of tv when
you walk into home.
Loveseat cattycorner where chair is--put large plant or table
behind loveseat to fill dead space.
Chair now goes to the left of tv.
Large couch goes where loveseat was and push back a foot
and purchase a narrow sofa table to go behind large couch.
I would paint brick a soft white and put up thick, wooden
shelves for display to the left of fireplace to help balance
that wall.

Good Luck!
Tracy @
http://www.dailydecorator.com

I would remove the chair or the loveseat if you can part with one of them. Then I'd get a big ottoman (or maybe two small ottomans) to replace the coffee table, because it can be used as seating when the need arises.

There aren't a lot of good options for your TV, so if it must stay in the room, I think I'd leave it where it is but maybe move the speakers to a less obvious location. Hang the TV if possible. Now center the sofa on the TV/fireplace area, facing it, and closer to it so that there's a traffic way opened up behind, not through, the seating arrangement. Place the loveseat or chair at a right angle to the sofa, next to the corner window, with the end table at the corner where they meet.

If or when you have the budget to replace the furniture, look for pieces that are a little smaller in scale and with legs to lift the bulk off the floor. And I agree with bb99 about the brown drapes on the sliders. Remove them or get drapes that match the white ones on the other windows. You're lucky to have all that light!

I like the idea of white in this room. A little more would be nice. Maybe a white ottoman or a white area rug. Good luck!

http://inspiredroomdesign.com

The brown curtains are over the sliding doors.

The reason the TV is in that location is because of all the cable hook ups and outlets. I've been thinking about painting the fireplace and hanging the TV on it as well, as the cables would still be close to the connections. If I were to move the TV to the pass through behind where the couch is now, how is the cable jack usually addressed?

With all the home and decorating blogs and sites, I was surprised how hard it was to find living rooms with both a fireplace and TV.

To bb99, the reason the drapes and blinds are closed is because we're in a heat wave in LA so it helps keep the house cool. I should have submitted photos with them open but I didn't think of that.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I hate the humps on each side of the fireplace. Any suggestions for that?
- Tran

Hi tran, to fully address your dilemma, how important is the role of your television in the living room? Is it more of a media room, or would you like the emphasis to be on conversation and gatherings?

I tend to agree with bb99. The architecture of the room means little can be against the walls. Te wall where the sofa is currently could have a low credenza or low and long bookcase with a flat screen mounted to the wall. Don't have anything compete with the fireplace. Can you paint it white? Anyway, I like chairs on either side of it and forward. Somehow with carpet and objects, the room can be devided some into two ares of focus. Must keep the flow coming in when you walk through the front door... no sudden skid stop! LOL. Good luck!

Does your eating area have more wall space? Would there be room and wall space there for the couch or love seat and the tv? Then you could move the dining area into the larger space with a small sitting space next to it.

This might mess up the flow from the kitchen--I can't tell from the pictures--but it's a thought.

The cable company can put new jacks in on a different wall--it'll cost you a little bit, but might be worth it.

Hi again. If you don't want to pay to have the jacks moved you can get acceptable covers of all kinds for cable lines and just run them along the corners of the wall and ceiling. It's not great but if there are better things going on in the room people aren't really going to be paying that much attention. Is this your own home or a rental? That would make a difference as far as what you can or should do.

I agree with everyone about painting the fireplace surround white. Or any color. Maybe the a soft green, pale and almost yellow? The bumps are just great anything spaces. If they're wide enough put cushions on them. Or great pieces of pottery. Or build a set of small shelves going up the sides of the fireplace to meet the mantle and use it for books or tchotkes you want to display. Something that can handle heat, if you are going to use the fireplace. Ikea also has rather narrow, small shelving units. You could measure and see if they would fit.

As far as the brown curtains, I understand about the heat. I have the same issue on the other coast. However, unless they are white on the back they are drawing more heat into your place as dark colors absorb more heat. If you want curtains to block the heat and still let in the light you should look at Ikea. They have great, heavy weight curtains that will do the trick. I know. I have some.

I agree with everyone that when it's possible you should look at downsizing your furniture. I've outfitted my 500 sq ft apt with a great modern Ikea sofa and chair for the grand total of $150 from shopping craigslist. It is the best resource for replacing useful things on a tight budget. Even if you don't change up the furnishings investing in different covers would be a step up. Getting something a bit more form fitting, no skirts, would improve things. The furniture looks sort of big and lumpy in part cause the covers don't do a thing for them.

The idea of doing a graph paper layout and playing with it is a really good one. Another piece to add in is to pick one piece of furniture, any piece, and decide where you want it to live. If you start from one central idea the rest often follows logically.

And I think the idea of a credenza in the spot with the pass thru window is a great idea. Something slim in depth but a place you could put a lot of the entertainment stuff. There is a reason ppl hide that stuff in pieces of furniture, it is rarely attractive. Unless you are doing a room in industrial motif, of course.

Oh, duh. No mantle. Well, you get the idea. Maybe put in a mantle. heh.

Whatever's under those slipcovers can't be worse than the slipcovers.

I hate it when they don't fit, it reminds me of people wearing clothing 5 sizes too big or recently losing a lot of weight and carrying around a lot of extra skin.

To answer questions:

- I own (just recently moved in, can you tell?)
-

Heathereve: This is the entire downstairs (the upstairs is all bedrooms, bathrooms and hallway) and it is open (that pass through wall is the only divider). So this is where we hang out, relax, watch TV (ie. there is no sitting room or family room)

kellyk: Contacting the cable company to move the jack is a great idea. The dining area cannot be swapped with the living room because it has a chandelier in the ceiling and bar counter that segues from the kitchen. I own, so no restrictions (well almost none, budget maybe). Do you think white curtains will look sterile? I have another set of sliding doors to the right of those (in dining area), so it would almost be a wall of white curtains. Do you think it would look like a hospital?

bb99: And I like the idea of painting the fireplace. I've been thinking about that for a while. It really is an ugly fireplace, it doesn't have a mantle (well a really low ledge), the bricks are in a grid pattern, and the stupid humps. I've thought about cutting the humps off with a sawzall but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on making the humps work. The cushions and shelves are a great idea. The slip covers are in thanks to my active, energenic, crazy dogs (border collies). They are washed often, but could look into more form fitting ones. Or new furniture with new ground rules for pets on furniture :-)

And regarding a credenza on the pass through wall, do you guys mean to block the open pass through hole area with the TV? Then you'd have to see the back of the TV from the kitchen. Or get a really low one (like I have now) so it sits under the pass through opening?

What do you guys think about mounting the TV on the fireplace?

And I like the idea of separating the space into different zones. The main one would gather around fireplace, what would the other ones be? Just little conversation areas?

Thanks for you suggestions, keep them coming!

- Tran

Hey Tran,

I love all the windows!

I'm just learning about decorating myself, so I don't have a ton of ideas for you. I think that white curtains will only look sterile if you have white curtains, walls, ceilings, floors and furniture. If you can add colour with accent pieces that you like, the curtains will be a great background, and not a sterilizing agent.

My mum just swapped her coloured curtains for white, and the light in the room is much better. It also is less of a distraction than the coloured curtains that she had.

I have seen TVs mounted above fireplaces before and some of them work really well. You'll have to make sure that the height is just right, so that you aren't straining your necks by looking up, and that the heat from the fireplace won't affect the TV. It would free up lots of space for you if you could have some floating shelves for the dvd player, etc as well....not sure where. Sorry.

Oh and I love the idea Daily Decorator had about moving the loveseat to where the armchair is right now. It looks like it would fit well there, and it would free up tons of space visually.

Have fun!

Hi. For starters here's a link to Ikea curtains. You asked about white curtains everywhere and my inexpensive answer is Ikea. They have the best prices and very good quality fabrics. There are a lot of options and you could possible afford to change up all the curtains with one design from these choices:http://tinyurl.com/y8cwcp6. The Lenda is a nice low cost choice and the Stockholm Blad is a costlier but classy option.

Or give the walls some paint and have white curtains. One of the basics of decorating is that paint is the cheapest design fix possible. Since nearly all the decent paint manufacturers now offer small sample pots you can really play around to find the colors you like.

I understand about the dogs and furniture. I have 2 cats and 1 dog and they have everywhere privileges. I have been putting blankets on the furniture but realized that what I want to do is pick up a heavy fabric, sew long, well, flat cushion type things without any really cushion inside, and lay them out on the seating part of the furniture. If I make them deep enough I can tuck them back under the seat cushions. They will keep the general pet 'dust' off the seats but I can have fabric that looks like it was made for the room/furniture. As it is right now the room looks like a dorm room for 8 years olds who just had a sleep over.

I don't think the back of the tv is going to be what you want to watch when you eat so probably a low credenza would be the answer. I think, heat taken into account, that tv's over fireplaces look ok. If it were mounted with shelves running up either side it might not look quite like a large black rectangle staring at the room. If you aren't going to pull it out from the wall on an arm you could build a frame around it. My take on obtrusive things that you can't do without is to either hide them completely or else make them fun. An old bf once painted the shadows on the wall behind some bathroom pipes so that even if the shadows weren't there (obviously depending on light/time of day) there were always shadows. He added a subtle, barely perceptible face on them and they were beautiful and made me laugh every time I looked at them. It's sort of the loft concept of allowing the skeleton to show instead of tucking it politely away.

Btw, if you do put in shelves beside the fireplace there is probably a way to install a deeper mantel utilizing the shelving as brackets. A removable built in, essentially.

I can't figure out how I'd set up your room so I'm going to stay mum. I do know that playing with paper representations on a drawing does help sort out at least the options that won't work. It's also kind of fun. Like paper dolls for grownups. (well, I mostly hated paper dolls but you get the idea.)

All my current curtains are from Ikea (white ones are Ofelia Rund and brown ones are Merete). The sliding doors are going to be grommet curtains for sure since they are opened/unopened constantly. The Merete ones were the only affordable ones that were long and wide enough for the doors. The reason I chose brown for those was to offset all the white (all the light makes the white curtains glow bright). I think the curtains look decent but nobody else thinks so :)

I also painted the sliding door wall a different color than the rest to make it an accent wall (since behind it is a view of a small brick patio and a hilly incline, I thought the greenish hue would segue nicely). It is Behr Mochachino. The rest of the living room/downstairs is Behr Wheat Bread (which turned out more gray than I expected). Previously, the entire downstairs was painted yellow and you needed sunglasses to be in the house (if you're interested in pics, I can send).

My idea: First loose the striped chair and the brown curtains. Then place the two tan/brown sofas across from each other with the coffee table in the middle and the fireplace at the end.

Then I'd either put the tv up on the wall next to the fireplace, I'd put those speakers as far from each other as possible (perhaps in the corners where the corner windowsa are) Then I'd get a smaller white wall cabinet under the tv and put this one behind one of the sofas (in the less noticeble space) to keep clutter.

Thats a beatiful bright nice space... good luck

Option #1:

Leave the TV where it is but choose something else to put it on, or rather in, something very tall, ceiling height if possible that fills up the wall space there and place all electric equipment inside. Style is up to you but doors that hide the tv when not being watched would be the best.

Then centre the couch and chairs around the tv and fireplace, a bit more toward the sliding doors. The couch could go where the love-seat is now or just move it forward so there is room to walk behind it next to the pass-through, almost like a hallway behind your couch.

The side of the room closest to the entry would then have enough room for a coat tree and bench for putting on shoes.


Option#2:

Turn the tv stand so that the tv is facing the sliding doors, but it's in the same spot it's in now, so that the fireplace and tv stand form an L shape.

Put shelves or a divider behind the tv so that it is not seen from behind from the front door and use the area by the widows as an extension of your entry with a small chair and coat rack.

Face the couch toward the tv, and have the chair facing the fireplace (again leaving space behind the chair so that it is not directly under the passthrough.

The loveseat could go back to back with the couch, so that it is facing out the sliding doors. I love putting seating so that it faces outdoors. Book shleves and a reading lamp or your floor lamp could round out the second seating area.

I like your curtains :)
Good luck - hope to see the after pictures!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I have a lot to decide and a lot to do now...