One of the best things about Apartment Therapy is the community of real voices weighing in on real-life design dilemmas and challenges. No matter how (relatively) easy it is for me to dish out advice to others about interior decorating and layout, I find I can get stuck in a decorating rut when it comes to some of my own spaces.
Sometimes, all it takes is getting fresh, new perspectives on a room to overcome design challenges, especially when it comes to layout and furniture placement dilemmas. For me, the living room was a real challenge. Between the radiators, the decorative fireplace, windows, the huge pocket doors (into the dining room), and glass doors (into the foyer), options for placing furniture were limited and quite challenging. I wrote about my living room layout challenge hoping for commiseration, advice and solutions. And I got just what I asked for!
• By moving my new Petrie chairs in front of the windows and floating the sofa across from the chairs, I was able to keep the fireplace exposed. And neither the pocket doors or the glass doors are obstructed.
• I decided to move my antique French bergeres into the dining room (image 6), freeing up more space.
• I removed the two small bookshelves that had been placed in front of the windows. These pieces were not really serving any critical purpose, and they managed to clutter the room visually.
• I also moved one of the side tables out.
• I kept my two favorite tables in the living room; a round antique sofa table (image 5) in Australian Cedar and an antique Spanish side table with sinewy curvy legs in the corners of the room behind the couch. It isn't clear from photos, but there is a decent pathway through the living room into the dining room.
• As noted by many readers, I still need a bigger rug and I need to rearrange the art and mirrors.
But I am so happy with the changes. And guests have commented on how cozy it feels. Even more important, my husband and I find ourselves actually hanging out in the living room (which, sadly, had not been the case previously).
What do you think?
(Images: Catrin Morris)
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It looks beautiful, but let's face it, most rooms are easy to lay out without a TV. The damn TV is the death of me, decoratingly speaking.
Wow. What a great improvement. The room looks so much more comfy, relaxed and inviting. It's always nice to have seating view out towards the window, as you've done with the couch. It's amazing how simply moving furniture around can completely change a room. Great, inspiring post. Love it.
I like how the fireplace is free again! That makes the room really pop again and your don't have to figure out what is going on in the room like the before shot. It's very easy on the eyes now!
Reclaimed
yes, looks a lot better! i love the way the fireplace looks unobscured.
Love it - it's beautiful ! Thanks so much for the update. I do have to chuckle at COMPLICATEDSHOES comment about televisions. So true - I have yet to find an attractive way to incorporate them into a room. But I cannot do without my television!
What a wonderful job!! It looks so much better! I love how the fireplace is more exposed now, and the focal point. I would suggest removing that straight back chair (right in front of the fireplace), and would absolutely take off those shutters to let all that glorious light in. Your place is fantastic! mad jealous!
I think it is lovely and the flow is so much improved. If the smaller chair near the fireplace is not used a lot, I'd move it to the dining room, space permitting, and bring it in only when needed. If it is used a lot, then leave it where it is. Just my opinion, but it seems awkward there in front of the fireplace and so close to one of the large chairs. Bravo!
i love that picture frame molding. if you ever wanted to be slightly adventurous you could paint the molding two shades darker than the wall color. Really cute space you've got there.
It's a lovely space and made even lovelier. I'd love to know the paint color.
I think it looks so great! It's an absolutely beautiful room with beautiful features.
I agree about removing the small chair in front of the fireplace but only if it's not used very often. It would be a pain to have to move it in and out all the time if it was needed a lot.
And if it was me, those shutters would be open constantly~ the light is brilliant!
You definitely made the room look fabulous without having to add or buy anything extra. It's a testament to us all that we could each do the same as well.
Ditch the small chair - it looks awkward and unnecessary. Nice job overall.
I actually like the awkwardness of the small chair. It breaks up the symmetry of the room and makes it more inviting.
On the television comment: http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/5-stylish-ways-to-disguise-your-tv.html
The small chair is no doubt the best for a bad back; I wonder if it could be moved to the other end of the room...angled next to the sofa or facing the fireplace. I would also consider a mirror on the wall facing the windows ( I know that most of that is the entry to the dining room) perhaps a large one leaning against the wall behind the table with flowers... then those in the armchairs could also appreciate the lovely windows and outside. It would introduce more light to the dark side of the room and highlight that lovely table too.
The room looks much better with the fireplace opened up!
Personally though, I would have left the sofa on the window wall, albeit pulled-in closer to the fireplace so as not to be right up against the radiator, and to create an intimate seating area around the fireplace. The club chairs should be opposite, where the sofa is currently, as they visually open up the space to the dining room. In the current configuration, from the pictures at least, the sofa really blocks the dining room off, and impedes traffic. For example, because of the circular table behind the sofa, there is really only one route to the sofa; ideally, it should be floating more.
But... I still think that your fundamental problem is thatthe Petrie pieces are just too massive in scale for this lovely jewel box of a room, inasmuch as I appreciate the dynamic contrast they provide. The beautiful side chair you have in front of the fireplace really brings home the difference in scale between older pieces and MCM-inspired ones. I know that you are wedded to the Petrie series, but maybe keep your eyes open for similar contemporary pieces which are smaller in scale.
New arrangement is a great improvement, but my first thought was that your eye stops THUNK! at the sofa. I like the idea of the chairs there, better myself ( per MSCHATELAINE). This might be one of those ideas though that looks good on paper, when in actuality doesn't change much.
Small chair cluttery, I agree. Could be pulled out when used.
What is that last picture with the curtains? Where did they come from? Confused.
Like shutters, they make a house look rich, but I'd keep them open or halfway slit to let in more lovely light.
Nice job, and I'd be happy to come over for drinks by your faux fire anytime.
I mostly like the furniture rearrangement. However, the large modern lamp doesn't seem to fit. The small table lamp needs to be pulled out from the wall a few inches instead of being right up against of the wall.
Oh that is quite lovely.
This room reminds me of the movie Carnage.
A lot easier on the eyes! I second MSCHATELAINE in saying that I would have kept the couch by the window and just flipped your arrangement to allow a more open space / flow into the other rooms.
Also... the blue pillow on the couch! where is that from, can anyone source it for me? :-)
HUGE improvement! Is it rude to ask for a picture of what the room would look like with the chairs and couch reversed? After your post asking for help I thought either set up would look great but now I'm thinking it might be best if the chairs were facing the windows... but I'm not the best at visualizing spaces and have spent my entire life scratching floors by sliding furniture around (the one thing I did as child that really bothered my mother).
It looks so nice. I like the new arrangement so much better. It has an airy, graceful flow. The only problem I see is with the small chair next to the white club chair. I'd try to find another place for it, and bring it out only when it's needed for extra seating. Great job with the re-do.
I love it, the changes definitely opened up the space. Are you going to change your floor lamp? It doesn't seem to match.
The 6th picture, where is that from?
Oh, yes, it's definitely looking better! I would agree with many of the others about that small chair not really working there. And I also think you might try reversing the chairs and sofa. There does seem to be a fundamental problem with scale here. I love the juxtaposition of traditional and modern, don't get me wrong, but the room is still a tad busy and awkward.
That table in the corner seems to serve no purpose. Perhaps the little chair can be put there with a nod to the traditional layout, but juxtapose that with a very modern lamp and accessories, lest it seem too twee. Maybe make it a telephone table, or give it some kind of purpose. It could be a very cool little 'letter writing' table, also. If the chairs are moved to that side, there will be less clutter and it could be the chair is more in the corner and the table nearer the chairs, so a lamp will be able to provide off-side lighting. That little lamp between the club chairs isn't the right proportion there; it would look better on the antique table, next to the side-chair in the corner (if you move it).
Your room is lacking mirrors, which would really help with the ambiance. Something modern would look lovely. It does seem the shutters really don't work in the space, and look like an accident waiting to happen. If they are required, the mirrors will retain some of the light you're losing.
Not sure if you realize, but those two pics on the far wall aren't level, and would make me batty if I were to live with them. You really must rehang them, and the other artwork, to affect a real improvement within the room.
Judging by the bowl of fruit on the radiator, it would seem it's not a working heat source, so if you were to move the sofa over there, it could serve as an interesting architectural detail peeking out behind the sofa. It might be nice to have two tables flanking it, where you might put structured plants or terrariums with interesting succulents.
Gosh, I'm sorry to seem so critical. I do love your room, your home and your things! This is just something I would do if I had this particular combo to work with.
MUCH better.
If it were my room, I would also replace the shutters with long curtains (pushed open in the day for maximum light) and move the large standing lamp elsewhere. You are obviously attached to the shutters and lamp, but if you could TRY removing them, and then observe how their absence opens up the room, I think it might persuade you
The 6th picture is in the dining room, guys, read her description.
I like the new layout but I second the motion to try switching the chairs and couch :-)
I would still think about switching the chairs and the sofa to give a move open feeling and open view from the other room. Just read that this is a common suggestion. Regardless, would be a easy thing to try.
Complictedshoes, you so speak the truth.
That is a lovely paint color.
I agree. It looks so much better. Get rid of the small chair near the fireplace. Unnecessary and adds clutter visually to the room. Bring it out for parties if you want...but for now that should go elsewhere. Otherwise...great improvement!
I like the new look but the little chair stuck out immediately when I looked at the picture. Just does not fit. Otherwise the room is very inviting.
I'm still not 100% on the sofa placement. Maybe you could just flip it, so that the sofa is against the windows and the chairs are angled into it? I agree with everyone about the small chair. It may be able to stay in the room, but not there -- it's kind of awkward.
I would just tuck the small chair back in a corner or something to pull out as needed. Otherwise, looks very nice.
I would also try putting the small round table between the two angled chairs once you flip the sofa around. The low tables between the two chairs seem visually awkward.
I suspect it is a working radiator, which is why the couch is placed where it is.
I love the difference from the way it was before. Great job!
(I too suggest moving the white chair in front of the fire place.)
I would love to see your room again when you've hung art.
p.s. Just wanted to add, in case I haven't before (although I think I did another time...) that the Arco light is a stroke of genius in that room, at least in the design sense. LOVE. IT. Especially with the paint colour and the artwork.
SO much better! I love that little side chair, but as the other readers pointed out it might look better without. And I love your shutters as is :) Great job!
It is a very nice room, especially the second version.
It looks great! Love the style. The only thing that even needs to be touched on is the extra chair in front of the fire place. It looks a little redundant but other than that it looks awesome!
Great job!
Televisions work better in some rooms than others. This room has a fireplace on one wall, windows on another, and large doors on the other two. Placing a TV would be complicated -- probably either over the fireplace or in a corner would be the only realistic options.
My open concept living room has a fireplace on the end wall flanked by windows, a moderately large window on a perpendicular wall (where sits the sofa) and a short section of plain wall opposite the window and sofa, perfect for the TV (except for glare, which we combat with Roman shades only the the late afternoon -- and usually we are at work then, so not a big problem. (The fourth "wall" is the opening into the kitchen and breakfast nook -- the space is actually also an extension of the hall from the front door.) But my house has a separate odd little room we use as a library for the books other people need to keep in a living room...
I really like this. You did a great job re-arranging things! I feel like the after flows a bit better and it looks more comfortable if you have people over; the before felt a bit stuffy and hard to turn and talk to people.
My only reservation is that chair between the armchair and the fireplace. I feel like there's a lot going on in the room (not bad, just a lot of detail) and my eye goes right to that chair first.
Also, love the shutters. LOVE.
Beeeeee-yooo-ti-ful!!!!!!!!
It is a amazing what a little rearrangement can do! I'm rethinking my sofa layout right now! Thanks for sharing this.
Still looks awkward try the sofa facing the fireplace and postion a chair on either side of the fireplace on an angle. Remember less is more. Remove the rug.
Wow, what a huge improvement! It seems (based on the pics) that maybe the balance issue between the Petries and the sofa is how they line up with the edges of the fireplace. Perhaps you could move the chairs a few inches further into the room, away from the windows, so the front corners of the chairs are the same distance from the edge of the fireplace as the front corners of the sofa are from the fireplace. As you said, you need a larger rug. Once you do that--making sure that the front legs of all the furniture are on the rug--I think it will visually all come together.
I agree with other posters about the occasional chair. That was one of the first things that caught my eye. Is there room for it on the far side of the sofa?
Ditto what MSCHATELAINE said about the floor lamp. It's unexpected in a room that leans formal. That's what I like about it.
It looks good! I would also try reversing the sofa and chairs. Perhaps that's been discussed already in the original thread? It just seems like it would open up the room more.
Love it!
Not sure why, but I think I prefer the BEFORE layout... but either way, it's really charming.
Nice improvements. The chairs in front to the windows, rather than the couch, keep the windows feeling more open to the room without spatially blocking them off with the sofa.
A couple suggestions on details:
Small chair & lamp:
Some posters have mentioned the small chair looks out of place, but others defend the way it counters the symmetry of the room. I think that's valid, so consider placing it to the right of the rightmost chair instead. It would still break the symmetry, but not visually block the fireplace, or look a little tight where it sits now. I'd also suggest the modern lamp should come along for the ride with the chair, to the right side of the windows, to avoid clashing with the fireplace and wall elements, in both style of period and style of line.
Fireplace wall:
Currently, most of the items along the fireplace wall are centered. Since the room is structurally symmetrical (sofa, chairs, rug, table, fireplace, and windows), consider more casual off-center arrangements for items on the far wall.
As one example, maybe the picture frame on the left is a few inches higher than its partner on the right, and the picture on the mantel is pushed further right, with most of the candles and vases clustered to the left.
I'm not suggesting anything wacky or forced -- it should look comfortable. In fact, use your small table arrangement in the corner as inspiration, because that is nicely balanced without relying on symmetry.
Those shutters are so unique and beautiful, don't ever remove them!!
Though I do agree with other posters that the layout might be even better flipped. The sofa looked great bathed in all that light from the windows.
Follow up pictures should be required of every "advice request" submitted to Apartment Therapy.
good job...room looks much better
Those shutters appear like left open kitchen cupboard doors. Don't they fold flat against the wall? The arc lamp doesn't work for the character of the room & get a bigger or taller lamp than the one between the two chairs. One better piece of art would be better than the two pictures to the left of the FP. The furniture arrangement is much better.
I like the idea of this post. You responded to feedback. great. nice room. looks much better. I just don't understand why you would have stuck two chairs in front of the fireplace to begin with. Were you just toying with us? I love the arc lamp and would do anything to keep it but I do have to agree that it interrupts the flow of the space.
I agree with the sofa in front of the windows. With the two chairs flanking the doorway this would give you better access to the dining room and really open up the flow of the whole room. I would not push the sofa right to the window, and maybe have a sofa table behind. Move the arc lamp to the left behind one of the left corner behind that chair, so It'll be a bit off centre
I understand why you did it this way- to use that table between the two chairs. I don't understand the last pic with the single chair and the curtains??
Much much better! I agree with the others though, you should move the side chair to another room.
I don't understand why you would ever have put those chairs in front of the fireplace to begin with! But yes, the new layout is a million times better! I agree 100% with complicatedshoes that it's so nice to see a room that doesn't use the tv as the focal point! Someone else mentioned replacing the shutters with floor length sheers. I really like the shutters. I lived in a few New England states & shutters are very popular so I grew a findness for them. They go with the architecture. However, you could put up sheers as well, pulled back. They would help soften up the boxy feel of the room. Now, about that coffee table... it just seems out of place. It you are married to it I'd suggest, to go with the color scheme, covering it with a nice white linen, and adding some ornately carved & heavy dark red candle holders with some fat white candles. A nice bowl of flowers would look good too. The little chair is awkward. Does it ever get used? If not, I'd move it out of the room. All in all, I think you did a great job. Personally, I find it a lot of fun to just move my furniture around & see what happens! (Maybe it's because I didn't have a doll house when I was young? LOL!) My husband jokes that he never knows what to expect when he comes through the door. He's leaned to not just blindly flop down on the couch. Because a table might be there now!
Lovely improvement, which is saying something, since I remember considering your room as inspiration the first time I saw it. Clearly, the fact that you are spending more time there means that the rearrangement is a success.
Where is the after??
Ahhh . . . the after pictures areposted (they must have disappeared somewhere for a while). Lovely!
It's as if you can feel the pieces clicking into place as each item arrives where it belongs.
I agree with keeping the little chair where it is. It's a welcome unexpectable touch that wakes up a layout that otherwise might look overly balanced.
What's the difference? Why did you bother? Still dull, dull, dul
Awesome. It looks less cluttered and more inviting :)
I've been rearranging my own living room and figured out it is SO much better without a large piece of furniture blocking the flow. I have to agree with those recommending returning the sofa to the other side of the room. However, I would pull it further away from the wall and place a long console table behind it. This wouldn't have to be expensive. It could be made from a plank or some reclaimed wood with some IKEA legs screwed to the bottom. You aren't really going to see the lower half anyway. You can then put lamps and other accessories on the console table. I would probably bring the console table out far enough so the items you place on it won't interfere with the shutters. Do you use the top shutters? If they are always open, I would remove the top ones and just keep the lower ones. Then I would play around with the wall space between the two windows. Maybe 2 paintings or photos, stacked one above the other would look nice there. Or, since the radiator already sticks out into the room, you could use something more 3 dimensional, like the doll figure you have to the right of the fireplace. I think it would look more important between the windows.
Instead of buying one large new rug, I would keep the one you have and buy one or two smaller ones that coordinate and layer them. It would add interest and take the room up a notch in terms of looking more hip and current.
I agree with those who feel the lamp between the chairs is too small and that the table is too low. I would increase the size of each and lose the large floor lamp.
The small chair doesn't bother me a lot. I like the idea of placing it with the small table in the corner and making it a usable, desk area.
I would get a larger coffee table and I personally would make it something rustic, to juxtapose with what you have and I would display some things on it that you love, so everyone who enters would know more about you.
Do you watch TV? Haven't seen all of your dining room, but maybe you want to flip it and turn the living room into a dining room and use the big floor lamp as a make-shift chandelier and move the living room furniture to the dining room. A friend of mine did this and it turned out amazing. Even if the dining room is smaller, it could be a really cozy TV room.
Some other ideas to consider. How about a cornice-like shelf above the doorway into the dining room with display space above and a rod beneath. I think it could look amazing to have curtains on either side of this doorway. It would soften it and the shelf would add some architectural interest. Even if you skip the shelf a drapery rod and drapes would up the excitement in the room.
I keep going back and forth and looking at your photos. I love the art you have above the fireplace, but I think it is too white. There is too much white in the room. The throw on the sofa is too bland, too. Amp up the colors and textures in the pillows, curtains, rugs, and the artwork.
If you want to keep the art on the fireplace then I would place a large mirror to the right of it and lean the painting against it. It needs another large item. Lose some of the tiny stuff on the mantle. The vase with the greenery in it looks like an afterthought and I really dislike the colors of the vases. They clash with your rug.
Looking at your photos again, what about adding one of the articulating wooden figures that painters use, to your mantle? I think you can buy them from Dick Blick. It would emphasize the figural theme in your painting. It would also provide a visual link to the doll figure. Anthropologie used to have a pillow with a nude on it. It would be perfect. Maybe add an antique jar with some artists paint brushes in it to your mantle?
You can get small painters easels to place art work on. You could use one on your console table...
You could put some large books on your coffee table and put a tray on it to corral some of the other things you like. Have fun with it. You have nice pieces. You just need to amp it up a little so you and everyone else who visits, won't ever want to leave!
Much better than before. I do agree with previous commenters regarding removing the small chair near the fireplace, as well as mschatelaine's idea to swap the positioning of the sofa and chairs. If you don't like it, you can always put it back the way it is now.
OK, I speak from experience, having lived in this living room, basically, in my last place...and been in tons of others very much like it - completely common in neighborhoods of old townhouses (Brooklyn in my case.) Windows, french doors, fireplace, pocket doors to dining room, all check (only thing different was the radiator placement.) So I know that of which I speak. And spent a lot of time moving furniture around and thinking furnishing, more or less, this precise room.
Couch belongs on the other side - NOT right at the windows, but pulled out from the windows, so you have room to walk easily behind it and adjust window treatments, open windows, and look out. Also, pulling it forward will allow heat to flow out some from radiator in winter when it is on. Don't worry if the couch has to come far enough forward so that it is slightly in front of the fireplace surround, as it does now on the other side, or even a tad further.
Get rid of those shutters - they are not the kind that would be original to the house (which would definitely have folded up into side window wells, such that you couldn't see them at all when open, if the house had shutters to begin with.) These are someone's idea of adding plantation shutters (fine, in the right room) to an old townhouse - they really mess with the style of the house and totally detract from your lovely room. Take them down. Put blinds in the windows - something unfussy, like those pleated paper or fabric ones, or honeycombs if you want insulation (keeps heat in in winter - these big windows leak it out). I would use ones made of fabric that let some light in, even when closed, but also provide sufficient privacy. Get the top down/bottom up option, and you will be able to alter the light like you do with shutters, letting in light at the top and having some privacy at the bottom, when you want. If you like, you could use wood blinds (probably white, or off-white, depending on your woodwork paint color...use something close to that color if you use wood; some like a wood color for a more masculine look to the room) - decide whether you like the option of how blinds let light in vs. the top down/bottom up blinds. For the other style of blinds, I would also use a neutral tone, an off-white or something not far off from the woodwork paint color, or, if you must use a color, use a very pale one - the windows and woodwork around them are a focal point in themselves, and don't need a lot of color to emphasize them. I would suggest long curtains over your blinds, to remain open, not to shut, for the look of the room, but as you have that radiator in the middle here, you can't put curtains on the inside sides. You might try just two long curtains just on the outside edges of the windows (I have this now with two slightly closer-set windows at the end of my current living room, which is in a similar era and style - not because I meant to do it, but just because I haven't got around to putting up the two center ones (no radiator here, just a table), and it looks fine as it is with just two curtain panels on the ends. Try that if you like - but again, unfussy, just some linen, or linen-look, no need for expensive lined curtains for this usage (mine are Ikea Lenda cotton ones, quite cheap, but quite nice looking, even with my much higher end than Ikea furniture...I know, almost everything is much higher end than Ikea :-). I don't hang them with the tabs, but use curtain pins, pinned through the tabs folded back where you can't see them, and then the pins hang in the little brass rings that come out of the larger curtain rings that go on the curtain rod. A much classier look that tabbed curtains or rod pocket curtains, plus they move more easily if you do want to draw them. Using jus the two curtains totally frames the window wall nicely - you might like the look of just the side curtains, as I do. Use two curtain rods, placed on the wall above each of the windows, up near the ceiling, and it will add to your room. For your style of furnishings, I'd use a metal rod, in some sort of medium-dark gray color or black iron, not too fat and with some nice, but not too large, finials.
Having the couch move up further into the room than the chairs are now will make for a tighter conversation area (a good thing). You may wish to get rid of your coffee table - it just makes for bumping into in this sort of two-chairs-across-from-a-couch room, and detracts from the view of the fireplace. Instead, place end tables where you can use them better, and they won't be in the way. You may be able to place one of your small tables (or a different one) at one end of the couch (but not two) if there is room. I would put it at the end where that arc lamp is (I don't like that lamp in this room at all - it seems that it would be shining in the eyes of anyone sitting in here - rather than being used to illuminate one particular area from above as it was designed to do. Perhaps you can better use it elsewhere). Perhaps a table at the other end of the couch instead - one is plenty - I can't see from your pictures if it would fit at the other end without being bumped into. An end table should be the height of the arm of the couch, or within an inch or so, to be most useful. But don't fret if there is not room for one with the couch - you don't want to use one there if it crowds the room visually or actually (I can't see how wide your room is, or exactly how wide the couch is) - you don't really need one on that side of the room. I don't think you have room for a console table behind the couch - that's a deep couch - but I think it would just detract from the view of your windows anyway if you did have room. You want that space behind the couch open for walking to the windows. If you want, you could rest a shelf on top of your radiator - marble is nice - and you can find vintage ones around - to set stuff on...this works as a table, even in winter when the radiator is on, as long as you don't put flowers or candles on it. You might like to use thick tempered glass, held in place with felt or putty pads - I wouldn't because I always break glass things. You may find (or have made) a console table that works to place over the radiator, as I found one for a radiator in my current home.
With your tighter conversation area, your rug (6 x 9 is it?) may look big enough. If you are shopping for another rug, though, get a bigger one, such that your seating pieces, or at least the front legs of them, are on the rug - this will look better.
As for couch lighting, you need a smaller floor lamp, one at a lower height, which would illuminate the fireplace end of the couch for reading. If you have an end table there, you can stand it behind it, or perhaps place a reading lamp on the end table instead of using a floor lamp (though I think a floor lamp of the right style will look better, and free up the table top, if you use a table there - otherwise, just use the floor lamp.)
Yes, your chairs are a bit too big for this room. Try them across from the couch, either angled as you have them now, or facing straight across from the couch. Use a table in between them, as you have. Not sure those ones there work - I think they are nesting tables? - they look kinda low to be useful for setting, say, drinks on as you sit. (Your side tables need to be really functional once the coffee table is removed, as you'll be using them for things you use the coffee table for now.) The lamp on them now is too low to provide reading light, is really an accent lamp and would be better used elsewhere. Now, decide whether using the two chairs across from the couch takes up too much room - they very well may (I only used a chair on one side across from mine (the fireplace side) so as to make for better flow for walking to the dining room.). The chair was much smaller, and allowed me to use a small trunk, not nearly as long as your coffee table, as a coffee table between it and the couch. Try it and see if you like the look of one chair better. You might even be able to put the arc lamp on that side of the fireplace, hanging just over that chair, and perhaps an end table next to it (table in the center of the room, not on the fireplace side of the chair), or perhaps you'd then have room for a much smaller coffee table instead (but not in addition to an end table next to the chair - use only one table or the other.) You might decide the two chairs are too much, but one chair and the small chair that is currently in front of the fireplace works well, with a side table between them (otherwise, I'd also not use that small chair in front of the fireplace where you have it - it blocks the view of fireplace, which is really the main focal point in this room, as it was in mine...you may think "I don't need to see the fireplace" and you'd be right - but having a chair in front of it provides too much visual clutter). Or you might eventually decide that those chairs are really too big for the room, and use two smaller chairs across from the couch instead.
Your little round table might look fine where it is with this arrangement. I used a 30-some inch long console (but not deep, only 12"deep) along the wall on that side of the fireplace, next to the pocket doors. You could even do this on the other side of the fireplace, since your radiator is not there as mine was, instead of an end table by the couch. Just don't do matchy-matchy and put consoles on both sides of the fireplace. There's too much matchy-matchy in here as it is - I wouldn't have tried to use two matching chairs (of any sort, even if you had bought chairs sized properly for this room), nor matched the chairs to the couch as you did. It looks like you took furniture sized and designed for a suburban house living room and stuck it in an old townhouse parlor - it doesn't work. Not only your first arrangement, as if it was some other house, but also, as you will figure out eventually, in the size of the pieces. No matter, use what works, and slowly move the rest on. The couch works, the coffee table doesn't, one big chair might work for now, maybe, but two likely won't.
These rooms are wonderful - all the doors and windows and fireplace surrounds aren't problems, but rather wonderful focal points - you have one on each wall! - that look great if you take the room, its dimensions and style, and work your furniture around the room itself, rather than sticking in furniture that is designed to fit some other room in this much older room. In general, smaller furniture works best in these rooms (except a large couch works.) Seating furniture works better in them when it is pulled away from the walls (which is why your two chairs don't look good where they are in the window now, any more than the couch did so close to the windows.) Love that paint color, too, by the way, and your little round table, and little chair - they work well in this room. While I certainly don't object to using modern furniture and lamps in these old rooms - done well, it looks quite wonderful - you need to scale the size of the pieces better. The arc lamp, for instance, is, I think, just much too large for this room, wherever you end up trying to put it. It also detracts from all the focal points n the walls and looks like any eyesore here, as much as I like those lamps used elswehere - you have to view the windows, fireplace, and sets of doors as furnishings, too. Look only at pictures of similar townhouse living rooms for inspiration in the future - pictures of other rooms don't serve this style of room. Good luck, and have fun with this room.
MUCH better! Less visual clutter for sure. You could even flip flop those gorgeous chairs w/ the couch if you needed more room to get in & out of the dining room, but you did say they were very deep, so this is probably best. You even found a way to squeeze in the smaller chair!
It's mind blowing that you couldn't figure that out yourself
Congratulations on this! you definitely achieved the objective of making it uncluttered, stylish and elegant. Fireplace is now a focal point of the room. I'm not so sure about the chair beside it though. Also, the floor lamp kinda takes away the elegant feel of the room, so I think it should go. I love the position of the two Petrie chairs by the windows. However, the table lamp between them serves no purpose being there.
Overall, great job. I love the new look.