Hello AT,
My husband and I moved into a new place a couple months ago, and have a dilemma that we haven't been able to solve.
We have a lot of blank space on one wall of our living room and we want to hang something in it – but the space distribution is weird and we're unsure how to handle part of the wall that's actually part of a mini-hallway....
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Here's the wall in question. As you walk toward the kitchen (doorway on the left) there is a door to your left providing access to the World's Smallest Bathroom.
And here is the other angle, which gives you a sense of what sort of space we have to work with.
The dilemma: If we hang something to the left of the television, we fear it will feel half in-the-room, half out-of-the-room. If we hang something over the television, we fear it will be too high and will make the wall look lopsided. The only idea we've had that hasn't been dismissed out-of-hand is to mount a ledge at or around the height of the bottom of the transoms and run it from the doorway to the right of the TV to the doorway into the kitchen.
On that ledge, we'd set carefully-selected framed art, etc. We're hoping it would unite what is essentially a transitional space and wouldn't look bad if only partially visible (as it will be from most angles).
Let me anticipate two suggestions: (1) No, we can't move the TV stand to the left, it will crowd the doorway to the kitchen and be off-balance with the couch & chair (not pictured), and (2) Yes, this is the only arrangement of our furniture this room will allow. The lot our house sits on is only 15' wide, and behind the wall in question are the stairs to the second floor -- making this room a total of 10' 8" wide. Here's a picture of the layout of the room before we moved in.
Can't wait to hear your ideas!
Shannon & Jason
Anyone??
i think a picture rail at the height of the transoms would be perfect.
either that or i'd go for a grouping that would bring symmetry to that space and really bring it into the room. 3 or 4 similarly sized and shaped pieces, in either a line or a grid, centered at 60" or therebouts. if you found just the right pieces you could even bring one down lower next to the TV.
Sorry this is not what you asked for but I can't help thinking a rearranging might be in order which could make your decision a lot easier.
How about sticking your TV between the window and the kitchen doorway and then placing your couch opposite it to face it with the back of the couch facing the camera in the last shot?
Then you can hang a large piece of art on the wall in question without compromising on position and you also get more of a free flowing route to the kitchen without being blocked by the TV.
If the couch is too long and you have the funds and the desire to do it, then you could buy a sectional whose short section goes across the width of your room.
One possibility would be to hang a row of closely spaced B&W photographs, framed very simply. No larger than 8 1/2x11". Hang them doorway to doorway, with tops of frames aligned with the bottom of the transom window.
A floor plan would be helpful, but I'm with jamie pup. A re-org might be in order. I faced a similar hair-pulling challenge in my current apt. with an oddly shaped living room with numerous layout difficulties (i.e. hallway, windows, doors, etc)
I was at my wit's end until - here comes the plug - I picked up Maxwell's AT book. Got me thinking hard about the intersection of organization and home. So I extended his media fast idea and temporarily removed my "home theater" - TV, stereo, game box - from the equation. Just picked it all up and stuck it in a corner of my bedroom.
Then I approached the living room again. And lo and behold, there was all this...space. Reorganized the whole room - now, after craigslisting my coffee table for a smaller one, I have my sofa/seating area properly arranged as a conversation area. There's room for my desk, a rocking chair and small bookcase in another corner for a mini-office/library/reading nook.
I even realized that my oh-to-small kitchen serving counter in my open-style kitchen could be turned into an eating bar for two via a DIY/Home Depot project.
And finally, after all was said an done, there was this tiny leftover space by a window that was just wide enough for...a modest sized LCD flat TV. So I stared at the beast in my bedroom, craigslisted him and got a little smaller, much flatter TV to live in that space. I needed to break the "no furniture in front of a window" rule, but otherwise, everything fits, flows and feels like a home, instead of a temple to the tube.
Perhaps a large textile/tapestry to act as wallpaper rather than artwork.
How about a well organized photo gallery? Framing and mats are important to give it a neat, streamlined appearance but the partial view of the collection could actually be an asset. It would give a little mystery and visual expansion.
What about some of those vinyl wall stickers that have been featured? I'm thinking of the ones that are of trees that might be from a French company.
Why can't you put the TV on the wall - particularly on the pillar that is extending outwards slightly? The sofa faces it, creating an enclave around the pillar and allowing ample room both behind it and access to the kitchen.
The reason I didn't include a floorplan initially was that I knew it would lead to an extended explanation of why things are where they are.... but since people seem to want it, here it is: http://tinyurl.com/ewbc2. (Note: Getting a smaller coffee table is already high on our list.)
Now, the explanation. This living room is a good bit smaller than our previous, so we had to streamline when we moved. We got the smallest sofa/loveseat and glider we could find and afford. The final change was the TV, and despite being larger in terms of screen size it's roughly a 3rd the depth of our previous one (ditto for the TV stand).
In all of my rearrangments using the jordans.com room planner (best I've found!), I haven't found a layout that is any better that this one. Many of you suggested putting the TV between the window and the kitchen doorway, which was our idea as well. The problem is that it puts the back of the couch less than two feet from the dining room doorway, thus crowding a major thoroughfare (here's the floorplan: http://tinyurl.com/zzxs7). To our mind, putting visual or actual obstacles in the areas through which people move most often would make the space even smaller than it is, so we decided against it.
I assure you all that we're not the TV-worshipping, bland-room-arranging home-owners that this room plan makes us out to be. In our ideal living room there would be seating that allowed people to sit and converse in one area OR sit and watch TV in another. Given the size and shape of the room, however, I've become resigned to the fact that we're limited to one seating area that has to serve both purposes. If others have ideas to the contrary, let 'em rip!
Some suggestions for the space opposite the bathroom door and adjacent to the kitchen:
a full-length mirror
a tapestry/kilim/textile piece
i like the transom-height rail idea. personally, i'd put interesting objects up there and not photos (because you really can't seen the photos).
and I wouldn't do an arrangement of photos/pictures on the wall above the TV. Too much busy-ness IMHO.
Correcting my links:
Actual floorplan: http://tinyurl.com/ewbc2
Alternative floorplan: http://tinyurl.com/zzxs7
Sorry about that, and thanks for all of your great ideas!
Something I greatly disagree with is that putting furniture in the middle of the room makes a room seem smaller.
I have a similar layout, with the front door where the camera is in the last picture, and the room is a combination living/dining room - I used to have the sofa on the left wall as soon as you walk in, and the dining table against the wall where Jamie Pup recommended you put your TV (next to the entrance to the kitchen) but the room actually looks bigger when I pulled the sofa away from the wall in a diagonal and the dining table in the middle of the room. As long as there is good flow around the furniture, it is a better experience of the room - it forces you to slow down and experience it and makes it less of a hallway.
Don't just think I am crazy - try it - I love it in my home!
People now say that my 550 sq ft looks huge - just by moving the dining table!
I would fill the space next to and above the TV, in an upside down L sort of. The classic would be a series of framed pieces, perhaps two to three square feet in size. Two on top, and down the wall on the left. If you want 3-D art, try a large metal but very flat tree that goes up the wall and over to the right over the TV. It could be fixed to the wall, all or part. You could also put in a hugh tree, real or faux, that naturally leans to the right.
I can understand not wanting to move your furniture, because if you do, you will be walking around your furniture as long as you live in the space. Good luck.
That alcove by the window is screaming to be used for something - otherwise, the space in your already small living room is being wasted. Maybe a writing desk. Or even better a storage bench which could be used as added seating in a pinch - maybe a storage bench with casters.
And keeping with the casters. I like the location of the TV in the alternate floor plan, but then you went an immediately plopped the sofa in front of it - a la Maxwell's "theater syndrome". Why not keep the sofa where it is currently, but put the TV on that bump out where you have it in the Alt. Floor Plan. Yes, the sofa and seating won't face the TV, but so what? The TV shouldn't be the focus of the occupants anyways. It looks like a relatively flat TV (although you might consider a smaller, lighter model). Just scrap your current TV stand and get (or build) something simple that is exactly as wide as the TV and no wider. Then put it on...casters. You rotate the TV out at a 45 degree angle when watching it, and then roll it back when done, safely out of view.
get rid of the tv
g
Shannon, if the kitchen and dining room are on opposite sides of the current living room, is it possible to swap the living room and dining room? Part of the challenge of the LR is that it's such a pass-through area, which matters less with a DR.
I realize there may be door, view, and space-usage issues that make this impractical.
Aah, I see.
10'8" would work with my idea (actually your idea in the alt. floorplan) but I don't think there was a reference to the length in your original post.
13.5' is not long - in your last photo it looks more like an 18' X 10' space of the kind you regulalry see in walk ups in NYC. I realize that this is not NYC but that was the only reference that I am genreally familiar with in this kind of context.
However, I see the less than two feet from the dining room doorway (which is nice and wide) less of an issue than the blockage to the kitchen because there are two ways to the kitchen, the hall where the stairs are and the dining room and both are essentially blocked by putting something along the wall that runs to the door to the kitchen.
In my suggestion I was thinking of pushing the sofa away from the wall in question and in this way you would get more room to move from DR to LR.
In the end though, I like Dave's suggestion. LEave the Sofa and chair where they are and move the TV as you orginally thought.
Alternatively, if the TV will be too close to knees in that scenario, I think Team Decor's idea is the best. I think pictures will be too high if the tops line up with the bottom of the transom but an upside doen L arrangement would look great IMO.
i agree with team decor's suggestion in terms of arranging things in an L shape around the tv. you should allow the tv to be it's own art, so to speak, and just arrange around it as if it is just a blank shape to work with. perhaps some 3d pieces would help with that. if you arrange a grouping of framed things and/or 3d pieces, just consider the tv and allow it to help balance the arrangement.
We have a similar situation and put our TV off to the side on a low shelf with casters, as Dave suggests. We wheel it over when we want to watch. A friend of mine has her flat screen mounted on a folding arm thingy attached to the wall, so they can pull it away from the wall AND rotate it. They had it professionally installed, which is probably the way to go for that sort of thing.
If you're sticking with your TV where it is, I like JenPDX's idea for interesting objects on a rail.
Why not paint that wall different color from the rest of the room? Your place is beautiful, but a little monochromatic.
Sassy -- I don't mind putting furniture in the middle of the room at all (our bed is in the middle of our bedroom, in fact!), but the problem is exactly the one you mention: good flow around the furniture would be pretty much obliterated.
Dave -- I completely agree about the alcove. We have several ideas for how we can use it, and most all of them include the words "storage" and "casters". We're being patient for a little while longer before diving in to make sure that our ideas are well-thought-out. As far as keeping the sofa against the wall in the new configuration... I'll think about it, but I just don't think we'd like the way it looks or works.
Wende -- excellent observation! The people before us (and I'm sure just about everybody else who's lived here) used this room as a dining room. We had a lot of reasons for not doing that, but a primary one was that the room we use as a dining room was actually *more* difficult to arrange as a living room because of bay windows, a radiator, and a huge plastered-in fireplace and chimney that jutts out of one wall. It works beautifully for us as a dining room, though.
Jaime -- sorry about the confusion on the dimensions. Also, and there's no way you could have known this either, there isn't a second way to the kitchen. The hallway that leads to the stairs (which begin directly behind the TV)terminates at the stairs. So this really is a major thru-way!
Sarah in Boston -- We know! That's why we're trying to hang art! ;) (Seriously, we're not going for monochromatic. The last picture in the series is the room with white walls, and the others are post-painting but pre-decorating. The kitchen is a totally different color.)
smaller tv.... and maybe a funky armoire to hide everything in?
everyone has great ideas ... but ... I totally agree with Team Decor. This would incorporate the TV into a grouping and balance its mass.
Ultimately try to balance the TV by introducing it into a grouping that mimics the ratio of the height to width of the wall and create a rectangle of mass on the wall.
Hope this makes some sense.. good luck
You could try a floor plant to the left of the TV for textural interest, and a shallow floating shelf running about 3/4 the length of the wall vertically placed on the line between the top and middle third of the wall. Leaning your artwork on these shelves against the wall should add just enough dimension to draw you eye to the artwork while maintaing balance and flow within the space.
locate the studs in the wall, cut out the sheetrock, trim it out, and install the tv in the center of the wall.
it will look great; update the room; solves your space problem.
I'd go with the alternative floorplan you posted, with the sofa facing the alcove. The TV is way too awkward in the present setup, even with nothing else around. You may want to consider the purchase of an armless sofa and chair, which should help you maneuver a bit more easily in the economy of space that you have. Does this work for you? http://www4.jcpenney.com/jcp/ProductsHOM.aspx?ItemID=0f9288a&GrpTyp=ENS&CmCatId=SearchResults|SearchProducts|40525
It's probably too late to help, but I took a couple of shots of the living room as it currently stands. It's not done yet (is any room ever "done", really?), so hold your fire on the decoration!
http://tinyurl.com/zpxsw
http://tinyurl.com/zwajo
Shannon, the pics really help. And convince me ever more that you should try the combo of the existing plan and the alt. Get that TV on that bump out where you currently have the quilt - either on a smaller TV stand with casters or as someone suggested, mounted to the wall with one of those expandable swing arm jobbies they sell for flat screens.
Get the TV up and OUT of the way because based on the photos your living room is SCREAMING movie theater syndrome. By getting that TV out of the way, you might even - hold for it - free up space for a second, modest sized lounge chair, to create a really nice three sided conversation area in your living room, without sacrificing access to the tube.
I still stand by my original suggestion. Move the TV temporarily to another room and pretend it doesn't exist. THEN organize the living room. Fit your TV where you can in the room, don't fit your room around your TV. Your feng will thank you and and your shiu will swing.
I stopped reading this thread because most of the suggestions don't address the original question. I'll try it, though: separate the wall into two sections--the part above the TV, and the part to the left of the TV. Hang a large piece, or two smaller pieces above the TV, and make a vertical arrangement next to the TV. Don't be afraid that art will feel half in and half out of the room. As another person suggested, that could turn out to be an asset by adding a little mystery. And after all, transitional spaces need art, too.
What about Wallpaper and / or shelving for books or display items? Something other than a traditional canvas.
Or a mobile? Hanging lamp?
Beautiful apartment! I liked juniemoon's suggestion. It's definately on the right track. If you must own a tv (keep it out of the bedroom ;),perhaps you could sell your current television and purchase a mirror tv.
http://tv.about.com/od/flatpaneltv/p/Miravision.htm
It's a mirror with a television inside. They are expensive though, but coming down in price since their entry into the market around 2003. Then frame it center (per Juniemoon) and I think it will be much easier to place b&w photos in the space with the mirror tv.
Good luck!
Just my two cents...
With the current location of the TV, how about a vertical line of frames to the left of the TV? A nice mix of black and white photos, white matte board and thick black frames might be nice. Or you can pull colors from other objects in the room like the wall hanging/quilt for the drawings, frames, etc.
Just my two cents...
An L shaped border might be too much...especially when the TV is on. Might appear cluttered? But what do I know...doesn't sound good to me in theory but might be nice when you try it out!
With the current location of the TV, how about a vertical line of frames to the left of the TV? A nice mix of black and white photos, white matte board and thick black frames might be nice. Or you can pull colors from other objects in the room like the wall hanging/quilt for the drawings, frames, etc.
Sorry about the double post!!! A little trigger happy with the mouse...
Would you consider hanging several small art pieces instead of a single large one?
We have the exact same delimna. Except we bought that silver ikea tv stand (the one that falls apart in the comcast commercial) Our cable hookup is on one skinny wall between the front door and the kitchen entryway, so our TV ends up sticking out like a sore thumb. After wrestling with many ideas in my head, I think I'm going to try painting a floating wall shelf silver to match the tv stand so there is some depth going up on top of the tv, my problem now is that the picture I hung above the TV makes the wall recede and the TV stick seem to stick out so far that we trip over it.
and by that last sentence I meant: The flat picture on the flat wall makes the tv seem to stick out so far that we trip over it when we come through the front door.