apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

In the formal room, forget the coffee table, get a storage ottoman. it is the best thing for dumping baby toys in last minute and make the room look clean. It also has the added bonus of being padded on the corners reducing the risk that your son will need stitches before learning to walk.
When your baby gets a little older give him crayons, markers and finger paints in nice colors, get your self some frames from Ikea or Pottery Barn and put his creations on the wall! When he makes something new, you can easily trade the drawings out. He will be so proud of himself and you will have a complete looking room.
In the loft you need more closed storage. Kids go through a phase where they like to open and close doors a nice cabinet will give him the chance to do it and give you the chance to make the room look more complete.
That's all the advice I have, I am sure others will have more and better advice.
Good luck!

Looks like birthday carnage everywhere :)

Formal room: Clear the mantel off, larger round coffeetable or storage ottoman as mentioned. Do you have room to scoot the gaming/dining? I'd add some armchairs facing the sofa or face the sofa to the fireplace and back the table up to it. Agree you need art. You can frame ANYTHING. Childs artwork, favorite fabric, travel posters, colorful records. Ikea is great for cheap frames in everysize. Just put up something you like to look at. It doesn't have to be "art".

Babyloft: The room is pretty bland, how do you feel about decorative painting? You can always just cover when he outgrows it. Looks like you need a larger storage peice on maybe on the wall facing the sofa. Something that would fit bins, maybe even good old expedit. and then i'd add a childs chair and table set... not that he'd use it yet. Maybe some color on sofa and floor pillows. Is it also a guest bedroom?

I think the loft would be best divided into an "adult" space and a "child" space. This can be as simple as putting down a small, round children's rug in the corner where the covered storage is, and teaching Donovan that his larger toys need to go back onto his rug when he's done playing with them. You can even rig up a curtain that you can close to block off that section of the room when it's not in use (and could double as a Donovan Fort). Make sure the space has plenty of easy-to-reach but concealed storage, such as baskets in the bookshelf. The toys your son doesn't play with often should be gathered up and discretely disposed of or given away when he's not around to see, in order to reduce baby clutter. Above all, always encourage him to put his toys away when he's done with them to minimize the amount of things left out to trip over.

As for the formal room, it could use a longer coffee table, and the room would look more symmetrical if the rug were placed horizontally to the fireplace. Add a couple of nice chairs opposite the couch and move the desk elsewhere. The mirror above the fireplace would also be better off if it were rectangular and placed horizontally, to make that wall look wider. That'll give you some good bones, and then you can think about wall art and adding more color.

Hope that helps!

A good storage ottoman would be nice, and balance out the couch....If you were feeling crafty (and its not an expensive piece to begin with) you could repaint the small coffee table with chalkboard paint for kids to chalk all over...(though do we want to train them to write on the furniture? thats a whole nother debate....)

I would put another chair beside the couch (where the pile of pressies is) to make a conversation circle. Its a great way to make an area feel cosy - especially if the room has multiple functions. you could also use your current coffee table as a side table to the couch and new chair, making an L shape with them.

I've seen somewhere a system I think from ikea that is a tension wire with clips hanging from it - use it to hang kiddie creations and you can switch them out regularly.

Its hard to tell what you actually use the loft for - is it a kids room? storage room? reading nook? or just an area of the house you pass through? that should shape your direction...

First, you need to declutter. It's clear this picture was taken after a party - baby shower? So, I'm sure it doesn't usually look like this.

Make the fireplace wall the focal point by hanging some curtains from the ceiling that fall to the floor. Pull the panels to the side with one of those curtain brackets (I'm a designer and I can't think of what they're called right now! - long day). Choose a patterned fabric with the same red as the sofa. It doesn't have to be an exact match! Keep the mantle clear.

Next, you could go with a padded ottoman, but the coffee table needs to fit the scale of the sofa, so it needs to be longer than the current one. I'd also add an end table next to the sofa and add a lamp. It looks like you have no lighting. A floor lamp on the other side would be nice.

I can't really see what's on the wall with the card table. You need more seating for the living area. A couple of chairs would be nice opposite the sofa. That's pretty standard. Choose seating in a neutral hue that works with the wall color. They'll go with anything when you move.

As for storage, I'd buy some tall units with shelves above and storage underneath. These should be white. Place them on the wall opposite the sofa. The 2 chairs go in front of that.

Finally, switch the rug around so it's running the other way. Oh, and accessorize with yellow. A nice palette for your room is the khaki, red, white and yellow.

I hope this helps.

Here's what I'd do with the loft - add interest (colors, rug, artwork), additional seating, and nice-looking and useful storage (appropriately sized and snazzy shelves). First, change the wall color so that the rug and wall aren't virtually the same (like they seem to be in the picture). Go for something pastel and pleasing. Most colors will go with the neutral rug. To make this a toddler space and an adult space, consider a storage until like Expedit from IKEA where those tall shelves are now. Use the bottom shelves for Donovan's toys, using baskets (also sold at IKEA) to neatly organize his stuff. The upper shelves can be used for your items and for displaying books or pictures or artwork. Give the room some pizazz with a colorful rug in front of the sofa, and add another rug like another commenter suggested, for Donovan to play on. Consider some accent pillows to link together the rug and wall colors. Some additional comfortable seating would be a plus, too. Frame your son's artwork in organized, attractive frames.

As for the living room, I strongly recommend a change in the wall color. Use a warm tone to pick up on the sofa and rug colors. The gray is really overwhelming. Change out the mirror for something that fits the space better. The curtains need to go -- they're either too short or too long. I'd pick out some long and graceful ones that pool on the floor just a tiny bit. Art above the sofa, accent pillows (as others have suggested).

Good luck! You have a lots of nice fundamentals in your home already!!

Colors can make a huge difference but consider low VOC paints and you can have a pretty room and be more environmentally sound. I would definitely add photos either your own or artistic ones. Use different sizes but with similiar frames to tie it together. Add some plants to help improve your air quality and add some visual interest. If you have direct sunlight consider growing herbs or vegetables which can be used in cooking as well. When looking for decorations remember you don't need a lot of stuff to have a pulled together room. Keeping it simple will save you money and reduce clutter. Storage that will hide some of the toys will make it look more pulled together check craigslist, Goodwill, thrift stores, Ebay and garage sales. You get "new" solutions and save something from a landfill and you save money. You might be surprised what you can find for sale on Craigslist.

Hope this helps!

N.

http://badhuman.wordpress.com

You know, kids have been around since the beginning of time. They've been banging their heads into cave walls and log cabins for a long time and still survive.

I'd IKEA the loft like crazy. I love the bright colors and whimsical shapes that encourage hands-on interaction.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/rooms/childrens_room/

There's a lot of reasons to do that. As your child grows, they will become much more exploratory. And energetic. Children can be quite content via imagination. And they may end up having friends over...via friends of yours that have children. And you may have a babysitter too, who will wonder what to do with all that energy.

So you get something like the Mammut table and chairs. Tent and tunnel. Maybe the Skon air mattress (but I just KNOW the kids would jump on it).

Trofast storage:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/rooms/childrens_room/12018/

That can hold a lot of toys and be an extra hamper or storage for blankets. But realize that the toys will be all over when they are being played with, and play IS an important part of a child's life. I have cat toys and cat climbing things and pop-up cat cubes. Yeah, I could pick them up and put them away. But then they can't be played with.

And while it seems impossible to corral those toys, you can help direct certain toys for certain areas. Like with this mat:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20101871

Maybe not right now, but eventually, that could be very useful. And it's portable. So you could bring it down to the formal room for a period of time. Same for the Mammut table and chairs. Lightweight.

If the toys are stored in bins, you can bring down a bin of toys. Move them from room to room, and have the bin to put them back into later.

Please do not paint around children.
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=36058
"Like adult Americans, children spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. Young people are particularly susceptible to indoor air pollution because their bodies are continuing to develop. Because children breathe in 50 percent more air per pound than adults, if indoor air quality is poor, they inhale and absorb a greater volume of contaminants into the lungs."

Regarding the Filtrete filter? Check out this fan:
http://www.nextag.com/Lasko-Performance-Air-Cleaner-549622043/prices-html
I have one. Takes regular furnace filters, and you can get those at your local hardware store. You can decide how much filtration. That would certainly help the young one. But it doesn't do anything for PAINT fumes.

Read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4115617.stm

And more:
http://www.scdhec.gov/health/mch/childcare/environment.htm

I like how they suggest to clean when children will not be around for a day or two. Like when does that happen? When your toddler goes on a business trip?

Lots of great ideas here. Only thing I will add is... LIGHTEN THE WALLS. Or at least change the draperies.

Formal room: Paint the trim cream and get curtains in cream. This will soften and unite the room.