We have our tv mounted on our brick fireplace (the only place it fits effectively with our super narrow living room) and my husband won't let me drill through the brick to run the cables through the fireplace itself. Since I don't want to half-fix it, we have 5-6 cables just hanging from the tv in front of the brick in a mass. I haven't found an effective fix for this yet that doesn't cost a lot of money or result in big damage to the fireplace.

I put the fireplace tools and screen in the hall closet since I only use the fireplace about once a year if that. I have fresh clean logs in the fireplace at all times, I like the way it looks (I don't like to see an empty grate in there).

An upholsterer can make you slipcovers. They cost at least as much as reupholstering does but at least they are washable. I think fitted custom slipcovers tend to look much better than those tie-on or drape-over styles, but of course they cost a lot more.

My toughest living room problem are 1) the area rug. Getting the right size (I think I need to go bigger) and trying to find a rug that is soft, looks good and doesn't shed. And 2) seating is all weighted to one side, while the fireplace and media console are on the other. Works fine when home alone but when guests come over, I wish I had a better system for getting comfortable chairs on that side of the room.

I never know how to hang art on a large wall. In our house we have a large empty wall because of the vaulted ceiling and I feel too intimidated to hang anything on it. On small walls it seems like the art is proportionate but I don't know what to do on big spaces. I guess I should say I really don't want to do that gallery wall thing.

I spent a bundle (for me) of money on new gray velvet curtains, and then had to get a new to me couch when my rabbit decided my old couch was a perfect place to nest, aka torn up. I don't think the couch and curtains match, and now I feel like I wasted money on curtains.

Our living room is a modest size (the house is a 1928 bungalow), but the previous owners put in 12(!) huge recessed lights making the ceiling look like swiss cheese. I could perform neurosurgery on my coffee table! They are so awful but taking them out and patching the plaster will be such an expensive and messy job. And of course, none of them are placed so that they could be reused for a new central fixture or pendants - I'll have to cut and rewire new holes. Ugh. Other than that, I love my living room as long as I don't look up.

The huge 73" TV that dominates our small living room. My husband is one of those "bigger-is-better/proportion-doesn't-matter" types when it comes to TVs. Grr.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what kind of lamp for the console behind the couch (it acts as the entry table, too). And I can't decide on what big piece of art to hang next to the tv. And I can't mantlescape. At all.

Thankfully, these are not big problems.

1) The shape of our living room severely limits TV placement. It is essentially a large corridor because the front doors are double French with sidelights and the parallel 'wall' is a LARGE double sliding door on to the dining room. There's only one continuous wall left and it faces a bank of floor to nearly ceiling windows that take up 2/3 the space. This leaves us with essentially one corner available for our TV. It's less than ideal, but I see no better solution.
2) My couches are an ivory white color and my partner insists on eating in the living room. I'm ready to kill him over the next stain causing another round of hand wash or steam cleaning. The set is relatively new and was expensive. I love it. Perhaps TV tables would help..?
3) We desperately need new draperies, however I have not yet decided on color nor actioned repainting the living room... this one hangs on me. :(

We're raising 4 kids in our small townhome. You walk directly into the living room. Wrangling four sets of stuff for school, play, seasonal activities (playing in the snow) and everyday items that just seem to appear is proving difficult. We do have a small closet but we could use it more efficiently for sure. We have to tidy up several times a day to keep it from getting crazy but I have to say I do love seeing lego men in random places. It makes me smile. We are gonna be great editors of our space by the time we are done! I'm sure.

I never sit in my living room on my furniture. I have nice furniture but it occurs to me that it looks nice and is comfortable...but not so comfortable that I want to snuggle up there. I end up doing my reading in bed or in my little study nook. So basically I have a nice big room that is aesthetically pleasing but I rarely use.
Part of me wants to empty the living room and make it an art studio or a yoga space. Or...just empty.

1) My living room is a large rectangle that also includes our dining area. I have a table on one wall & the couch on the opposite wall. Since there are no architectural divisions, it's always a struggle to know how to define each space while also having them communicate with each other (the area rug was a good start). It's "fine" as is, but I think it could be better. An upholstered accent chair facing the couch would create a nice division in the middle of the room to define the "seating area" from the "dining area." The trick is going to be finding a chair of the right scale & lines, so it doesn't just look like a lay-z-boy in the middle of the room.
2) Most of the furniture was inherited. No moldy frat-house/grandparents basement furniture; everything is of very good quality from different eras, blended with my own karlstad couch. There's always a line though between "eclectic" and my real taste. My furniture is much more modern than I would choose on my own, if I had all the money in the world. Making all of it work for me can be tricky.
3) When I started the process of decorating my apartment, I had an idea of how I wanted it to look (yellow and cobalt, a la Giverny). Over time, the color palate subdued to navy, burnt gold, black, and parchment (which is much more my real taste). However, I still have these pieces from the beginning phases that stick out like a sore thumb to me now.

I'd have to say the coffee table. It's too big for the space, but I can't find one I both like and can afford, so I wait, and wait, and wait. I've been waiting these last three years.

Other than that the living and dining rooms need a complete renovation, but that's scheduled in 2014-2015. Until then, I'll manage the lack of outlets with extensions chords tacked to the walls. Ugly, but not here to stay.

Where to put the television, particularly if there is a fireplace in the room.

Dear LaureltQ

Do not drill through the brick into your chimney. Whether or not you use the fireplace, you will permanently render the chimney and fireplace unusable for a fire and the only resolution will be reglazing the chimney flue and having a mason replace the drilled brick. Furthermore, if you ever start a fire in the fireplace, the wires will melt and cause a fire themselves. You can carefully drill holes in the exterior chimney masonry to anchor things. However, drilling any hole from the outside of the chimney into the chimney flue is extremely dangerous as you can introduce smoke and carbon monoxide into your home. You can also damage the flue lining and cause an accumulation of creosote eventually resulting in a chimney fire.

I have no hallway - the door comes straight into the lounge. I hang coats and scarves on the back of the door, and I have a wall mounted thing for mail and keys, but the problem is I have nowhere to keep bags that are in use. Usually my work bag, gym bag, weekend/evening handbag and boyfriend's backpack are all kicking around on the floor making everything look messy.
The other thing is laundry - I don't have a dryer and as I live in the UK clothes take a long time to dry, meaning that in winter there is always a clothes airer taking up space in the lounge. Whenever it comes down the room looks so much bigger but that doesn't happen very often...

@ loutus, my giant tv solution: get an HD projector. mine was about $500 & a great investment. the screen goes up & down. perfectly hidden when you need it to be, bigger than a (small, independent) movie theater when in use. we're not a football household, but everything from the presidential debates to old movies is amazing to see 10'x6'.

I have a really weird size living room 20' x 11' - so I can't figure out the right rug size to put in there. And there is a fireplace/radiator/windows on the east wall, 2 french doors that open to juliette balconies on the south wall, another radiator and window on the west wall, and the north wall is the giant archway/opening to the dining room, and also the staircase to go upstairs. That leaves me with exactly zero blank walls where I can naturally put the couch or TV. The couch is actually against the north wall facing south, and blocking the staircase landing (the landing is open and accessibly by the dining room). And the tv is just sitting between the french doors. I put a loveseat under the west wall window, and 2 chairs on either side of the fireplace, but still leaves me with a rug conundrum since the chairs besides the fireplace won't have their front feet on the rug because the hearth will be in the way.

* The fireplace tools and screen. Cheap but functional. I wish I would afford to replace them.
* The popcorn ceiling has a crack in it along a tape seam. It's also a high ceiling so it's difficult to fix the crack and even though it's cosmetic, it doesn't look good for a house on the market. Cost to repaint ceiling? $1300. I haven't got it.
* The big area above the fireplace. I have a mirror there but I'd really like to blow up one of my pictures and hang it. Again, cost.
* Mismatched woods. This is a perpetual problem. I have a beautiful coffee table. Unfortunately, nothing else in the room goes with it. Stain it or pitch it? Still up in the air on this one.

er actually it's 22' x 12'

Arranging the really small 9x13 room. There's a fireplace on one wall, one wall is open to the dining room and a huge window on the third wall. The one large wall has a heating vent that is about 12x12 at the floor. Getting in a TV and comfortable seating and in while leaving room to navigate through is a challenge. One bit of inspiration that paid off was to get a Hemnes sofa table and put it in the opening between the living room and dining room. It is pushed up against one side and has nice Craftsman like details so it looks like a built-in. I filled it with books and now I have "wall" space there.

@ZoeCat, I am having a good chuckle about the neurosurgery on your coffee table. :-))

I don't really have huge problems with my LR except that I am very limited in how I can situate my furniture. My LR and DR form an L, i.e a mirror image of an L(i.e. _I ).
My house is a raised bungalow, and there is a short flight of stairs from the front door to the main level. There is only a "stub" of wall between the stairway and the LR (full height, but the wall is less than 3 ft wide), the rest is a railing and open space. Next wall - again a very short wall between the kitchen and the LR, and the rest of that side is the entrance to the DR (there is no wall between the LR and the DR).
Opposite to that is a huge window, 3+ meters wide (about 3.5 yards wide), 2 meters high. The window starts less than a foot above the floor so practically most of the entire wall is consumed by the window.
The last wall is shared by the LR and the DR with no division between the two rooms.

Most of houses on my street have a similar layout, with a huge window in the LR, although the window starts higher up on the wall. I see that most houses have a sofa positioned in front of the window (ie. the sofa is backing on the window) so that from the street you see part of the sofa's backside). I find it rather unappealing. If I put my sofa in front of the window, you would see practically the entire backside of the sofa from the street as my window starts so low above the floor.
Finding a curtain rod that would stretch the entire width of the window was nightmare and now it sags as it also took 4 widths of fabric to make the curtains (two widths of a fabric per one panel).

I wish the DR was a bit wider - one ft would make a world of a difference. But that is basically the store of my house - it seems like I always need a foot or at least a few inches here and there to make the individual rooms function better.

We need a second side table and lamp on the other side of our huge sectional. I'm toying with the idea of getting a different cover for our IKEA Karlstad (the brown waffle attracts red dog hair like nobody's business and the texture makes it impossible to vacuum out so I'm thinking the smoother dark gray) but we'd have to totally take apart the couch so that will have to wait. We need more art on the TV wall and need to get somebody to come in and wall-mount the TV. Otherwise it's looking pretty decent. Maybe an area rug for the dining room (which is open to the living room and hence practically part of it).

My biggest challenge is our entry way. We have four children and live in a small townhouse, and, much like an earlier poster, our entryway is often a mess with shoes and jackets and bags all over. I'd like somewhere to put 6 to 12 pairs of shoes and 6 or more jackets neatly! No closet, but the area is a long hallway. I'm thinking hooks and some sort of shoe storage.

We bought an upright wheeled AV stand for our flat screen TV. It's a stand often used by businesses and conferences. When we want to watch TV, we just wheel it out from its parking spot in a corner. I love it. When pushed against the wall, it leaves the rest of the room free. And when we watch TV, we can wheel it right into the middle of our small living room.

My living area is also small (12' x 9') with a double window and my front door on one wall, although it is part of an extended open space (dining and kitchen) in my garden home. The ceiling is vaulted (the peak of my house is 30'), and I have an interior railing from the loft above. Because it transitions to a standard 8' ceiling, and because the fireplace is near the entry, it has been difficult to nail the "perfect" solution. I have done quite a bit of editing, and the cleaner it gets, the more I like it ... but it has left a lot of the items/pieces I've acquired over the years packed in storage. I also had to replace a 5 year-old sectional sofa/ottoman that I really loved since it was greatly out-of-scale. I found 2 vintage 6' sofas at a thrift store that I had recovered ... sofas + fabric + labor <$1000 - a perk of living in Alabama ... and am now using 2 vintage steel frame rectangular/upholstered benches as ottomans between the sofas. I like this set-up best, and have concluded that in small spaces it is best to define functional areas parallel, as opposed to perpendicular. Another thrift store find - a mid-century modern room divider just 12" deep and 7' wide with glass sliding doors for barware on one side and cabinets/drawers on the other - was too good to pass up at $43. It needs pimping, and is on the short list for its "make better," but the truth is, if it was removed from the landscape I'd have more living room options. I think my biggest "problem" is keeping my Australian Shepherd's weave from shedding as much as it does and, in the same vein, incorporating dog furniture/beds into my design. I have also struggled, as a single man at 41, to reconcile my habits/daily life routine with my mother's more traditional advice on living space. I'd rather have 4 swivel chairs around an ottoman, or a single chaise lounge for watching television. When I have company it's 1 or 2 people, and seldom are they overnight.

OK, I didn't mean to turn this comment into therapy-purge/my life story!

My living room is 24 X 11, but the problem is the four doorways plus stairway, PLUS four windows (3 in 1 plus another). There is no way space. Two doors are openings to other rooms, (a set a french doors and an opening that is 3x's a normal doorway).. we can only barely fit two bookcases in a corner. The t.v. is in another corner. There is no coffee table because it would break the flow to all the other rooms. I'm not complaining about the openness and light, but there is no focal point. I've thought about a fake fireplace, but our 1931 floors are so uneven it would take a lot of work for it to sit strait. And this is the only room for the dog crate : )

Wires. From lamps and the phone. Into either wall outlets or floor outlets. They are everywhere and I hate them.

omg Becky, sounds like me!
open living room /kitchen/den. no wall space no coffe table in the middle because you walk straight from the kitchen tru the living room to the den.
It is also the dog play area.
i don't like my color scheme, dark brown couch and 2 brown art deco chairs.
I am looking for an area rug with my brown dog in mind.

Right now I have three problems. The most immediate issue is lighting. The living room is 24x36, which sounds nice in theory but is very difficult to light. Add to that the angled ceiling, which is clad in wood, and the wall of windows (again, great, but) and I can't figure out the correct combination of overhead and table lamps.

We have what might be the world's ugliest fireplace. A giant, looming black hood, with lava rock surround. Plus, it's sunken with a black hearth. It feels like a big black hole, and it's going to be beaucoup bucks to do anything with it. So, we ignore it.

Lastly is more of a husband problem than a living room problem. I would like to rearrange the furniture, especially the TV/stereo setup, so that it's less prominent in the room. Now its in the middle of the 36' wall. I'd like to move it to a 24' wall and create a separate seating area that doesn't look directly at the TV. My husband won't even consider it - he feels like we'd only be using part of the LR and the rest would go to waste. I wish I could get him to see reason (my reason, of course), but I'll overlook this lapse of good taste!

- My current living room is smaller than the one I was living in when I bought my furniture. I like a sofa big enough to lie down on and a small side table on both sides to hold drinks when I am sitting. However, our living room is barely wide enough to have this *and* walking room on both sides of the couch. I could get a smaller couch, but then I couldn't stretch out. And then my long ottoman/coffee table would be too long. I love putting my feet up on something soft!

- I think I need a 7x7 rug, which is hard to find. This fits the area where my furniture sits without causing a trip hazard when you open the front door or travel to the other rooms.

My biggest challenge is a funny one in that I'm really picky on what couch I want to put in my living room. I'm in a 700SQF apartment. For me I'm not into buying a cheap couch at IKEA that will fall apart in a year, but the problem I find is that most couches I like take 6-10 weeks to deliver. :/ So at this rate I won't have a couch till end of March which is ridiculous.

Tried finding a demo/floor model couch but couldn't find anything that really suited my space. I'm trying to go with an arts/photography theme in my place as I will be putting up new artwork this weekend. Then again I think with my space I spend more time working and less time in my home enjoying it for what it truly is.

Here are my main living room issues...

1. My living room is tiny with the only seating being a sofa and slipper chair. I would love to find some great floor pillows for additional seating around the coffee table. So far I have not found any I love.

2. I am trying to figure out a way to make my patio just off my living area into an extended living space for when I have company over.

3. How much art is too much. I have so much of it and have the constant urge to buy more, but still want my space to feel well edited.

4. Finding awesome pillows for my floral couch. I don't want all solid colors (boring), but its so much harder to find pillows for couches that are upholstered in printed fabric.

5. My wall to wall carpet in renter's beige. I would love to put rugs down in my living and dining areas but don't know if that's redundant over carpet. I have been dying for a tan cowhide rug for years but I think it would probably look ridiculous over carpet.

Whew! I feel better now that I got all that off my chest ;-)

@toastercat - we have a 12x20' living room, and it's impossible! One long wall has two sets of sliding glass doors, and the other long wall opens to the dining room, with the walkway in the middle. Thankfully the short walls are available. But seriously, where do I put the sofa and TV so you can still see the TV, walk through the room, and not have everything jammed against the walls?

The only place to put the TV (last two houses) is one corner. Now that we've upgraded to a flat screen our huge Ikea Leksvik TV stand has an ocean of room in the back and you can see all the wires. I did have them wrangled to the center and back of the TV with various 3M hooks but some have failed since they have to stretch the expanse of the back of the stand. Too lazy so far to fix it again. I hate looking at the wires at the bottom between the screen and the stand. Gr. I love the stand for all the storage...half tempted to see if anyone could chop the back off and make it thinner.

I finally found art for the weird corner walls behind in the form of tin cutout folk art birds. Losing the top of the TV display, the corner wall above looked like a vast wasteland. A big flying bird on each wall did the trick. A flock of birds decal would have been great if we didn't have some kind of bizarre swirly stucko finish on the walls.

I love these if you have a corner TV problem and don't like decals...they are sort of like what I finally found...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/106387141/ceramic-wall-art-flying-ducks-black

Like a lot of others, the front door just spills right into the living room. We use the kitchen entrance instead. The floor is easier to clean with sloppy shoes than the hardwood would be. Cheap cotton (washable) rugs right inside the door for our sloppy shoes during mud and salt season.

The front windows face east so everything on our coffee table has a sunfaded spot. At least when I dust I know right where everything goes! I should really refinish it this year.

Echoing other posts, the biggest challenges for my living room are furniture placement and no distinct entry way. There are so many permanent features to work a sensible and stylish arrangement around, windows, doors, fireplace etc. ever wall has a limitation so something has always got to give - a view, a passage way etc. I currently have an arrangement that works well considering, but I like to change things up every once in a while especially during the winter when we spend so much time in the same old room , I came up with this arrangement through MUCH trial and error though its not particularly innovative but I know I will want to change it eventually but nothing else seems to work without buying all new furniture which is not desired nor a viable option. As for the lack of entry, I've organized it to look and feel like a designated spot but because its part of the larger room I dont like seeing it , and entry way furniture and accessories always come off looking utilitarian and dont blend in with the rest of the room to disappear.

We just moved and I'm unsure of how set up furniture in the living room. I want to continue to make the room feel big and open... We have huge vaulted ceilings, but also have exposed structural barn beams that impact placement of furniture. It's a big room, shaped like a pentagon with two 90 degree angles (floor layout is like a primative drawing of a house) approximately 28x16 and the front angled walls are both 15 ft. Right now I'm not sure how to get more furniture in than we had in our little square living room at our old house. Plus theres an awesome fireplace, but it makes the TV placement difficult right now (TV is too high if mounted above the mantel)

I'm searching for a solution for the big black hole - the TV-screen. I thought about painting the wall behind it in a dark color. But as the room is not that big and the sreen is hanging at one of the longer walls of the room I worry that the whole room might become unproportional. There are several quite expensive solutions like a kind of elevator, that brings the TV sreen out of the sideboard if needed. But that's something I can't afford. Then, I thought about hanging a big piece of fabric in front of the sreen or a big painting. Hmmm....maybe the screen would even look better:-)

Hi John,
Yes, that is the reason that we haven't run the cables through there. Unfortunately, it leaves a huge bundle of wires hanging down from the TV. I haven't seen any "elegant" solutions for this.

Katie Marie: renter's beige? As for art I think if you have some key pieces that really speak to you, that's all that should matter. I just unfortunately spend more time away from my pad than I do in it at times. :/

Pet hair and the wall behind the TV. I know what I want to do, but I can't do it until we settle on a new TV. I'd hate to put holes in the wall knowing they'd need to be moved. Also, in the winter it is is godawful cold because there is a whole wall of windows and curtains wouldn't look good.

We need more seating for larger groups (we regularly have 10-12 people over) but that can be put away. No ugly folding chairs! I'm not anti folding chair but the pretty ones are so expensive. Also, any more resources for curtains that are larger than 50" wide. We have an 8 ft sliding door and double windows.

I'm creating a reading nook in our living room. I had planned on getting a knock-off Womb Chair. Then I got the fabric samples and ew. The whole thing just feels cheap, and for close to 1K even as a knock off, I'd rather find something else. I've got this end table picked for the corner, http://goo.gl/In291, and am going to do a floor lamp similar to one of these, http://goo.gl/TU7l2.

What is a good, comfy chair (and ottoman) that I can put in the corner that I can curl up in with a good book?

to Jess Is the problem that your new couch is grey but not the same gray as the curtains? If so, I think it would help to introduce some of the grey from the curtains as one of the colours on a new cushion or throw for the couch. It wouldn't take much to make it look right. I think what you need is something with both greys plus a main different colour that you like, say black or royal blue background with the two greys. If it is hard to find something, keep your eye out at a fabric store that sells remnants. Even if you can't sew, with an iron and some iron on tape you could easily make small cushion covers.Look on internet for instructions.
My mother had this same problem when she moved into her brand new apartment only it was the light green of the carpet and the love seats. The carpet samples they let her take home looked different in the light at her house than they did installed in the apartment. She covered some throw pillows with fabric that had a dark green background with both shades of light green in the pattern and suddenly you didn't seem to notice the problem anymore.

Funny how most dislikes of living room spaces are the direct result of technology!

My husband is an avid music collector...thus many bookcases of his music. Thankfully he keeps it looking nice and organized in our small living room, and our flat screen has stayed under 45'' :-)

My husband's 1980s vintage teal La-Z-boy. The room is gorgeous (if small), but that chair really stands out. Thankfully six years of begging worked, and I'm going to get it reupholstered in the spring to match another chair in the room.

Threeacres, I have an upholstered storage bench in my living room which functions as either a coffee table or seating, depending on what we are doing. It is in a bold pattern that really makes it stand out and lends the room style.

I, too, have no defined entryway - the front door lets you straight into our combined living room/dining room. While it's lovely to have the space and the windows, it leaves me without a great "landing zone." We've settled for an EXPEDIT for now, but I'd love to have something more unique/vintage.

Our fireplace is flanked by two windows. Would love to put small bookcases under them (preferably to look like built-ins) but they'd need to be super-short (23") to be below the window casing. There are almost no bookcases on the market that are quite that short. I am not a serious DIY-er, so building something is a little out of my wheelhouse.

1.Need to buy a more resilient and smaller sofa or change seating options. Regret buying a cream microfiber sectional 5 years ago pre-baby and pre-downsizing. What sofa is stylish, comfortable, and toddler-friendly, and won't break the bank? It would be so nice to find a reclining sofa that wasn't ugly.

2. Cat claws marked on the leather chair upholstery

3. Now that baby proofing furniture guards are no longer necessary and not that sticky anymore, how do I safely get the sticky adhesive off my wood furniture without damage?

4. Narrow dimensions, vent/window/fireplace/door placements make it difficult to rearrange furniture. Only one feasible layout, so this forces us to downsize furniture. Our original furniture purchases apparently weren't recession proof! Would rather have a small sofa rather than a sectional, or two club chairs, a small TV stand instead of larger entertainment center, an upholstered coffee table instead of a wood one or glass because it is so visually heavy.

5. WTH to do with a non-working fireplace. Love the piled books look, but that isn't practical for a 2 year old. Trying to find attractive and unobtrusive toy storage within the living room.

6. Hate the renter's white, worse can't apply decals or anything else because of the thick and heavily textured plaster.

6. Moving out the desk area into the larger dining room.

7. Most embarrassing - we've never hung drapes!

We had a similar situation in our last place and I was able to hide the wires quite well. I bundled them in the center and then ran them down onto the mantle, then along the mantle to one side. I would then place various decor in front of the wires - my favorite solution was a bushy ivy plant, because the leaves looked great trailing along the mantle and down the sides. You could center the plant to hide the bundle in the middle, or prop up a few other decorative items. (Just make sure the ivy doesn't grow into the tv! I had to pull a few tendrils out of ours.)

To hide any wires dangling down the side of the fireplace - I directed the bundle behind a bookcase directly next to the fireplace. From there they were able to run hidden down the back of the bookcase and plug into our electronics on the shelves.

Unfortunately we don't have a mantel, and given the age of the house and our mid-century decor, I have a feeling it would look a little odd. I've considered just building a false wall along the side of the fireplace to hide wires and mount shelves to for components, then just run the cords straight out the side in a bundle, but they'd still be visible, and selling my husband on building a wall for a problem that only really bothers me hasn't yet been worth the argument.

No major problems. I wish the walls were white instead of the warm-toned color that they are - I just prefer the cooler look of white walls over beige/warm tones. It's a rental, though, so doubtful I will be repainting. Also, the living room is really the only place in the apartment to keep a large litterbox for my three cats. No room in the bathroom, we don't allow them in our bedroom, no room in the study, and no room in the kitchen (plus that would just be gross.) So the litterbox lives in a corner of the living room and there is constantly litter all over in that part of the room, which I hate. I would love to have another box that the litterbox sat inside of, with high walls to contain the litter, but I haven't gotten around to hacking something yet.

I think your best bet for the sticky residue is hot water. Dab at the sticky spot, then rub with a cloth until it comes off. Repeat.

I living in a top floor condo, built in the 70's, with high vauled ceiling - follows the same angle as the roof. I have huge empty walls,and I have NO clue what to do with them. Right now they are painted an off-white color, and I often wonder what I can do to improve them.

In my living room every wall has something. One wall has 2 doorways, One wall has one doorway, One wall had one doorway, one closed door, and a fireplace, and the last wall has a window. It's quite hard to know how to set up the room. The way I have it seems the most functional, but wastes the most amount of space.

My current problem is that our TV only "works" in front of a set of tall corner windows. It looks awful from both inside and out, with the huge dark hulk blocking the nicest feature in the room, and I have to keep the blinds closed because it's so embarrassing from outside. On top of that, we have the TV table baby-gated to keep the toddler off of the electronics. I bet I could win a "worst TV eyesore" contest.

My issue is the fine line between too much decor and too little. I'm a wanna be minimalist and thankfully so is my husband, however, our coffee table is bare - is that okay?? I never see a bare coffee table in house tours?!....; the dining room table is usually bare; and the two floating shelves that were already there when we moved in never seem 'right' no matter what I do... there's either too much on them or not enough.
I am thankfully happy with it for the most part and love our deep red rug and pillow/throw combination.

That is a toughie, LaureltQ! And I hear you on things not being worth an argument with the husband... this is why I have a different sort of pick too, now. My only other thought would be to put a bunch pf pretty plant stands and/or tall plants in front of the fireplace area to try to camouflage... leaves can cover a multitude of sins. It might seem a little odd but more intentional and put together. Good luck!

Hey there ! Use orange essential oil on the sticky residue and scrape off! It works wonders and a little dab will do.

I agree with lewkkcc, a segmant on how to hang art, what size is appropriate for the size wall, what height, etc.
And, living in an old house with dry plaster walls tips on how to hang art with minimal damage would be very helpful!

elfeathers...sticky stuff removal...hand lotion. It works really well! A little dab and work it with your thumbnail and thumb. The heat from your hand helps. Reapply until you get it all. Works for stickers, too.

Sounds like you have the same walls as we do! Ugh.

I love working from my couch -- grading papers (online), scrapbooking, making jewelry, etc. -- but I can't find a good couch workstation. I need a "table top" larger than a laptop, adjustable height, etc. Something not too modern-looking. Oh well, a girl can dream. lol

Furniture placement is hard!

Here's my suggestion for people who have the "every wall has a doorway or fireplace or something else so there's nowhere to put any furniture" problem: try switching your living room and dining room. That's the situation in my apartment. I see through the windows that my neighbors are all using the living room as a living room, but when I first saw my place, the previous tenants (a merchandiser at crate and barrel's corporate headquarters -- he really knew how to make things look nice!) had the living room in what is supposed to be the dining room. It seemed like a great idea, so I just did the same when I moved in and it is the perfect solution.

I know this only works if you have another room available for switching. But if you do, try it, even if it seems weird at first.

Just not enough room. If I had lots of money to throw into reno-ing, I would get rid of the giant picture window and replace it with bay windows that actually open! Then I might be able to have room for entertaining in that room. Also my BF has a fancier than Ikea version of the poang chair with footstool and they both take up WAY to much room. I would love to switch both out for a smaller chair that maybe reclines. Coffee tables and end tables are too big. TV needs to be mounted on the wall with wires hidden and our entertainment unit is horrible. The dusty rose carpets are hideous and need to go eventually as well. There is only one logical way to arrange things and it drives me bonkers!

The BEST thing about my living room is the floating MCM shelves and cupboards that came with the house. I think the people who lived there originally liked woodworking or wasn't afraid to spend on quality. Its a built in landing strip, is a bar and is just all kinds of awesome.

DOG HAIR EVERYWHERE. I already had two cats by the time I got my dog, so I didn't even think it would be a problem, since I already had it under control right? WRONG. My Navy, beautifully nubbly-textured couch is about 90% white, coarse dog hair, and nothing seems to pull all of it up. Lint rollers (adhesive and fabric), wet washcloth, nothing. Even when the room is super clean that couch (which is new, BTW) always looks messy. And I thought a dark couch would always look clean because it would hide stains. AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA, What folly that was.

@BonnieProjects - this is how I ended up doing it (since my text description is hard to follow probably):

http://imgur.com/a/Y0w7r

The gray loveseat feels slightly too far away from the rest of the seating.
And my carpet is too small definitely. And I think I may mount the TV to the wall there

(And of course I need to paint, replace the black chair, replace the window treatments, replace the temporary folding tv trays that are being used as side tables, hide my speaker cables better, etc etc :) )

@eliz - I did that for awhile but couldn't make it work. All my friends liked it when I switched back with a better seating arrangement that finally worked (it included blocking a staircase landing)

Seladon, a friend used a great trick that might work for your situation. She wanted to hide the TV (wall mounted) but at less expense than what most options would have cost her, so she put a "track" in her ceiling about 2-3" in front of the front of the TV (the track is twice as long as her TV and is positioned so the TV lies right in the middle); the track holds 4 or 6 (not sure because they're not noticeable at all) little pieces that slide in the track. She found a white track, so you barely notice it on her white ceiling. From the 4 or 6 pieces, she hung airplane wire. She took old shutters, painted them to match her walls, and put eyebolts in the top. She tied the airplane wire through the eyebolts. When they are not watching television, she pulls the shutters (one from each side) in front of the TV. She thought about using two framed pictures that, together, create one scene but couldn't find one she liked. She told me that when she shows people around their place, they often comment on how they didn't see a tv, yada yada. They don't notice the shutters or, if they do, never consider there might be a tv behind it. It looks really nice -- much better than my explanation. lol

I didn't see the "reply" button option until after I posted a possible solution to your situation further below.

My bugbear is the variable number of people in the house. I've got the entry way and living room pretty comfy for the normal number of people, but just often enough to niggle I have 3 times as many people in the house (family, so I can't get them in smaller doses) and the layout just doesn't work at all then.

Ditto hanging artwork. No idea how to hang it/don't want to make holes and get it wrong, so it's stacked behind doors, and one of our bedrooms can't be used because pictures are laid all over the double bed.

Furniture placement. Doesn't help that some pieces are huge and extremely heavy, such as a pair of antique armoires, so they just stay where they happen to land when they arrive in our house, there's no way I could ever move them again.

Cat ripping at upholstery when I'm not around (despite having 2 scratching posts). Cat hair. Gross ugly rental carpet. Leaves and seed pods getting tracked in or just floating in through the sliding door (I don't close the screen all the way so the cats can go on the balcony). Come to think of it, most of my issues are floor issues. Also cables. Cable-opolous, I call it, or black spaghetti. Mostly from my music gear - which I can't do much about because I need to be able to dismantle quickly if I need things for a gig.

Zoe, I had a similar problem. I coped by removing bulbs and capping over several recessed lights, and installing dimmers for the others. Big difference!

toastercat, I love your rug!!

@ZoeCat - Is there a color in the cans that make you notice them? How about a flush cover for a few of the holes? There are plates you can get that could possibly make the hole smaller and also angle the light onto a wall for art/pictures.

Here are what I would love to change/fix in out living room:

After mounting a floating entertainment center (which we DIY'd) under the flatscreen on the wall I have this random blank space on the other side of the same wall that I can't figure out what to do with. I hate the whole tv-wall situation happening but I also don't want to be one of those people that every single space on the walls has to covered in art or photographs,,,

Would really appreciate thoughts or suggestions from fellow AT readers, here's a link to some pictures :) http://bit.ly/VoIxgW

Pet related:

Our long-haired black cat sleeps all day on our white furniture, so we've covered it with sheets and it looks horrible. He has cat beds all over, but doesn't use them. I'd like a more attractive solution to pet hair.

Lighting

Lighting is something I just don't understand. The room is filled with sunlight all day, but at night it's dark. There's no overhead light and we can't install one (flat roof above) How do you handle lighting when the furniture is floating in the room? What do you do with cords that have to be plugged in at the wall? How much lighting is enough? etc.

My landlord is a little old man and a former carpenter. I've got solid wood cabinets my in kitchen...they are great--- but horribly ugly! Dark brown with a strange wood grain pattern.

There is no way he will let me paint the cabinets. I don't know what else I can do to make the kitchen look a bit better.

RIBBA PICTURE FRAME FROM IKEA!

I am so not handy and have been wanting forever to frame two posters from a union worker's rally. But the Ribba picture frame diagram comes with 4 teeny screws that need to go into metal brackets on the side. How the hell do I get them in there? There are no screw holes? The screws are so short. I don't have a drill. Only a hammer and screw driver.

I would love to have more on my walls but cannot even figure out what is supposed to be a simple frame. Any ideas?

I feel like my furniture lines the walls but with the room being narrow, I just don't see any other way to fit seating.
I also have two walls that are almost completely window. Unfortunately, the TV only works on one of those walls so I am partially blocking the window with my television set. It is a higher window than the other, but it isn't ideal and drives me nuts!
We have an 8 ft ceiling and need a ceiling fan in the sitting room. I feel like it is too low. Now to mention that the acoustic ceilings are still popcorn...UGH!

I have an antique blue-green chenille damask sofa that I like very much. One of my cockatiels likes to fly over and sit with me, so I have a need to poop proof the arms and back. Right now I just have towels on it, but I'd like to find some kind of decent looking solid or minimal pattern washable fabric to drape in places. I've given up on matching the color and am looking at twin size quilts, not finding much. Any suggestions?

while pictures are tricky to hang in a home, ideally, you want to hang the midpoint of the frame (half the length) 66" from the ground. since most people are between 5-6' tall, you'll catch the right eye line every time. book cases, headboards, couches, etc. change all of that, of course. I generally try to center things, keeping in all balanced. can't go wrong with tape measures and levels.

We have approx a 20'x20' living room. Almost a perfect square, with hardwood flooring and a huge bay window, not too big and not too small.... sounds perfect right?! WRONG!!! When we bought our adorable cape cod the living room looked HUGE and we thought we'd have no problem with fitting our furniture etc., however the wonderful, large microfiber sectional that I covet to the point of it being sinful, seems too large. Pets, however much I love the fuzzballs, are a big nuisance in the living room but you just can't say no to those damn furry faces. LIGHTING is the most major. This house has NONE!! the living room literally has nothing by the way of lights... so I've had to deal with cheap torchere's (sp?) from Walmart because I want to remedy the situation SOON and didn't want to spend a load of money. Then there are the books... I love books to be in the living room, because that is where I read. however only one of my bookshelves could fit in the living room! And it's taking way too long to get the whole built-in-shelves/entertainment center thing done because we have school work and kids! It will get done though! Sooner or later and later is still better than never!

Several times I've seen what I consider to be a chic solution to hiding television wires and minimizing the appearance of a large TV on a blank wall. Get a large a piece of plywood large enough to be wider than the TV and tall enough to cover an area from the outlet the TV will be plugged into to close to the top of the ceiling (proportional to where it ends at the bottom). The ultimate goal is to affix this piece of plywood to the wall but adding blocks or a board to hold it a couple of inches AWAY from the wall.

The TV will be attached to this plywood with a hole cut out for the wires to be pulled through. Prior to it being hung, the plywood should be painted, wallpapered, or covered with fabric in a way that will enhance your decor. If you need some sound absorption in your room, padding behind fabric is a good idea. Painting the panel a much darker shade of your wall color will go with the wall and disperse the visual darkness of the TV, for a simple treatment. Some people prefer the distraction of a wallpaper design or stripes or something else arty.

NOTE: This is a serious mounting job because the plywood panel needs to be strong enough to hold the TV and the panel has to be affixed to the wall STUDS to hold the weight of the panel PLUS the TV. It would be similar to how you would hang a row of upper kitchen cabinets to a wall. If you use a ledger board, make sure you hang it above where the wires will travel. You can also put LED lights behind the plywood to disperse light around the "wall on the wall" creating subtle light behind the TV.

We're still in the process of filling our house, but as it stands now, we have our only couch (a sectional) and our only tv (a huge flat screen for gamer SO) in the living room. Once we buy a new sofa (which could be months from now), those will hopefully migrate downstairs.

As things stand now, though... it's not very balanced. We have a very long and rather narrow living room. We have a beautiful fireplace wall (from '66, so very "modern" for the times--no hearth, no mantel) at the far end of the room, two long and large windows that look out over tree-covered hills and--on clear days--a beautiful mountain range in the distance. These are two my absolute favorite features of the house. But at the moment, the sectional is butted up under the windows, next to the fireplace, to face the tv on the one wall that really makes sense for it to sit on. So the fireplace only gets semi-attention while the view is mostly lost, have to sit backwards on the sofa to appreciate it. ):

In short: three different features (windows/view, fireplace, and tv) battling for attention and no idea how to set up a room to let them all get some.

And because the room is so long, there's still a tiny bit of space left over. We ended up just jamming an extra desk in there, but it doesn't even have a chair. It looks completely unfinished.

In even shorter: LAYOUT. What do I do?

I live in a cottage built in the early 20s,doors/windows/and hallways all are tall and exteremly narrow which isnt a problem for me ,my problem is my daughter's grand piano ,we got it in by breaking the only wide window we have in the dining room ,and which was actually three narrow and tall windows,it was a big costly mess,but we had to go through it .Piano now is in the dining and the dining room is narrow and tall so there is no enough place for a dining table ,piano is too fat to get through any inside door or hallway so it will stay in the dining :(.My formal dining table is in the screened porch outside,I cannot invite people over for dinner during winter .

oh ya and when we were about to buy the house we thought about the piano,we thought we will take the guest room since it has a tiny bathroom attached to it and give my daughter the master so she can fit her piano there ,never thought about how to get it inside the master bedroom in the first place.

If your dining room is a good size for a living room ,switch the two rooms .there is nothing more beautiful than a fireplace and a view in a dining room .

re Ribba & Thorndale, I don't have one, but have done a similar one, so will try to help. Do you have four pieces of frame & 8 'L' shaped brackets; 4 of them will have holes for the stubby screws & 4 will not?

Face down, assemble the frame pieces and glass (carefully clean the inside of the glass if you can) using the 'L' brackets w/o holes. Make sure glass is dry, put in the poster & backing board. Now, with some wiggling (and maybe some grrrrring, you'll need to get the 'L' brackets with the screws (in the holes slightly) in each corner. . . screwdriver notch facing you. carefully tighten each one; that's all they do; tighten up against the 'non hole' 'L' bracket.

Typing this from vague memory of how I did it before with a DIY metal frame kit (& gave away the finished framed pic). Hope this helps some.

The main problem is a housemate who insists that since the cable for the TV is in one corner, that's where the TV has to go, even though it creates an awkward furniture layout and traffic pattern through the room. I could buy the extra cable we need for $20. It would cost about $75 to have the cable company come and fish the cable through the walls. But no, we can't move the TV. Even though moving it would eliminate the glare from the windows as well.

A more minor problem is that a table I wanted in my bedroom couldn't fit through the doorway in the hall (house built in 1900, apparently the doorways are not all the same width) and had to go in the living room, further complicating the furniture layout.

And I wanted to make the dining room either the living room or the home office, but said housemate can't conceive of using a room for a purpose other than what it was intended for. Turn the dining room into an office? A bedroom into a dining room? The living room into a bedroom or dining room? You would have thought that I was suggesting we journey to the moon.

Ah yes, time to vent about living rooms. I have way too much to say about mine! It's basically an L-shape, the main part being 12' x 8' with a 4'x5' jut-out bit. I love my <300 square foot apartment to bits, but having a sofa in this room really isn't practical! I have a desk, a console table, and a small eating table in the room right now.
And I've decided to host a small dinner party next week, which will certainly get interesting.

I read a post on here, about how so many of us have pieces of furniture that don't fit our lifestyles: the big "entertaining" pieces that sit unused other than once a month, and formal living rooms when we really just cuddle up in bed. Basically, why even have these rooms full of giant furniture when we could set them up as spaces for our hobbies?

Which is why, rather than try to find a teeny-tiny couch to try to appease guests who can't sit on wooden chairs without complaining, I want to buy a pottery wheel. For my living room. Which is currently a stereo, desk, and dining room.

Our house is lovely Victorian on the outside, bland new construction on the inside. I'm constantly looking for ideas to bring some of the exterior character to the indoor spaces. In the living room, the biggest stumbling blocks are:

1. The early 00's tv niche. It's actually three niches-- a big, square one in the middle of the wall with smaller ones above and below. Nothing could be less Victorian than giant drywall-clad holes in the wall.

2. The drywall column on the kitchen pass-through. It's textured drywall, so I can't just paint it glossy white and pretend it's wood. We're thinking to clad it in some sort of veneer, but that plan is complicated by the fact that the column is bisected by the bar counter.

3. The rounded drywall corners. I don't understand why this is supposed to be such a desirable feature. It renders the above items even more contemporary-looking, and forget about trying to end a paint color at a corner. Infuriating.

I have the exact same problem in my living room, a big empty wall and I don't want to do the gallery thing either, done that and over it now... Also, I don't have the budget to buy large pieces of art and frame them.Let me now if you find a cheap solution :)

Problem #1,my living room is a boring rectangle with two small windows at one end. I don't know how the break the boring rectangle except with an L shaped sofa, but that creates an empty, unused space behind (we don't want a dining table, we use the kitchen island to have our meals and entertain)

Problem #2 is that the living room floor is slanted and I don't know what to do to make it less obvious

Problem #3 is explained in the above comment,a big empty wall I don't know what to do about.

HELP! i am new to the site, i hope i am posting in the correct area. in our family room, we have a DARK wood built in TV and cabinet area because the room is so narrow. it is from 1965 made of real wood. It has a built in record player area, electric; the works! however it is extended into the garage. when you open the cabinets a rush of cold air hits you in the face. i have a love hate relationship with this built in. i know the original owners of the home paid top dollar and thought out every nook and cranny. i appreciate their design commitment, however, it is outdated by look and practicality. it is 13 feet wide by 6 feet tall and extends into the garage by 2-3 feet. i wish i could upload a pic it's quite hideous. it has 2 outer cabinets that flank the larger TV area on top and 5 lower cabinets, 2 of which are housing outdated speaker systems. (yea i said that...) So after all that my question is, who do i contact to fix/update/or remodel such a peice of cabinetry where do i start?! please help!

Like Parnassus, we also need a big soft new rug that doesn't shed. I love the color and texture of the too-small one we have now, but the first few months we had it it must have shed about 40% of its' original fluffiness. And it was a fancy new Zealand wool rug from a very nice store, not some cheapo thing from the discount showroom.

Any sources/ideas would be appreciated!

My biggest living room problem is how dark everything is. I have 3 kids and everything we own is dark. All of my favorite rooms are light and airy, but our living room has dark furniture and dark rugs, and a bad layout.

For PPs, to solve the shoes problem, I keep a large basket by the front and back doors and have the kids throw their shoes into it. It's not necessarily easy for shoe removal, but it keeps us all from tripping over a dozen pairs of shoes in a small foyer.

Renio322, checkout www.retrorenovation.com and send pictures if you can to retrorenovation.com. Working or not, hold off tearing anything out until you learn more about what you have. There must be a way to insulate from the garage side to keep the draft out.

Mine is easy. I want to know more about the entertainment unit in the picture attached to this article. I really like the way the tv is arranged... it looks like a DIY project or something affordable... please more information!!!!!

Actually paint colors are vexing me right now too!!!! (but that's not going to get fixed via this post!)

I asked without thinking. Found it!!! They did DIY and have it on their blog. Now I need to figure out where to put it :-)

I have a living room that is 13X15 with 3 doorways and 2 large windows. I removed the carpet, sanded the oak floor and put a finish on it. What size rug should I put down? I also had my tall tv cabinet cut down so I can put my new HD tv on the top (it was one of those with doors so you could hide the tv behind the doors). Looks great! I don't have a coffee table so I cound use some help with that too.

vacation mom

we have the Ikea Hemnes shoe cabinet to hold our shoes for the entryway. We have 2 of them. Any occassional shoes ( like snow and rain boots) stay in their bedrooms. We have hooks for our jackets and hats. The kids backpacks are in hooks too, to keep the floor clear.

I'm actually feeling pretty happy about my main room right now - but only because we've just finished all the plans and budgeting for a complete re-do. Now that my (practically) perfect living room is in sight - though it won't be done for a year and a half! - I find that I "see" it as it will be and not how it is right now!

my living room problem is that we have wood panelling. I think it would be too hard to remove, so painting is the next option. Does anyone know how to paint over wood panels??

Barlowgirl,
Not sure what style you like, but llbean has mission under-window bookcases that might work.
My biggest problem is my husband's emotional attachment to a 90's oh-so-ugly green metal futon and 70's stereo stand with dust magnet components in the family room. We also had a break-in and our very carefully saved for and mounted TV was ripped from the wall; the black bracket and cord cover are still hanging there! Good thing we only watch PBS and Netflix occasionally. The more stuff I have, the more there is to care for! Definitely first world problems.

@Thorndale - google "ikea ribba picture frame" - you will see discussions on how to hang and a youtube video.

Crazy because I had the EXACT same thing in my den when I moved in...guy who lived there was really into circa 1970's "HiFi" There were huge oak shelves fixed at vinyl record height and holes all over the house so that the speaker wire came out in the dining room, etc. The wall was freezing!...no insulation between shelving and garage, and the TV shelf was for the older models, small and very deep. We took the plunge and tore it out! We planned ahead to recycle the wood and were very careful dismantling the whole wall. Our contractor was a very handy guy who knew cabinetmaking, too. He used the material to make a (much smaller) long, low open bookcase with our flat screen on top and shelves below for component/DVD/Game storage. The wood already matched all the window and door casing trim in the room, so...bonus! Also, we placed the new arrangement on the perpendicular wall, so that now we have NO WINDOW GLARE on the TV screen, and insulated the outside wall. The whole room functions much better. Completely worth the trouble and expense. Don't feel you are chained to the previous owner's design solutions if they don't work for you!!

All the usual small, old home issues are thriving in my living room...not enough outlets (cord mayhem)...some major fixture (door, window, fireplace) on each wall...fear of drilling/damaging the elaborate coved ceiling...finding furniture that is comfy but also appropriately scaled.

A good vacuum canister cleaner suited to small spaces. Most vacuums are too big to store and to navigate the tight spaces in my "studio" apartment. The small ones seem to be of poor quality.

Shallow book cases and floor to ceiling shelving. Shallow shelving (6-7" deep) would work in my hallway. Tall, shallow bookshelves would have to be stabilized somehow. Ikea Stolman floor to ceiling shelving looks great but I would have to cut down the shelves or make my own...

Furnishings that take into account baseboard radiators. All major walls in my apartment have baseboards which effectively narrow everything by 8 inches in each dimension! I fantasize about building little platforms on legs that are inset so bookcases can go over the registers, but I worry about stability. I hesitate to hang things off the walls because of all the holes.

ZoeCat: we had recessed lighting that had ugly, old bezels on them. They had black interiors and nasty yellowed plastic rims. Yes, they made the ceiling look like Swiss cheese!! And they were in every room in the house!! Fortunately, a trip to Home Depot really helps. The black holes can be replaced by anyone...no electrician needed. They are barely attached with little wire springs and not really a part of the "can" light fixture up in the ceiling. The trick is not to buy the expensive Halo brand bezels, but the $6.00 Consumer Electric brand. Look for the "contractor pack" I think they discount for volume. Clean white fixtures on a white ceiling are so much less noticeable. I can't tell you what a huge difference this has made...I can easily ignore all those cans now that they are white.

Can lights post: hope you are still reading through the list! Get a dimmer switch and use the can lights as low ambient lighting rather than your main source of light.

Clearly the most pressing issue for people is accommodating big screen TVs. I see these in other apartments and try to imagine what neighbors were thinking when they bought those monsters? I have a 19" white TV that does a fine job and "hides" itself against the off-white renters' walls. I'd like to see solutions in case I ever go temporarily insane and bring a big screen home.

I'd like better solutions for all the wires, too. I've hid mine behind a hack bookcase but I know the pain!

More floor planning solutions. Square rooms are awful and long, skinny rooms are a pain. It took me one year to figure mine out, but I can't ever move anything now.

Pet fur; I found a large, pure latex sponge at a hardware store. It is used dry to clean walls. It worked wonders for quickly "scrapping' pet hair off the couch! I passed it to my daughter who had 3 cats and I can't find another now, but it works way, way better than pet hair brushes or those lint rollers!

I am wondering if wrapping a microfiber cleaning cloth around a small block of wood would do the same, fast job? I'll need to try this but I suspect it would work well. Maybe some of you out there with pet hair issues can try this. I have a pekingese now, and he has "hair" rather than "fur" so he doesn't shed those pesky guard hairs much.

We live in a previously small-roomed 50's cape where the walls were knocked down to make one really big LR/DR combo.

My living room problem is that I have a big rectangular living room / dining room with the door right in the middle. I do not have an entry foyer or hall. You just walk in to the big room and if you keep on walking you come to the kitchen entrance

The DH ends up using both the LR and the DR as the landing strip even tho we have shelves by the front door... they just get overlooked. Plus there is a big empty space in the middle which I know could be better utitlized but cannot figure out

lewkkcc, there is a place called www.hangmanproducts.com that has you tube that might help in how to hang pictures...

Take a look at this article. Using the idea to cut paper the size of the frame you are going to hang and play around with the layout seems like a good plan.
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/home-accessories/wall-art/plan-the-perfect-art-arrangement/

My biggest problem in my living room is my husband. He never thinks before he buys. So now I have a very nice antique Korean wedding chest that is over sized. I received it as a gift from a friend who has now passed. And instead of balancing the space with a small coffee table. My husband I swear went out and bought the biggest one he could find. Its nice it has deep drawers but now I can't fit all three of my chairs or the love seat in the living room. Which turned into a huge problem on Christmas. Not enough seating for everyone. And he wont let me move the chest because he likes it there. >< He also wont get rid of the table. Although I am tempted to get rid of the couch and love seat as I find them also to be over sized. Then just go out and find a smaller sofa or something. I am also thinking I should not tell him.......

You come straight into our living room, we have a halltree but have to look at it when we're sitting on our sectional. We also are on display to anyone who comes by, would really love to somehow build a wall right where the front door to the house is. Also, the sectional needs a new slipcover but I don't have the cash. And, the cables stick out of the carpet. The room has three different entrances (the main one to the house, the doorway that goes to the rest of the house and the living room houses a stairway at the far end...thus creating a bowling alley)...looking forward to seeing posts and solutions. Thanks.

Try a throw on the back of the couch that has aspects of both colors plus and accent color. You could also do the same thing with throw pillows. You are probably like me and just focusing too much on those two things. I like to take a picture of the room and see it with a fresh eye.

I love my living room-definitely a work in progress, but good at this stage too. The current issue is window coverings. We have 4 large (4 x 5 foot high windows) side by side looking out over our mostly treed front yard. Currently we have tortishell bamboo blinds which let in a bit of light when down and easily pull up during the day if we like. Great until one of my neighbours said they didn't need reality TV because they can watch us at night!
So..... We have been trying to find some sort of more private solution. But want to be able to have unobstructed views when we want them. We don't want curtains or drapes, are interested in shutters and the windows have a deep 5" sill so they could look good. It is a 50's ranch and I think that the California shutters that are ubiquitous in our Ontario Canada home are going to look like an avocado coloured fridge in a few years. Any brilliant suggestions?

Oops meant unit ubiquitous in our Ontario city.

I have no idea how I missed earlier calls for problems. Mine sounds little, but it is big to me:
My living room has boxy-looking modern pieces in black and white with a red rug. I want it to have Byzantine/Moroccan/Andalusian flair, but have no place to put things. I intentionally avoid horizontal places because they gather clutter in my home. But this is so spare and bland looking it's kind of depressing!

- the way my main room (studio apt) is set up my couch is in front of a steam radiator that spits hot water all over it a few times a day.

- its also impossible to watch a movie with a friend because my tv is at a right angle to my couch and therefore can only be watched while laying on the couch.

- really, really need a new lamp, the Ikea table lamp I found in a pile of free stuff five years ago looks like it belongs in a dorm room.

I have solved my quest for a new tv stand, at least, with closed storage, and matches the style of my furniture and building better than the Heywood Wakefield end table I had been using. It will also put my tv up high enough that it doesn't have to be on top of my receiver so I can get rid of my old surround sound system and get a smaller simpler speaker set. I hate cords and speaker wire and am working on getting rid of unnecessary technology.

I just moved to a place with a larger living room. I have a very beautiful area rug that I now wish were twice the size. What to do, what to do.... Perhaps I'll move the rug to the dining room and just buy another rug for the living room. Have to spend money on other things first though (floors, windows, wallpaper....) And really, the rug belongs in the LR. Sigh.

Use your hair dryer - on warm to heat up the sticky area. Heat then rub off the adhesive with your fingers. Don't burn yourself. Forget about curtains - unadorned windows are the best. What about basket for the toys and put it in the (cleaned) fireplace. Maybe you can find birch (white bark) logs to put in the fireplace as an alternative. Consider slip covering your coffee table. Check out Craig's list and resale stores. My area has fabulous ones.

I am living in a furnished rental in Venice Italy. Trying to make it personal seems to be a real task, especially when the decorating tastes of my landlord is different than what I would like. That said I have tried to change up a few things, but one thing I cannot change is the window. It is a rather small window and is positioned way in the corner of the room. It makes everything off balance. I have tried angling the couch underneath of it and putting pictures matching the same dimensions of the window so it somewhat mimicks it. Other than that I do not know what else I can do.

Hi there, I think u have good bones to work with! I love looking at houses for sale and looking at what I'd change :-) having said that, I have found that finishing off my own house is much more difficult. Anyway, if your lounge room was mine, I'd paint the walls a light neutral white or soft gray; leave the lounge there, and the single chair (love both); ditch the coffee table completely, and use small side table/s; and clear everything but the tv from the entertainment unit, from the tv up, including the speakers (if possible). Leave the shelf and pics on the perpendicular wall (love that!) and accessorise with some strong coloured maybe patterned cushions. I'd possibly put some bunting or hang something with an intermittent object/colour across the wall behind above the tv. Hope that doesn't offend u - I'm pretty opinionated ;-). Our home is a work in progress, and I continually change my mind! I'm a white and gray base girl, with colours to accent. I'm eeked by wrongly located power/aerial points, thus also cords; struggle with putting anything on walls; and my biggest whinge is the soft yellow coloured aluminium window frames though out whole house.... But there are bigger problems in the world to worry about ;-)

Ps... Lol - I think I miss read the "suggestions" - and assumed it was referring to ideas for the room pictured! No offence intended! I then looked thru the link and found the rest. Love the house and their style - it's beautiful...

My frustrations:
1. My living area is very asymmetric, with a several big openings into other spaces. The room is small enough that flipping my couch with its back into one of the spaces isn't a good option, and the wall spaces make it difficult to set up good sightlines for the tv.
2. I like to switch out my accessories a lot, but it requires a lot of storage to hide what isn't in use.
3. I love the look of real plants, but don't really get enough light to keep them alive in the places I want them.
4. I love the look of white furniture, but have a mostly black cat and am kind of messy. I have a slipcover, but washing/drying it in an apartment laundry room is a pain.

Can you at least put the recessed lights on a dimmer switch so they are not so blinding?

Lighting and furniture arrangement are my biggest issues. I can't find just the "right fixture" or lighting solution and it is holding me up from completing the room. The furniture is hard to arrange because of all the windows. Where can I find lighting fixtures that satisfy my desire for something interesting,gives me light and is affordable. Thanks for your help, Deb

I have a small loft. The living room is about 14' X 22' with no walls on two sides. The 11' ceiling is painted over popcorn, which needs to come down. There are two large windows, with the original wood frames (1905) that come to within 4" of the porus terra cotta ceiling.

My problems are:

How to affordably re-do the ceiling and maybe drop it a few inches, so I can hide wires. The space's proportions are perfect so I am very cautious about dropping the ceiling, and I don't want to block the window frames. A drop that small is much harder than a larger one would be.

I collect antique tribal textiles and need the few very large walls for them. I very rarely watch movies, but the TV needs to go somewhere. Then there are thestreo and the floor standing speakers, which, for acoustic reasons, are on ugly black metal stands. Where to put it all - especially because I live on my Stressless recliner and never use my huge leather sectional.

I have three beautiful, very simple, white floor lamps, which I have up on 32" furniture or they are too low in the room. I have a small track hidden behind a ceiling beam. I would like a more nuanced lighting solution but don't want lots of lamps, because I have a fair number of tribal statues.

The ceiling and the speakers are the biggest issue. The lighting is fine, but I would like it to be better.

Have you thought about getting some fabric and either making or having made a cushion or two and tie backs in a fabric that complements both grey curtains and sofa? That way you are linking both together but without them "matching" perfectly. Often using a contrasting shade that ties both in can work wonders and costs very little. If money is tight it's also worth checking out second hand stores for fabrics that can be recycled. For instance, I recently bought a cushion which cost a lot for my current income (or lack of!!) and it has a beautiful felt 3D flower on it. I then went to my local charity shop and found a jumper in almost the same colour as the flower and i am now in the process of making a new cover for another cushion to go on my other sofa so they compliment each other! Just a thought. Happy hunting!

My Fiancee and I just bought our first home. Both of us had only ever done apartment renting or living at home with the family thing before. As we go threw each room and try to decide how the room should feel and trying to account for each others taste in esthetics, I am releasing how much furniture we dont have! I am seeing it as a burden and a blessing, when we do get something new it will be ours, clean and just what we want but, with having to redo every room it's not in our budget. Looks like I will be sewing up alot of pillow puffs!

You need to look for a large painting, something maybe vertical and 50 inches or more in height. One large work has a ton of visual impact it will change your life!

All these issues! It's a shame that there aren't any interior designers that read this website that offer online consulting/designing... Oh wait! There's at least one...;-)

we rent a 2story house....really like the space, and the livingroom with its high ceilings, has an ugly mirrored wall that dominates the space. Its as big as it is and this thing is from ceiling to floor.....I mean, hard enoughto keep clean, dressing it up or decorating is another challenge for us.

Confused. In front of the firelplace, like instead of a fire? Or on top of the mantle? If on top of the mantle, why not hide the cords by zip-tying them together and put a tall basket-style vase with some tall feathery dried grass or twigs or something that suits your style and just set it directly in front of the cords. Then make sure rest of cords run along the edge of the wall. You could wrap them in ribbon or something and make it at least look more intentional? Just an idea.

Pet: you've to train them off the couch or get a dark-colored couch. Spray bottles work great, cats are really fast learners.

Lighting rule of thumb: If you can see where you're going, it's ok. If you can see what you're doing, it's great. If you can see what you WANT to see/highlight is best.

What about changing the sofa cushions to match the curtains, by covering some in a pattern featuring gray? Gray velvet complements a lot of colors - what color is the couch?

Katie Marie -

I too used to think that rugs on carpet were redundant. After years of being annoyed by my own beige nightmare I finally bought one rug for the entryway area of the LV to test the rug waters and it looks amazing. Now the “renters beige” carpet seems to disappear, as well as my stress level about the carpet. I’m now looking for a rug for the designated LV space. Unfortunately searching for just the right rug is another source of stress!

cmmarie -

Perhaps a bench with storage would fit where the backpacks, purses and bags end up. They could go inside the bench and keep it all out of sight.

mrg87 -

I feel your pain. There doesn't exist a vacuum big enough for the hair shed by our two pugs! Every fabric type and color in my house is chosen to best hide the hair (read beige/brownish). I have the world's most comfortable sofa (Lounge by C&B) but the hair sticks to the microfiber better than steel to a magnet! The best material I've found for a couch, excepting leather or vinyl, is velvet. I vacuum my entire house 2x per week and I am still drowning in hair. But I love my little angels...who are currently sacked out on the couch as I type :)

Xarcady -

Seems like the solution to all your problems is a new housemate ;)

I rent and my living room walls are all 65 year old plaster-landlord never mentioned. so my idea of a gallery wall-not happening because the first screw i tried putting in ripped a dorito size piece of plaster from it and also revealed zero insulation between our exterior wall and inside. not to mention the fireplace is supposed to be closed off yet it appears we have a nice fire going from the outside. its a good size but not big enough to seat the amount of people.

Do you have real wood paneling or the cheapo crap from the 70's? In any event, basically, it's clean, patch, sand, prime & paint. Posting a link below for you. It's a bit time consuming, although not difficult and well worth the effort. Now hear me when I say, DO NOT SKIP A STEP and don't fudge...take the time to do each step THOROUGHLY.

Note the caution re a 'glossy' finish at the end of the tutorial. It's there for a reason. I was about to embark on this project in my mom's kitchen & den. Had already purchased most of the supplies when she decided she needed to pay me for my labor. When I refused payment, she went behind my back & hired a professional to do the job. The 'pro' (and I use the term loosely) decided sanding was unnecessary, said 'that's what the primer is for'. I'll spare you the horror story here and just say...don't do it. .

http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/08/how-to-paint-wood-paneling/

A tablecloth for the back & matching napkins for the arms. Lots of minimal patterns to choose from & easy to toss in wash. 'My' cockatiel rarely leaves my shoulder. The OTHER one, on the other hand, does what he darn well pleases when dh is not home. Dh travels a lot. You get the pic.. (Not sure what gave him the idea I rank so low in the pecking order, lol)

You might consider building or buying a decorative conduit to carry the wires along the back of your mantle over to the edge of the fireplace and thence to their various plugs. Any wiring that you could have done internally to the brick can be done externally with some kind of decorative or camoflaged conduit. Good luck!

You might consider building or buying a decorative conduit to carry the wires along the back of your mantle over to the edge of the fireplace and thence to their various plugs. Any wiring that you could have done internally to the brick can be done externally with some kind of decorative or camoflaged conduit. Good luck!

Please excuse the double post. I'm just learning how this works.

@badevillebunny - I get around some layout issues by rearranging things while my husband is away. I don't make it confrontational - just that I was casually experimenting with the layout while I had free time due to his absence, and that if he doesn't like it, we can just change things back. That he can see the result and doesn't have to visualize it, has no reason to be cranky because he can still veto it, and by default we tend to leave things the new way. If you can move the chest yourself, I'd go for it and see what happens.

I'm a single gal with a new home, so of course I'm having all kinds of problems with my combination living room/dining room:

1. I don't know how (nor am I strong enough) to hang big pictures or drapery rods in the living room, but I don't know who to ask for help with these smallish jobs.

2. My new sofa is a warm gray, while my rug is a cool gray - depending on the light. A club chair that looked like a warm gray in the southern light of the store seems more greige in the eastern light of my living room. All three are too expensive, too nice and too loved to not use. I did not have anywhere near this much trouble with undertones with my sand-colored linen sofa.

3. I have 2 different colors of floor tile going on, and also a weird floor layout that prevents me from getting a rug, carpet remnant or carpet tiles to hide the weirdness. I'm saving up for wood floors, but that's going to be a while...

4. I can't seem to decide between a calm, monochromatic, modern space and a more cozy, bohemian approach to decorating my living room. Both appeal to me and I'm constantly editing.

5. Never enough living room storage!

Reading through all of these now! I wish I had the time and the intelligence to answer each one smartly, but I think the community is doing a GREAT job. I'm working on some solutions to the most common questions here, which I'll come back to you all with.

Thanks everyone!

Pictures & Art...how much is too little? Or too much?