Another awkward room problem

[2curlydogs]

So, we have an awkward layout for our living room. The large "gap" at the top of the image opens to our dinette/kitchen. The gap at the bottom opens to our front hallway.  What causes the gap is the central staircase. So from the front door you can go into the living room thru the small gap or into the dinette/kitchen.

We struggle with furniture placement. It doesn't seem like there's a really easy, effective way to put furniture in this room.

Any thoughts?

[TBM]

I would move all of the furniture into the center of the room. I am not normally big on symmetry, but maybe you could put the two couches facing each other, perpendicular to the fireplace wall, with the chair where the couch currently is, facing the sofa.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Does the tv have to be where it is?

[memenee]

I would pull, as a previous poster suggested, the sofas in front of the fireplace facing each other. Coffee table in the middle and end tables at the end of each sofa. I'd take the chair out of the mix for now and see how it looks with just the sofas.

I definitely would want the furniture pulled away from the walls and utilize the fireplace as the focal point.

What are the dimensions of the room?

Are you comfortable sharing actual pics
Of the room?

[2curlydogs]

Sept 25, 2014 17:34:23 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Does the tv have to be where it is?

Unfortunately, yes. That's where the cable/u-verse line is.... well.. actually. since we got U-verse, I think our box is wireless. So, technically the tv could move. I'd need to keep the router there-ish though.

I'd thought about moving the couches like that, TBM and memenee. But it bothers my OCD self that the fireplace is off center from the central column/stairwell.

The room is essentially 25' wide x 14' deep.

Here are some (old) pics. It currently looks like a toy bomb went off, so no snapping pics for me.

Biggest change, really, was the bookshelf moved between the fireplace and the window and the chair went into that corner. We moved the chair after Christmas to replace where the tree had been.

This is from the front door looking in to the living room via the smaller "gap".

And this is basically standing in the large "gap" looking towards the kitchen.

[auntie]

That's very similar to my great room. It's 28 x 15' with two tall windows in the front of the house and a set of french doors to the read deck. Big fireplace with formal trim right in the center with a raised hearth. There's a wide step up to the foyer with about 5 exposed stairs in the front of the room and a doorwat sized opening to my breakfast room. One difference is that a have a about 15" of wall along the foyer and about 5' of wall between the breakfast room and great room. The latter had been a half wall I had filled in to close the room off.

It is the most difficult room possible to decorate. I bought all new furniture specifically for this house and tendered the room to a couple interior designers who were stumped by it. I ended up with a pair of unmatched chairs/ottomans flanking the fireplace each with a side table. I have a couch opposite on the wall between the two openings. I centered it on the fireplace with an end table. It's not symetrical, but it works. I have the TV on an angle in the corner near the French doors.

When my parents lived here, they had two wing chairs flanking the fireplace, the TV (that they never used) on the wall opposite between the two openings and a sofa floating in front of the French doors with a cocktail table. They had a desk with a goose arm chair in the front centered between the two windows. The house had an open loft space where the 2nd bedroom would be (I had a wall put in there as well) that they used for TV and hanging out.

[texassmith]

I think there's just too much furniture in there. As much as I'm not really a fan of this, I'd try mounting the TV over the fireplace for that particular room. Getting rid of that armoire will do the room a huge service and will help ease the unbalanced feeling.

[emoflamingo]

I agree with texassmith. There's a LOT of furniture in there. Mounting the TV and then doing the layout that TBM might help a ton. And I totally hear you on symmetry. I have a built-in on one side of my fireplace and it really drives me a little crazy. Okay, a lot crazy.

[auntie]

That's a big room.

I don't know that it's too much furniture as much as the scale of some of the pieces is too small/too big. The armoire, coffee table and bookshelf seem apartment-sized compared to the over-stuffed manly upholstered pieces. I know you identify one of those pieces as a "chair" but it looks like a the sofa section of the furniture store. Is it an chair-and-a-half, a sofa and matching loveseat?

LOL, my mother has that exact breakfront in her kitchen in her MD house. She had the windsor chairs for a time, but they started to fall apart on her. She moved the surviving two to her kitchen in FL. I always liked them.

[mrs.jacinthe]

My thought is that the furniture is all catty-wompus in your current layout. I like the idea of mounting the TV over the fireplace (just make sure you're not drilling into anything important and that it's heat-protected) and then bring the upholstered furniture to a u-shape around the fireplace. Arrange it with the biggest sofa in the back, facing the fireplace, and the two smaller on either side of that, facing each other. Coffee table in the middle of the U, end tables in the corners, done.

[downtoearth]

I also think mounting the TV over the fireplace might be best for this room. Then you could do the TBM layout or you could angle the chair toward the fireplace and keep the couch across from it. If you do that, I'd probably put the other couch in another room/basement for now and get a little sitting area under those windows there. It would define the room to have a couch/chair fireplace/TV hangout area and another little sitting area at the window (one where you could pull chairs more central for group TV viewing, but put them back for reading or relaxing in the sun of the window.

Also, if you need a kid area b/c toys are a constant here, I would make the other are under the window (behind the chair/loveseat) into a little kid nook. You could add floor cushions and a couple baskets with kid toys and books.

 

[2curlydogs]

It may be hard to see, but the mantle is at 6'. That's way too tall to mount the tv over for any sort of viewing. Especially with little kids.

auntie - it's a chair and a half that's a pull out twin sleeper (which is our only guest bed at the moment).

Personally, I'd love to get rid of at least one of the couches. One is about 10 years old and we liked it cause it was deep (H is 6'5"). When it was the only piece of furniture we had, it seemed perfectly to scale. The other is a hand-me-down that I'd like to stick in our basement rec room and let the kids "trash" it.

[auntie]

2curlydogs

I hear you on needing "deep". DH is 6'6"- he and I aren't comfortable in the same sorts of furniture. It's why we each have a dedicated chair. If I sit all the way back in his leather chair my feet don't touch the floor. My 5' tall niece can't even bend her knees in the chair. It's crazy. Don't even get me started on the drama regarding the replacement of the toilets at Chez Auntie.

[memenee]

Sept 26, 2014 10:44:49 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

My thought is that the furniture is all catty-wompus in your current layout. I like the idea of mounting the TV over the fireplace (just make sure you're not drilling into anything important and that it's heat-protected) and then bring the upholstered furniture to a u-shape around the fireplace. Arrange it with the biggest sofa in the back, facing the fireplace, and the two smaller on either side of that, facing each other. Coffee table in the middle of the U, end tables in the corners, done.

Would love to see your room like this. Put dh to work moving stuff around and then re-post a new pic.