When last we met to discuss my living room I had pounded my fist on the table declaring I was going to have an English Roll Arm Sofa and ONE chair! End of story. Everyone out of my way while I have at it!
This is a purposely awful picture of my living room. Literally a snapshot, not a "blog" shot.
Heh. I mightta been wrong about that whole English Roll Arm sofa and only one chair thing. But I'm not sure. This is why I haven't started making over my living room yet. This is also why I've had the same haircut since I was 16.
My living room is "the room". The room in my house that feels wrong no matter what I do. Even when I change things around and think I love it, the love is fleeting and within months or even weeks I'm scowling at it again wondering when it'll stop texting me.
Why is my living room such a struggle? Because it's weird. I normally like weird, but weird isn't helping my living room in this case. It's not symmetrical, the windows are off centre and it doesn't have a single full wall.
Plus it's sort of narrow and long. Sort of. The living room measures around 15' x 11' with the fireplace taking up a big portion of one wall. The problem with this is there isn't a lot of space on either side of the fireplace for chairs.
So after declaring this the living room with ONE chair, I'm rethinking that decision. I feel like this room has SO much going on architecturally with 2 windows, a fireplace, 2 bookcases and a big, framed entry that I need something to really anchor and focus everything. Something solid and bold. Like a Snuffleupagus.
Orrrrr two matching chairs. Not even just two chairs. Two MATCHING chairs. I'd like them to be in front of the fireplace, facing each other. The Eames chair in the corner is comfortable, but when winter hits and I'm sitting beside the fireplace, I can't even really see or feel the fire because I'm smushed in the corner. Which is the only place the chair and ottoman will fit at the moment.
I'd also like two chairs in front of the fireplace with the option of being able to see the television from them. Which means that television over the fireplace might get moved. Obviously having your television on your mantel isn't a design lovers dream but honestly, it's where most people put the television because a lot of times there's no other option. Yes. Sometimes even designers put their televisions there because it makes the most sense in terms of having a room be functional.
I may have a bit of a mission on my hands finding two chairs that meet all of my requirements. Seriously. Like, I might not find these chairs until after I've already turned this living room into a bedroom because I can't handle stairs anymore.
My made up, totally unrealistic chair checklist is this:
- VERY small footprint, but feel big and comfortable.
- Down wrapped foam cushions
- Swivel!
- Maybe even recline!
- But not look like a recliner.
- Have a high enough back that your head is supported.
- NO preference for whether they're traditional/timeless or mid century modern. (phew)
NOW what this means is I can't pick out a couch until I find these two magic chairs. IF I happen to find two magical mid century modern chairs that means I'll want a more classic couch. If I find more traditional chairs, I'll be leaning towards more mid century lines for my couch.
Ready for the hitch??? I've been looking around and what I'd really like is an antique couch.
Sometimes I wonder why you people even follow me. I clearly have NO idea what I'm doing ever.
I'm actually thinking of sending my room floor plan to some of my most favourite designers and hoping they send back a completed plan. I'm talking to you Suzanne Dimma (former editor of House & Home magazine), Carol Reed (designer of my kitchen) and Amy Beth Cupp.
I love my foyer ...
I love my dining room ...
I love my kitchen ...
But I cannot, CANNOT get my living room right.
The worst part of all of this is the fact that this 2 chairs by the fireplace thing means there's nowhere for my beloved Eames Chair.
These are a few of the layouts I did up quickly based on the furniture size I would be likely to get and none of them look great. Partly because it's a mockup layout with nothing else in the room.
(made with the West Elm room planner)
(I'd have a long wood or marble table in front of the sofa but it was easiest to use a long upholstered bench to simulate the right size in the planner)
You know looking at these I'd probably be smart to just keep a stupid sectional in the room. ACK!!!!!
I might just turn this into a bedroom right now.
Have a good weekend!
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Renee King
Great post!
I have a year of interior design schooling in my past which makes me "expert" according to friends. Ha! I've lived with this horrible living room for 30 years and have had probably 20 completely different arrangements, complete with all different furniture and accessories. Psychotic!
One good thing I did though, is help my husband install an OmniMount TV Full Motion wall mount above the fireplace. Up, down, side to side, pull-over-the-mantle, tilt, the whole thing. It covers almost any sin I can commit against this room. BTW, when we got ours it was almost $300. Now they're much cheaper and more logical.
Form follows function...;-)
Beth Kollé
As far as I know a 'frikadel' is a Danish meatball.
I SO sympathize with you, I too have had an impossible-to-place-furniture-in living room. I think #4 is your best bet. BUT, turn the chairs so they're facing each other more, and add a settee instead of a couch that faces the fireplace. One (round?) coffee table in the middle.
No idea what to do with the rest of the room, sorry.
Vicky Evans
I am not a decorator but here goes. There is way too much furniture in the living room. I love each piece but the number of tables (end, side, coffee) overpowers the room. Maybe rotate them out & in. Never line the walls with furniture, it always ends up looking like the day room at an asylum. If you have too much furniture to move it out away from the walls then you need less furniture a room. Some people have to have perfect symmetry which is fine but unfortunate because it's never the most interesting look unless you live in a castle or chateau. Use odd numbers of things 3, 5, etc & don't match stuff exactly in size shape or number on either end. The other rooms pictured that you (& I ) love don't appear to be burdened with absolute symmetry so you understand the beauty of informal balance. Go with it. I agree with the comment that the sectional has to go. A couch or chaise is nice to lay down on but again too much couch looks like a community day room or a dr waiting room. The computer layouts are a good idea. #1- ditch the ottoman between the chairs, It makes the room look like an obstacle course. Every piece of seating doesn't need a companion piece, table, ottoman, etc. A floor lamp by the chair you would use the most for reading would look great. #2 is quite good but the coffee table/ bench is too close to the same length as the sofa. It doesn't invite, it creates a barrier or a squeeze chute effect visually. One thought would be instead of 1 long table/bench place the two ottomans from the new chairs you get next to each other in front of the couch with a gap between them. You could set a tray on one if you want to put small stuff on display. #3 is all kinds of no. The chairs look like they were moved in for a big event & will be leaving soon. #4 is good except for the ottoman in front of the chair again. If you need an ottoman for comfort when you use a chair put it to the side (or in front of the couch) with books or a throw on it & move it up when you need it. Your floor is beautiful so I wouldn't go with any floor covering more than the one you have in front of the eames chair. I agree maybe the eames chair needs to find another room to live in for awhiles. If you keep the eames chair in the living room then the ottoman needs to not be directly in front of it, it just is too big with both together. But that kind of defeats the look of the eames chair so...what to do? One thing I do when I'm making BIG furniture changes is I move the existing furniture out or to one end of the room & make outlines of the exact footprint of each piece with fridge boxes etc then move them around so I get a feel of how much room each piece will actually take up. You can also use painter's tape on the floor of the exact dimensions of the furniture but cardboard cutouts are easier to move around. Sorry about the epistle but hopefully some of it is useful. I was a member of a facebook decorating group recently & some people got angry with me because they thought I was negative. I didn't run anything down or call names or anything but I gave an honest opinion as I have here. I assume if someone asks a question they want an answer, stupid me right. Anyway if you want me to leave & never darken your blog doorstep again that's ok. I hope not because I love your blog. I cuss like a sailor, I would rather get tools than any other gift & if you can make me laugh I can forgive everything else in life. I think we'd get along great.
Marci
Layout #3 and you still have room for the Eames chair in the corner. Whatever you do don’t settle! I finally got rid of my living rooms suite I had for 10 years because after two years of looking I just settled. Shortly after I HATED it but couldn’t afford a new one.
p
Your other rooms really show your personality and ability to do this thing smoothly! I'm not doubting your mad skillz.
I'd empty that room and stare for a few. (now this part is me, probably not you...I just don't like watching tv, so it would be cut) I'm hankering for one of those great old Gustavian settees with a tufted little mattress on it, so that's what I'm seeing in this room...amongst a bevy of plants and trees. Think of an old world conservatory. Ahhh...
Katt Philipps
Having similar issues in my own living room, in fact, the only thing I like about it is the tree outside one window with bird feeders on it (yep, my favorite past isn't even inside the house). So with this post, I've decided since I'm already ripping off your chicken coop design, that I'm just going to wait to see how your living room ends up and copy that too (so please don't make it a bedroom). Now I'm off to change the haircut that I too have had since I was 16... sincerest form of flattery (or just let me know if you need my address for the restraining order)
Susan
I feel your frustration. I've totally given up on my living room. The house is also a century home, complete with the creepy spider-infested basement but the upstairs has been renovated and opened so that the eat-in kitchen has a huge door into the living room. My problem is a huge mahogany sideboard that my great-great grandfather bought sometime around 1858 from the Labatt's Estate in London. There isn't a wall big enough for it to lie flat against so it's on an angle in my living room. And, of course, that throws everything else off. I've lugged the thing around Ontario and down to PEI and often wonder if I'm stupid, because I'm getting older and don't think anybody else in the family will want it when I'm gone. So family history continues to war with house pride.
Eileen
They sell tvs that default to a photo array/screensaver/painting. A very viable option. I read all the comments, all 500 of them, all different. Good luck with that!!!
Wendy
Lee Industries has “small” upholstered swivel armchairs. Very comfy
Marilyn Meagher
What does pink tool belt have to say about it.
Karen
She thinks my room is fine the way it is, lol. ~ karen!
Janie
I agree with your very brilliant sister. Leave it alone until something fabulous serendipitously finds you...like those wicker chairs you're going to give to me. Keep the Eames chair where you enjoy sitting in it. It looks great on you.
I feel the same about my home sometime. I get tired of the arrangement and some of my "stuff", but when others visit they LOVE IT!
Your home is wonderful. Enjoy it.
Noëlle
Can’t you add a swivel base to the chairs facing the fireplace? Find a chair you love etc?
I’ll tag the boys in your post and see if they’ll join in the fun.
Heather Grauman
I’d kill for that Eames! Give it the attention and place of honor it deserves, like a little grouping the window for reading, or looking out the window. ( if you have to move it from where it is). Such a beautiful home!
Cynthia
Dearest Karen: This is totally one of my favorite posts. What I enjoy most about the post is your fabulous sense of humor. And how you got it so right for us “ normal” people who even study design on our own but somehow can’t get one or more rooms “right”. Thank you for making me laugh out loud once again. And count me among those who would love your Eames chair. So perfectly imperfect anywhere in your home or mine!!!
Lynda
A personal pet peeve is a TV over the fireplace. I think it really detracts from a room.
In our place, we have 2 Berger’s-style chairs - one at each end of the sofa, but when we put the fire on, we pull them close to the fireplace. It doesn’t look right having them there all the time.
Katie
Have you thought about using four chairs with a beautiful coffee table in the middle? I love that look.
Tess Gleason
Agree with some who like #3. You could leave you Eames chair by the fireplace. It opens up the room when you walk in the door and seems inviting instead of "staged". #1 + #2 look like you read to stage a debate or interrogation. And I could never understand the reason behind the two chairs facing each other with a sofa off to the side. It always looks like a debating event with the judges sitting on the sofa like a tennis match. Go with #3 and open up the room a bit more.
Aleesha Kim Mayer
Feng Shui it ;-) Marie Diamond-like..... It worked miracles for my hopeless mini-office :-) Big sisterly I-Know-How-It-Feels-HUG <3
Cathleen Partridge
I have nothing profound to say except the layout and architecture of the room fights against symmetry (which you know) and your current furniture also adds to the jumble. Your mockups look much more symmetrical. The single couch helps as do the matching chairs. A mantle without a television gives you endless possibilities for design. I would think about adding more balance to the room through furniture size and placement and free up the mantle for endless possibilities.
Anne Hazzard
Here is another possibility. Go with 2 sofas and keep your Eames chair. First try on the West Elm site so things aren’t in the exact spot they should be.
Stephanie
I feel you. My LR is 11x19 with a double slider door and window in completely opposite places of where they should be. The door is in the main part of the room and the window where you come up the stairs. I've moved it around 5 times now and still not happy. I too was going to ask if you can swap the LR and DR - you'd lose the fireplace, but gain your library. If not, is it terrible to suggest you shorten down that huge almost 7' entry into the room. That way, you can gain more wall space to put the TV on that wall - or better - the couch with TV opposite on the window wall, and your two wanted chairs facing the FP at the head of the room - maybe adding to the 3' foot little wall if the shortening the entry suggestion is feasible for you.
Karen
I have thought about changing the entryway to the room and making it smaller! But I'm not sure that's the best solution. :/ ~ karen!
M
If you made your entryway smaller (ie normal doorway size) but at the current Eames chair end instead (the 5'4" end, so it became 8'4"), you could do layout 1 - but instead of chairs they would be sofas (you could just fit two 6' sofas and still have access to your bookshelves) and then you could move the Eames chair & ottoman to the corner where the church pillar (?) is. You could then pop a little end table between the Eames and that far sofa.
You'd lose the grand entry to the room, but through the doorway you'd see a bright little reading nook set up with the Eames and ottoman and table and lamp, and maybe catch a glimpse of sofa and coffee table, then when you walk into to the room, you'd be in a cozy setup with the two sofas facing each other near the fire. Keep the Eames and get your two sofas: win win?
Oh, just saw I might be repeating what Anne Hazzard has already said!, but with changing the entryway added.