Hanna's Family Room

My friend Hanna is re- doing her family room.  Right now it looks something like this:

Hanna has great taste, and it is a perfectly fine looking room.  Her room has too much negative space, and lacks some really good balance.  I'd like to change the furniture arrangement to look more like this:

Remember all you need is three feet for your traffic path.  Your room should really be about being in it, not about being easy to get into.   I feel like Hanna's room before was nice and open to the eating area and to the kitchen, but it is a space of its own.  Create an environment.  Create a conversation area.  Create an atmosphere in each room. 

So- where do you begin?  I start with a floorplan.  Now Coleen can know what size of sectional to shop for.  She knows that it is a left arm facing sectional.  She can go crazy on Labor Day weekend and take advantage of all of the good sales.  I like keeping my large sofas and sectionals pretty neutral, bringing my color in, in other places.  Find a good off white or gray.  Find one that is comfortable and the right size.  For her room that will be about 11 x 8 feet. 

Finish furnishing the place with a chair...  What to look for here is one that is both comfortable for you and also has a good straight back that will look nice in this setting where I have it against the wall.  Some chairs are really meant to be out in the room, with sharply angeled backs, etc.  Stay away from those.  (the sectional and chair are from Macy's)

Now for some tables....  I added a coffee table:

and an end table...and a corner table:

Notice the variety in texture and materials.  Nothing matches.  Perfect!  Get a corner table that is approximately the same diameter as the depth of the sectional.  Not too small, not too large.  This is a 38" round corner table.  That is a very comfortable and common depth for a lot of sectionals.  If you go looking in the "end table" section of furniture stores you are going to find a lot of tables that are 24 inches and smaller.  That is ok for the table out in the room, but his one needs to fill the corner. Scale, scale scale! (the three tables are from one of my wholesale sources)

Now look at the floorplan again, notice the two squares?  I added a couple of poufs.

These versatile little guys act as extra seating for little guys, or a place to put your feet.  The one above is from West Elm.

Add some more color and pattern with a great area rug.   (8 x 10) The simple stripe below is also from West Elm:

There are three walls in the room.  One is clearly filled with the fireplace and built-ins.  One is filled with windows, and the third is big and open.

Add more pattern with some window panels.  (also West Elm):

Now for your large wall. I would fill the space with a terrific wall collage:

You can keep it neutral, or use some of the green, gray and orange.  Collages are great because they can be whatever shape and size you need them to be.  They are also a great way to show your personality, and make your home your own.

Now for your lighting. 

Add a floor lamp next to the chair, a table lamp on the small table, and along with about three house plants, add an accent lamp on the round corner table.  Put a plant in the corner by the fireplace, and add an uplight.  Put track lighting up for your wall collage, and if I remember right,  you already had overhead lighting.  Put the accent lamp and uplighting on a timer, to be enjoyed every evening without thought. 

(lamps from uttermost, track lighting from Pottery Barn)

Notice something about the lighting?  No coordinating "series" used.   Different shades, different colors, different metals.  Nothing matches.  Perfect!

See how it all comes together:

Frequently I find when people go from inadequately furnished rooms to perfectly furnished rooms, they think it is "too much furniture".  It's like if you don't eat cookies enough you think they are too rich.  It's just not true.  Always shop with your floorplan grid, make sure your purchases are the right size, or it really could be "too much," but after you live with the end result you will feel so much better in the room.  You will have created a more intimate environment.  The balance in the room translates to a balance inside you.  You can always move the furniture if you want to wrestle. 

We should all eat a few more cookies while we're at it!

XOXO

Christine

Leanne's Room

Hi, I'm not sure how blogs work so didn't know the protocol on how to ask
design questions and opted to e-mail.  Hope that's ok!

I have a house with living upstairs.  We enter up the long stairway
into the living room that is open to the dining.  I need to
redecorate and I love your style!  Can you help?  You can move anything
around, change the blinds, paint color, pictures etc.  The paintings that I
have I would like to keep and the couches are new. The pictures
are sitting on top of the big mirror in the photo just for safe keeping.
I'm up for painting the fireplace, covering it up, adding molding - whatever
you say, I will do! :)

My sincere appreciation,

Leanne

Leanne,

I love your "Whatever you say I will do!" attitude!  I wish my husband had that attitude!

Let's start with this room above.  You have issues with rhythm, balance and pattern. 

1.  Rhythm.  Rhythm is one of the principles of design.  In your room, you are lacking rhythm by alternation by having the bookcase and small cabinet to the right and left of the fireplace.  You can get away with similar looks when you have some windows with draperies or other elements that can separate the eye from the hard piece, hard piece, hard piece.  See this post where I discussed the principle.  In that post the gal had lots of case pieces on the walls of her bedroom.  Your example is less extreme, but sometimes an extreme example can help you to see what you are doing wrong.  What would I do on that wall?  I would cover the brick and build-in the whole wall.  On your built-in wall- you could add the three pictures sitting on easels as part of your decor.  I would scatter them, not line them up.   The scale is a little small for over the sofa.  Here are a few ideas:

(photo from houzz)

 You could combine a painted brick or stone fireplace with stained wood built-ins. 

(photo from the Yellow Cape Cod)

The most common look is covering it all in a painted white wood, which is always nice. 

When the wall is a built-in, it is seen as one item, not three, therefore, the absence of rhythm issues.  For a more in-depth description of rhythm, look at this post. 

2.  Balance.  Your room is more heavily weighted on the left.  I know you said you were going to keep your furniture- but I will give you a long term plan, because I think it is too large for the space, and too plain in style and color to really make the room sing.  I would replace your sofa/love with two love seats, which will give you space to replace your chair with two chairs.  Keep the scale smaller, and colors lighter.  (unless you have a three year old...)

(Beckett Love seat by Bernhardt Interiors)

(Pierre chair by Room and Board)

Add a nice coffee table, centered with the room.

Now, the art above your love seat should balance the window with window treatments.

(art from Uttermost)

I would add drapes to your window.  Floor to ceiling.  (drapes from Pottery Barn)

3.  Pattern.  Your "all the same fabric everywhere" look falls a little flat.  ;-)  You will notice that already I have added some pattern.  In addition to the throw pillows, there is pattern in the new chair selection, and also the window treatments.  I would add one more big pattern to really tie the room together.  Get a nice large area rug, probably 8 x 10, to finish off the space.  This is your unifier.  (rug from homedecorator.com)

Remember to have a lighting plan in your room as well as some plants.  ;-) 

XOXO

Christine

Decorology meets DWC

Today's question came off of Decorology.  The gal that does Decorology is a web designer and is currently in the process of re-doing my site.  It is really going to look fantastic.

Anyway- back to her- this photo and request came from her site:

Help! I need to pick out a color for curtains in my new living room!

So, I moved into my apartment about a month ago - and there is still SO MUCH work to do. Coming up on the list is to make new curtain panels for the patio doors in my living room. My inclination is to go with white and airy - because that is probably my favorite look. However, I also feel like maybe I should explore some other possibilities.

Since I know many of you are super creative and have a great eye - I'm hoping I'll get some fab suggestions! Also, I'm not adverse to pattern if you have any ideas pattern-wise!

Can't wait to hear what you guys come up with!

Photoshopped "white" curtains...

Ashley,

First of all I want to say how super amazed I am at the photoshop job.  That is pretty cool!  I wish I could do that.  I had two semesters of photoshop in college- but it didn't stick.   However- the solid white curtains are not so cool.   Why?

1.  There is a disconnect between the rug, furnishings and curtains.  Nothing is bringing them together.  You need a unifier.

2.  You need more pattern in the room.  The strong pattern in the rug is off balance when it is the only pattern around. 

3.  You need more color in the room.  Add color in the curtains, and also some throw pillows.  There needs to be repetition of color here and there.

The good news?  You can be done by this afternoon.  I selected everything form West Elm. 

You can still have your drapes light and airy- but add pattern and color.

I would add to these a black canvas tape on the edge.  Keep in mind that when I say "color" beige is a color.  ;-)  Your window treatments should also be layered.  Add some black woven blinds to be the first layer.

Another exercise you can do is visually draw a horizontal line across the room.  Do you have balance?  Balance with color?  Balance with pattern?  Notice how in the room shot above, (and I know there are many angles we don't see)- there is a lack of balance.  All of the color and pattern are on the bottom of your horizontal line.  Another good reason to use patterned drapes.  The black woven shades will also bring more visual weight into the upper portion of the room, improving your currently bottom heavy lack of balance. 

Now- bring in more of your rug colors in some throw pillows.

Use one of these.  See the one on the right that is cut off that has the red and black in it?  I thought that would go great with your rug. 

You have white walls and that white needs to be brought into your room more.  (Except not in solid white drapes.  ;-)

Add a white pillow to the mix.

There you go-  Add a couple other random pillows- we don't need to go for matching, but there needs to be some matching for a unification.  See what I mean- an hour or less of shopping and you are done. 

Rules for Furniture Placement

Hi Christine,

We found your blog and love all your great ideas.  We also have four children but all in the teen years now. Our home has a family room and also a living and dining room.  Our formal living room is never used and we want to make it more livable space.  Hopefully you can help us with a design.

We were thinking of using it as another family room and including a television - however it would not be a wall mounted tv.  I would like the room to have a small writing desk...something to put a laptop on, or to do work. We love leather and were considering a leather couch and loveseat but thought that might me too much for the room.

As you can see from the floor plan, the dining room and living room are connected.  Our dining room has a formal cherry dining room set.

Thank you for any suggestions you can provide us.

- Gail

Hi Gail,

I love your idea of making your living room more functional for your family.  Just a few weeks ago, I turned my own living room into the TV room.  In my home, I just hated sharing the focal point with the fireplace, and I felt like there was a lot of seldom used square footage in our home. 

Your floorplan does present some challenges.  I came up with two options for you, and I wanted to share with you how I came up with them. 

1.  Consider your spacing.  When a TV is going in the room, the furniture should not be more than 12 feet from the TV.  Your room is almost 18 feet wide.  You absolutely should not have the furniture on one end, and the TV 18 feet away.  This rules out placing the sofa on the long solid wall. 

2.  Consider balance in your architecture.  When you ignore your architecture for the sake of functionality, it just never looks right.  Your windows are centered in the wall.  This has created a central focus to the room.  It would  also look awkward to have the sofa brought into the room, with a walkway behind it, facing the long solid wall, as it throws the balance of the architecture off entirely.  Notice how in both of my options, the furniture is centered with the window. (This concept is complicated, as you would never use every window as a center- but take a look at rooms, and ask yourself what the architect was thinking.)  Work with your architecture, not against it.

3.  Do not line your walls with furniture.  Just don't do it.  It creates super dull negative space, as well as poor conversation areas.  You will notice that the sofa is against the wall in the first floorplan.  This is not what I consider having the "furniture against the walls."  If the room were larger, I would have it pulled out, yes, but with the chairs brought out into the room, it works fine.  Make sure that in a situation like the one above, the sofa is brought out about 12 inches, to give comfortable room for drapery panels to hang freely.

4.  Consider your rhythm.  By this, I am suggesting that you break up your case pieces.  You want something to hold the TV, as well as a desk.  Do not put those two pieces on the same side of the room.  Notice how in each option the case pieces are separated. 

5.  What is the focal point?  Here is where I say your room is really not ideal for a TV.  It would be better if there were no door to the dining room on that wall.  I don't really like a focal point of a room to be a door to a different room.  But, ideal or not, it is better that you make the room work for your family.  This is one reason why I like the arrangement with the four chairs.  In that arrangement, it is a center focal point, and the TV is there merely as a secondary focal point, which I find ideal.  However, it is only ideal if you have just two people watching the TV at once, and the other arrangement allows comfortable viewing for five.  Sometimes furniture arranging is about compromise. 

6.  Don't get a sofa and matching chairs in the same leather.  Get your leather sofa, (if you go with a sofa)- but have your chairs in a different material.  Vary your textures and include patterns. 

Good luck Gail!

XOXO

Christine

What Goes with What?

Elizabeth asked me, in a comment on my last post,

Oh my gosh there is so much to learn in this post!!! My head is spinning. Terrific information, though.

Is there any way of knowing what goes with what? By that I mean, since we're not supposed to buy identical sofas/chairs/love seats (matchy-matchy) is there a way to know that one style of legs on one chair can be paired with one style of skirt on another chair, or whatever? It's always the mixing that scares me more than anything else. Well, the mixing and the placement. No...the mixing, the placement, and the color. Actually.....the mixing, the placement, the color, and the use of pattern. Okay, the mixing, the placement, the color, the use of pattern, and the dimensions. That's what scares me the most.

:)

First of all- I don't know Elizabeth- but isn't she funny?  I really like her comments!  (keep 'em coming!)  That is such a huge question- I dont really know how I am going to answer it... 

First of all, let's assume that the advice I give in this post is for the average, eclectic home.  This is to assume that you are not decorating a Victorian home with Victorian furniture, a Craftsman home with Craftsman furniture, etc.  I am not, in any way, saying that is a bad way to do it; however, this post is for the eclectic, average home. 

Let me start with the very obvious "don't".  I personally would never purchse a sofa with matching chairs.  (sure- there might be some crazy instance where I would break this rule- but I can tell you that that hasn't happened yet.)  Go to Barnes and Noble.  Look through design magazines.  I have yet to see a room nice enough to be photographed in a magazine, and using "matchy matchy" furniture.  This might be considered by some as a "safe" option.  But the end result is greatly lacking in variety of texture, color and pattern.  It also provides little rhythm, with all of the furniture at the same height. The same rule applies with purchasing the coffee table and end table combinations.  I used to sell furniture in college, and sold MANY of those sets, and to those people, I apologize.  :) 

Next- I will attempt to set up some rules for the non-designer sure to create a professionally designed look. 

One easy way to combine is to combine skirted furniture with legged furniture.  Remembering back to my furniture selling days, I recall assisting customers who had selected a "leg type" and wanted everything to match, in style and color.  They would get all Shaker legs, or all Queen Anne legs on ALL of the furniture in the room.  My advice would be to do the exact opposite.  Do as little duplication as possible.  Keep in mind that I am not suggesting that you do not use matching chairs.  Matching chairs are frequently a way to unify a room that might otherwise feel disjointed, with all completely different furniture pieces.  I am suggesting that you do not use chairs and sofas from the same matching collection, and tables from the same collection.  If you are uncomfortable with the job of mixing leg styles- go to my original advice, combine skirts with legs.  Use a legged sofa with skirted chairs, or vise versa.  An effort to be too eclectic, by a novice, could easily come off as disjointed.  (Personally I think sometimes the efforts by famous professionals to be super eclectic actually comes off as disjointed, but that is like saying a piece of art that has made it into a nice museum is not actually attractive- there is always this fear that you are exposing yourself as someone who doesn't get real design- but I have been around long enough to feel confident enough to criticize.)   If you want to make sure you get it right- don't try too hard.

The foundation needed to know what goes with what is two fold. 

1.  Keep balance and scale.

2.  Choose what you love.

For example, if you have a large visually heavy sofa, two small chairs will not be the right scale, and will not balance out the large sofa.  If you have one chair opposite a set of chairs, the one chair better be a larger scale than the set of chairs opposite it.  Take a look at the room- do you have balance?  Is the scale of the furniture on one side of the room similar to the scale of the furniture on the other side?  When the balance is off, the room never feels right. 

After you have kept rule one- go ahead and choose what you love.  So long as you are consistently keeping a good balance and purchasing items of the right scale, it should look good.  Keep in mind that these rules have an order.  #2 is really #2.  You might LOVE some small chairs and a huge sofa, and the room will be so off balance with scale and proportion problems that it subconsciously feels wrong.  Even though it is full of things you love, you will not love the room.

I sure hope that made sense.  It is a bit of a complicated question.  When it comes right down to it, if you are not sure- ask me.  ;)

 Photos from Elle Decor