Gina's Family Room

Christine,

 

I stumbled upon your blog and can't stop reading! I've asked everyone I know how they would solve this problem and no one can seem to come up with a good solution. I'm hoping you can help.

 

I have a great room that has a fireplace on an angled wall, which is the focal point. We purchased two Chesterfield sofas (his and hers) and we love them. They really fit the way we live and there's no way my husband will ever get rid of them. My only problem is that there is one long wall that is visually divided by one of the sofas. This causes two issues: 1) a completely empty, non-accessible corner, and 2) difficulty placing artwork/decor along this long wall.

 

Would you have any suggestions on what I could put in the empty corner? And any advice on how to place the zinc mirror and accessorize around it? It's so lonely where it is and looks totally random. Any help you can give is so very much appreciated!

 

Gina

Gina,

Gina, Gina, Gina...  I read your questions, I know you are asking me about the wall decor and the corner...  but I can't help but to comment on the whole room.  I just can't leave it unsaid. 

Let me start by saying what nice items you have.  Individually, you have really selected some of my favorite things.  There is no sofa I like better than a Chesterfield.  I have a very similar one in my own home.  Your large mirror is awesome!  Your coffee table is terrific. 

But...  His and hers sofas?  That reminds me of his and hers Lazyboy recliners, but yours is straight out of a Restoration Hardware catalog.   I like making things perfect, and if you aren't letting me change your furniture, it's like, here is some pasta, chocolate chips and applesauce, help me make spaghetti.  Sure- as soon as we get rid of the chocolate chips and apple sauce.  I don't mean to be harsh.  The selections individually are all very lovely.  ;-)  but...

Your design:

Issues:

1.  When you have two parallel sofas, you need more space, so you can have two chairs, or you can have no chairs at all, but the one chair doesn't work.  Can you see that?  Consider moving the chair to another room.

2.  Three different leathers.  That lack of textural variety in your upholstery is not good.  It makes me a little sad, because it all looks so nice and new.  Honestly, I would move one sofa to another room, and move the chair to a third room.  They are all great- but don't belong together.  Your e-mail makes it sound like you won't do that- but the beauty of this blog is that I am going to pretend that you did.  (Don't you e-mail me and tell me you're not doing it.)  Now, go get a matching sofa.  I'd like a couple of "hers" sofas.  ;-)  (or his...)  I never have two sofas, or even two chairs that are the same style with different upholstery.

Now your room looks something like this:

3.  Let me tell you about your wall decor.  It is all about relationships.  When you do not have any furniture against the wall- your wall decor should have a relationship in size and scale to the wall itself.  Having the corner of a diagonal sofa sort of touching the wall does not count.  Look at the photo below.  This is an excellent example of how to treat this wall correctly.  You'd need a whole heck of a lot of wall decor to have the correct scale for a wall that size.

I took that picture from this post, where I go into it in more detail.  However, you already have this beautiful zinc mirror.  Can you use that in a collage?  I think it is too dominant and too deep to mix well with other items.  So- what can you do?  I just discussed this recently, in this post.

You can change the game by adding a piece of furniture to the wall.  Now your wall decor should have a relationship with the furniture that is beneath it.  Add a chest or console table.  Make sure the size of the furniture is a good scale for your mirror that you already have.  I would still add more wall decor on the right side of the console table, perhaps a collection of art.  Not just one piece like you currently have, more like five pieces of different sizes.  You can do a search on my site for the word "relationships."  There might be a thing or two about my husband, but mostly, this kind of relationship issue I have discussed many times. 

4.  The corner?  Add some decor to the table, and a plant.  Easy Peasy Lemon Sqeezy as my nine year old would say.  A lamp, some pottery, that kind of thing.  Check out the collection below from West Elm- You could repeat that exactly.  If you are ever unsure about your ablility to accessorize, the styllists for magazines are pretty good at this kind of thing.  Just copy it.  Right down to the two rocks.  -Add a lamp, and a large plant with an uplight in the corner and it would look great.

 

 There you go- I hope I was more helpful than harsh, what good am I if I don't say how I feel?  Right?

Kelli's Family Room

Hi Christine,

 

I love love love your blog.  It's very helpful, and actually entertaining!!!

 

Ok, now for the fun part.  I have a large wall in my living room....and would like to see what you think about my ideas.  Said wall is 15 ft long x 10 ft tall of blank boringness.  Please see attached pictures. 

 

I am using the attached fabric (Braemore Gorgeous Pearl) in the windows,

 I think...totally bold and as you can tell from all the beige in my house, a blind leap of faith for me! So, back to my wall....I was thinking maybe to put two really tall "display" shelves on both ends of the wall (not in corners, but about 1 ft in on each side)....maybe something measuring 24 w X 96 tall similar to attched pic but much taller). 

 In the display shelves, I would put minimal decorations to pull all colors together of newly slipcovered cream chair (I did this myself, I should add, and will never do it again!!!) and unpurchased Roman shade fabric.  On the wall above the table (which will now be between the display shelves) I was thinking of doing some sort of photo gallery on the wall.....maybe 4 or 9 large mat frames with black and white pictures in them.  So do you like the bookcase "display" shelf idea?  Or do you think it moves my focal point? 

If you do like it, what finish should they be.....stained, painted (color?), etc (whatever is chosen, I will do the same to the table with lamp and candles on it).  If you think that is a totally stupid, ugly, hideous, moronic idea......can you shed some light please ma'am???

 

Oh, and I'm having a baby shower here on April 9th and would like to be able to have it finished by then!!! ;-)

 

Thanks for all of your help....and thanks for having such an awesome blog and being such an awesome person!!!!

 

Desperate girl down south,

Kelli =)

Hi Kelli,

I can tell you exactly what you need.  You need a large piece of furniture.  A large bookcase, a large display cabinet, something that will fit the scale of the wall.  I appreciate what you are attempting to do.  You see that your table is too small in scale, and plan on adding items to create a balance with your wall size and wall decor.  It is not a totally stupid, ugly, hideous, moronic idea......  But a better idea would be one item that is the right scale, and then perhaps flank it with some sconces.

Another thought would be to use a lower table- but a much larger one-

Then you would have wall decor above the table that is in balance with the table.  A photo gallery, like you mentioned, would be a fine idea.

You could also do away with everything except the photo gallery- and simply go larger on the photo gallery.  Or find a single piece, or collection or art that would be a good scale for the wall.

I like how art would bring more color into the room. 

If you chose to go with the photo collage, you could bring more color in by painting your frames in your photo collage with colors from your fabric. I would consider sepia tones rather than black and white.

What I want to do is to warn you that it is a super tricky thing to take a large wall and try to design it using multiple "too small" items, and hope that it is all going to flow together really well.  Rhythm is one of the principles of design that is usally created with alternation.  This means not having three case pieces right next to one another.  So- really what you were doing, is trying to strengthen one principle of design in your room, but your method involved destroying a different principle of design.

I like your sisal rug- but I would add a smaller rug on top of it- in an effort to bring in more color and pattern to your decor.

To add another chore to your list- I would also paint your fireplace the same white as your wood trim.

Just to recap:  On your large wall- go with one large furniture piece, or one large piece, or one collection of items, (your photo collage), or one large low table with wall decor above it. 

Good luck finishing everything by your baby shower!  ;)

Art from Z gallerie and rug from homedecorator.com 

Free Friday

My elementary school age kids have Fun Friday- so I think we should as well- except I will call it "Free Friday." Today I am giving away a $50 credit to Uttermost.

How to sign up? Leave me a comment and guess the cost of this oversized painting of King George. Whoever is closest- wins. :) If there are two equally close guesses- I will randomly draw one out of a hat.

18th century oil painting after Godfrey Kneller (British, 1646-1723). The subject is King George I. (George Ludwig 1660-1727) circa (1716-1727.) In this portrait, the king is painted with his royal possessions. Westminster Abbey and the ancient St. Stephen’s chapel can be seen in the distance.

*** FYI- the painting is not from Uttermost. The site where I found it did not give the dimensions- however- please note the large armoire behind it.

The Fabulous Dining Room

I got my new Town and Country magazine today- and just loved this beautiful dining room. Take a close look at the gorgeous details. The large mirror is a fantastic example of perfect scale in wall decor. I love the upholstered chairs and bench. The variety this gives the room over wood chairs paired with a wood table is huge to the success overall of the room. Another element that I love is the Roman shades. The sheer fabric and light texture is great- and having them half closed gives the room another important design element- rhythm. What I really wanted to show you- is what a difference the fresh flowers make in the room. Look at the top photo and then the bottom photo- they are both photographs of the same room- but only the lower showing the flowers. They bring the room to life! So- go- get some fresh flowers! bring your dining room to life today.

Walls that Pop

As a mother of four- and interior designer, I love finding unique ways to decorate children's bedrooms. I especially appreciate it when I find ideas that are not "themey." Frequently art work for children's rooms is also small. With the large walls and even ten foot ceilings in children's rooms that I have found in client's homes- I continually keep my eye out for large wall decor. This is exactly what I found from All Pop Art. You send them a photo- like the one above- and they make it into a fun piece of modern art- like the one below. You can order the canvasses up to 42 x 52. You could combine this with the Panton Jr. chair from yesterday's post... I can see the fabulous bedroom or playroom in my mind already... What do you think? I bet if you were good at Photoshop- you could do this from home.