Can you help me 'finish' my living areas? (pics)

13 years ago

Thanks for taking a look - I can't think of a better resource than GW!

I have an open floor, and while I am pleased with the basics, I don't know how to pull everything together. I am open to all of your ideas. While the dining room and the kitchen seem to take care of themselves, I see no great impact in the hearth and family rooms. (And my apologies for the art clutter behind the sofa!)

When you come in our house you go up 3 stairs to the hearth room - this shows the entryway with piano (and the blue carpet is gone - it's only in this one photo).

From Export

This hearth room is a 25x12 space that has a FP (which we'll update at some point) and one chair. I am going to recover it with the fabric below.

From Export

As a reference, the kitchen is open to your right - we just refinished the cabinets and installed creama bordeaux.

From Export

Then you come around to the dining room:

From Export

And here's the family room, moving clockwise from the left.

From Export

My initial thoughts are a rug in the family room, chunkier lamps ... okay, after that I am stumped! We do intend to do a wood ceiling, and stone behind the wood stove.

Thank you so much,

Dayna

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Comments (3)

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Pretty place. My first thought is to build book shelves in the alcove where the tv is. If you want doors to hide the tv, you could do that as well, but it would be really easy to put in shelves to hold the tv, books, etc. which would make that area look more finished/planned. I agree that a rug would be a nice addition as well. I would also paint the switchplates and outlet covers to match the walls.
les917
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
A very nice home. I could be comfy there for sure. Was the family room a later addition? Nice job in the kitchen, and I like your fabric for the chair.

I have some thoughts, going to just throw them out there. More, perhaps than you want to do, but some ideas that might get you started.

I would think about moving the dining room into the hearth room. Setting the table up in front of the bow window would make for a wonderful view while eating, and give you room to have all the dining chairs in the space.

You could then put a pair of comfy chairs facing one another in the dining room with a small round table between them. A great place for someone to sit and chat while someone else is working in the kitchen, or a nice place to just have a cup of coffee and still enjoy the fireplace nearby.

I would completely re-orient the family room.

Move the desk to the niche where the tv is now. MOve the tv to the wall where the desk is now. Put your couch facing the tv in the new location, back to the windows.

Orient the seating around the TV and fireplace, espeically because you are planning to dress up that area with stone. The chair can be facing the fireplace, back to the desk in the niche. If you don't use the chair by the fireplace in the hearth room once you move in the dining table, I would bring that into the family room as well, putting it on the left side of the fireplace.

I don't know how soon you are planning on doing the stone in the fireplace area, but for now I would take down the shelf and art and just paint that inset wall an accent color, or do a faux stone finish. The shelf and art are nice, but back behind the stove look a bit like someone forgot to take them down when the fireplace was put in.

Once you move everything into place, then you can place art. Personally, I don't think you need a rug in the family room. But it could be nice in the new little seating area where the dining table was.

By the way, great job taking pictures. You provided a full view of the spaces so that it was easier to see what might work.
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Caminne, that is a BRILLIANT idea, because I definitely need as much bookcase space as I can squeeze into every room, and at the moment there are no built-ins. Now, les917 cautioned against putting something just to the left of the door as you come in (i.e. on the living-room side of the door), to avoid cramping people (or dogs) as they step around the door, which I think it good advice. But if you look at my floorplan, you can see that there's quite a bit of space between the front door and the front wall windows. Floorplan: I think it should be possible to put a bookcase so it more or less lines up with the left side of the entrance to the dining room, which is about where I'd want the living room rug to end and the entryway rug to start. (Not describing this too well, but will try to photoshop a furniture-arranging floorplan soon.) In any case, I think that would leave plenty of clearance to get around the door - more clearance than you'd have in the entry to most historic rowhouses around here, anyway. That would preclude using the big desk as a sofa-table-type room divider, but I think it would solve two serious storage problems at once. I wonder if it would even be possible to have two bookcases back to back, with one facing the living room for books and the other offering baskets for leashes and mittens and whatnot on the door side. I'm thinking maybe about 36" high - high enough to make a divider, but low enough not to block light and to make it easy to put things down on top of. Hmm....
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-I would get rid of the tv, stand, and the other kids stuff. -Rearrange your furniture so it is more inviting. I think at least one peice of seating needs to be at angle in the room. I'm not sure how this would look, but you might even pull the the couch over to the side so it is under the stairs. The chair might look better if it were angled into the corner where you are walking into the dining room. I think furniture looks better in groups of three. Do you have another chair or loveseat, you could put in the room? A small table by the chair might look nice. I'd move stuff around in the room until it looks right. It might not be the most comfortable for living, but sometimes you have to do what you need to do to get it sold.-I think you need more height in the room to add interest. -I would put the dried twig arrangement on a plant stand and maybe adding s few pieces with color into the arrangement. -I like your fern, but I think it needs to be moved so it is in the line of sight where you first glance into the room. I might add a couple of other nice size plants with a little bit of height into the room too. -I don't think your picture has enough presence on the wall. You need something bigger and with color. -I think you need some colorful accents like pillows. -I like your curtains. I think they add appeal to the room.
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I think the stools need to be painted either the wall color or black. The white is too stark, as was mentioned. Or, pick an accent color that you want to use in window treatments in the DR area, and paint the stools in that color to make the whole space seem cohesive. I wouldn't probably do drapery panels. I would add painted casing around the windows to match the doorways, and make the window sill feel connected to something. Then I would likely do some kind of decorative fabric valances in a rich print that brings in the wall color, some of the brown/black of the furniture, and whatever accent color is a spark for you. A tall, full plant in the corner between the windows. Paint the inside of your niche in the accent color, too, and see if you can get a piece of granite that matches your counters to use as a bottom ledge for the niche. Your home is charming!
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pokyhoky
Original Author
13 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you both!

Cyn, I hadn't thought of the switchcovers .... the gentleman who built this house was a shop teacher and we seem to have outlets and switches EVERYWHERE. That's a great idea about the cabinet doors. I like it.

Thank you, Les, I was hoping the photos would convey our space clearly without an actual floor plan. I love the seating area idea - we have a lot of open space that would be great to use, plus take advantage of our views.

I can defintely take down the shelf and paint or do some faux stone until we tackle that project. My strength is copying things - original ideas, not so much. Off to measure the desk ....

And yes, over the years the shop teacher added the family room (and the breakfast nook, the guest room, a sitting room, 2 bedrooms and 2 garages). I think he had a lot of time on his hands, LOL.

Thank you!

Can you help me 'finish' my living areas? (pics)

Comments (3)

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

les917

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Can you help me 'finish' my living areas? (pics)

Comments (3)

cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)

les917

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