Could you do something like an archway to divide your space? The pics at the link are similar to what I have between my breakfast room and living room.

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy arch

Something like that...I can't see a curved archway in the space. Thanks for the idea.
Astrid

Astrid, my suggestion would be to get yourself some graph paper and cut out your room to scale. If you have a Hobby Lobby they have a large (11x17) tablet of graph (gridded) paper in 10x10 to the inch cross section. Once you have your room drawn out then measure any built in and draw them in. Cabinets, windows, doorways anything that would help you know where or where not you can place furniture. Now measure all your furnishings and make separate cutouts of each and every one. Once that's done you can "play" with your layout until you find a way you think will work so you can try it in real life.

Now for a couple ideas you can try once you have the above done, IF you choose to do it, if not, here some ideas anyway.

Your rug will have to be moved to the front of your home sometime during the five steps or you may want to move all furniture off it and move the rug before you start the five steps. IF you choose to try them.

1. Move your piano out of the living area and place the TV armoire where the piano was.
2. If nothing of great need is in the icebox type cabinet with plants on it I'd leave it where it is, but place the sofa in front of it at an angle with right back corner close to the right side of the window on the right of icebox like cabinet with it's left back fitting somewhere against the wall to the right of the woodburner. (If you have another small table to place plants on that would be good too.)
3. Place matching chair at a right angle to the right of the sofa.
4. Place other chair and ottoman where chair in #3 was only facing the above grouping.
5. Place piano approximately where sofa was originally with back facing childrens play area.

This could add a bit of space to childrens play area, but I'm sure they won't mind and your TV won't be so far from your sofa and matching chair.

Not sure if it's doable, but depending on the sturdiness of your bookcase would it be possible to turn it at a right angle from the back wall to make a room divider? The back could be decorated as a wall of sorts whichever way it sits. Or cover it with cork to use as a place to display your childrens art work.

Another thought is if the beautiful waterfall buffet is the same or close to the same width of the bookcase, could it be moved into the dining area with it's back to the bookcase for support? You could cover the back of the bookcase with anaglypta wallpaper and hang a mirror or the plates you have above the buffet now.

I have an idea to update your dining light fixture, but I'll have to see if I still have the pictures to show you. If I do I'll be back.

Tell your husband I'm voting for his column idea! :) I'm thinking something like a double square column with an opening view through into the dining area but with waist high bookshelves spanning between them...it would give definition and is very reminiscent of a Frank Lloyd design...many craftsman style homes have that type separating their dining areas...I think it would give you definition but still keep th open space, I think if you close it off it will be too choppy...

Tara

I found the pix I wanted. They were taken by a friend that did this to her fixture in their last home. I thought it was pretty ingenious. Granted if you are going for a craftsman/Mission style you may want to forgo the pretty shades and look for stained glass ones. Or if the rings look good setting inside the glass globes facing up that alone may look more craftsman/mission enough that you wouldn't need to do anything else. Here's the pix I have.....

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I found a pix of a fixture in the same color as yours done just upside down. Like I mentioned, I'm not sure if the rings would look right sitting on the inside of the globes facing up.

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I did a few things in this picture. I'll just bullet item them, so you can see them easier.

-open shelves around the "play room"
-moved dining area bookshelves to the play room
-hung "art work" in the play, living, and dining areas
-added an area rug to the dining space
-stained glass lamp
-moved small artwork to kitchen
-moved plants to the open shelves
-took out the many different throw pillows and added a single, larger pillow to match the blinds and rug

I won't feel offended if you hate it. : )

Chicory, where did you find the tiffany lampshade? I'm looking for something similar...

It was just from a table lamp being sold at Home Depot in Canada (I needed to find something in the right color, properly oriented for photoshopping).

What size shape are you looking for? Maybe I could help find it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Tiffany lamp

*bump*

Maybe this would help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Arrange-a-Room

Chris, I thought about using arrange a room, but wasn't sure if I could save and copy the pix for one and how it would work with an L shaped room for another. I used it before we moved into our current home just for fun and know you still have to know the size of each piece of furniture since theirs aren't all the same in scale as the our own furniture. It's almost less time consuming to make your own paper set on graph paper.

Does the piano get played regularly. Are lessons taken on the piano?

How old are the kids?

You mention a 'future homework station" - will you be homeschooling them so that they need to have a school area in the family living space?

How does the space get used now? Do you entertain a lot or is this used mostly for your own immediate family? Do you watch tv here (is that in the armoire?) or mostly use the room as play space for the kids and sitting space for adults?

Personally, I think it would be a mistake to actually wall off or build any kind of separation in the space. I think things can be done with furniture and perhaps screens to create a sense of separation without permanently dividing the space.
You mention the chairs going to the basement - is that living space as well?

Thanks for all the input! I'll have more time tomorrow to answer questions.
Thanks again!
Astrid

Chicory- I LOVE that lamp!!! That's what I want- or something similar. Dh isn't so sure but maybe I can talk him into it.

I have a few minutes to myself so I can post.
Les- Yes, the piano does get used. My girls are 4 and 1.5 years old. Toys are everywhere! I am seriously thinking of homeschooling...I haven't decided. We don't entertain or have much in the way of company. (it's not the I don't want to but nobody seems to want to visit us :()
We do watch TV- yes, that's a TV in that armoire. We're finishing up the basement and that TV will go in the basement and that cabinet will go bye-bye. I can't wait to sell that cabinet! The space is used by both adults and kids. The focal point for the room is the woodstove.

My main reason for posting (although I did mention the long wish list) is to figure out what things I can do by myself that would make a big impact. Would changing out that rug in the living room to something darker help? Would changing the pillows on the sofa do anything? I'm going to attempt rearranging the furniture (which can be done now that we've gotten rid of satellite TV). I'd love to find artwork but for some reason I haven't found the right thing. I can also paint my skiis- but what color? Would getting a different chair help? I'm thinking of a Morris type chair...not sure if they're comfortable though.
http://www.target.com/Metropolitan-Chair-Mocha/dp/B000I23YH6/qid=1194815943/ref=br_1_5/602-7019097-7865400?ie=UTF8&node=333965011&frombrowse=1&index=target&field-browse=333965011&rank=salesrank&rh=&page=1
or
http://www.target.com/Mission-Easy-Chair-Oak-Finish/dp/B000J66WJI/sr=1-9/qid=1194816071/ref=sr_1_9/602-7019097-7865400?ie=UTF8&index=target&field-browse=1038576&rh=k%3Amission&page=3

I know I have a long wish list and realistically none that will happen. I just know it won't. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll redo the kitchen island. It's a sore point...so, even though I'd like a separation of space between the mountain of toys and my dining area I know that won't happen. It's extremely hard to sit down to a relaxing dinner just to see the massive amount of toys and stuff. And that's on a good day when everything is put away! Unfortunately, I don't think it would be safe to turn that bookcase so that it's in between the dining and play area. I have thought about building a screen as a temporary solution. I am starting to think of ways to better utilize the space I have and to cozy it up a bit.

Like I said I'm looking for quick fixes I can do myself. Dh is gone a lot so that means trying to do little things that can make an impact.
Thanks again for all your input.
Astrid

Astrid, not sure if you saw my suggestion above for rearranging the living area, but I have another idea. What about adding a portiere between the entry and living room so you can move the play area to the front of the room? Then you'll have kind of a great room area at the back of your home. Just a thought.

Yes, I saw your suggestion. That's what I'm going to try and do over the next few weeks (rearranging furniture).

What is a portiere?

Astrid

A portiere is a curtain in a doorway. I'll see if I can find a picture to show you.

Here you go Astrid......

Here is a link that might be useful: Portiere

Thanks! That is an interesting idea. I really need to draw to scale my room (as you've mentioned) and try playing around with furniture placement.

One of the things I find hard is to know how the space will evolve. By that I mean as my girls get older we'll probably want something else for the play area. I don't know how to accomodate for that. The LR is long and narrow. Right now I've got it set up into more or less three separate living spaces- play area, area around woodstove and piano and then the TV. Once the TV is gone I'm not sure what to do. I know it's some distance into the future but it's nice to plan ahead.

I think my biggest issue is making my big room into cozy sub-rooms. I like cozy and I don't feel that in my giant, oddly shaped room. I think I would have been a lot happier if I'd had several smaller rooms than one large one. Oh well.

Any more ideas would be well appreciated. I'm about in tears trying to figure out what I can do by myself.
Astrid

I've tried rearranging some of the furniture. I haven't moved the TV cabinet (it's a little heavy for me to move by myself).
I'm not sure if the arrangement works. It's a little tricky considering that the tv cabinet will go where the piano used to sit- there's little walking room. I liked the angled couch for tv viewing but I feel the main attraction and point of interest in this boring room is the woodstove. I didn't like how the angled sofa pointed away from it. I love to sit and watch the fire.

What do you think?
Angled sofa

Straight sofa but piano moved.

I also wanted to get opinions on dining sets we're considering.

Thoughts?
Thanks again for any input.
Astrid

Astrid, I like both arrangements. One question though, will the TV be staying in this room? If so you can possibly move it yourself IF you can lift it up enough to slide a bit of cardboard (or upside down carpet) underneath the legs. I move heavy pieces like that all the time when hubby not home. Ofcourse if there is anything you can easily remove before you attempt this, that always helps.
I'm curious how the first arrangement would look with everything moved further to the front with the TV armoire where your piano was. That would allow more walkway beside the leather chair too.

I think I forgot to mention earlier when you asked about the chairs at Target that I like the second one the best. And for the tables... I like the second table with the middle chair you mentioned out of all the choices. It fits the craftsman style the most.
Craftsman/Mission style is one of the my favorite furniture styles. Even though my favorite architecture is Victorian it's furnishings, though beautiful, are too formal for our lifestyle. Hubby and I plan on making some craftsman style furniture once we are finished with our wood trim.

I noticed you don't have trim on your windows yet and wondered if you'll be doing it yourselves? We are doing ours in what I'd call late Victorian with Craftsman influence as it was often done in homes built during the beginning of the 20th century.

I'll try moving the TV cabinet. The tv will have to stay upstairs for now until the basement is finished. I'll try the angled sofa again after I've moved the cabinet. However, I did feel that the sofa angled away from the main point of interest in the room- the woodstove. Dh isn't sure he likes the new arrangement but I told him to give it some time.

I think we're going to go very simple on trim. I'm not at all sure what you'd call the style- just simple straight boards with no routing. I've seen it in other homes and it looks nice. We do plan to do it ourselves but I'm not sure when that will happen. That's just not something I want to attempt by myself.

What do you think about the rug? Do you think it works in the room? I love it and I got a good deal on it but I wonder if it perhaps too beige and blah.

Thanks again.
Astrid

I like the rug and think you will to. Try adding a few pillows, an afghan or throw and other accessories in colors pulled from it. Possibly even floral or leafy window treatments in a similar pattern will make it all come together. These things will draw out the colors in the rug and you'll not feel it's too beige and blah.

Using the woodstove as the focal point let's see if we can find a better way to arrange your furniture so, for now, you'll be able to comfortably view both it and your TV.

1.If you watch your TV quite often in this room I'd place it in the area between the woodstove and window to it's right.
2.If you do not than in the far right corner where it can still be viewed but be more out of the way.
For #1 I'd place the sofa conpletely on the rug facing the woodstove giving plenty of room for a walkway behind it.
For #2 I'd place it against the wall backing what I guess to be the stairway.
The chairs will stay basically the same with either arrangement of TV and sofa. The leather at a right angle from the sofa toward the play area and the smaller chair and ottoman at the front of the room where it can easily be moved for TV viewing.

Do either of these sound doable?

Using a router by the way is very easy when routing edges of wood. My hubby had our first for more than a quarter of a century before he finally felt brave enough to try it and was amazed how easy it is. Here's a few pix of what ours looks like...

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These were taken of our first mock up. We tweaked just a bit and actually stain them before installing them.

Just wondering if you've tried to turning the arms of your dining light fixture yet?

I haven't done the light fixture- but I really want to replace it. I have never liked it- I bought it because I had to pick out something quickly (before the electrician could have another chance to yell at me). So I picked out something that was cheap and would work for now. I'm looking at mission style lamps- like the one Chicoryflower had in her mock-up.

I like your trim! That is similar to what we were thinking of doing.

I tried uploading photos of some other changes but photobucket isn't working properly for me. I didn't like the piano standing by itself. It felt a little odd. So, I've moved the sofa back to the original position but kept the TV in its new location. I moved the piano to where the TV used to sit. I put the chairs facing the sofa and in front of the piano. The TV cabinet can't sit in the center of the wall. It's unfortunate but that wall and the woodstove don't line up. I really want to create a cozy space- I love the look of LRs where there is fireplace with an adjacent sofa and two chairs facing the sofa on the opposite side with a coffee/ottoman in between. That seems cozy to me (does that arrangement make sense?).

Will it look weird to have the TV cabinet not in the center of the wall?

By the way, I've tried having the sofa on that wall (it is the back of a staircase). It didn't work out because it didn't line up with the woodstove and it just looked and felt weird. I've also had the TV in the corner where the play kitchen sits right now. That also didn't work . Sigh. I hate how difficult this narrow awkward room is to furnish.

Maybe different furniture pieces would help? I could beg dh for new chairs. :)
Astrid
Astrid

I thought maybe our trim was close to the way you're planning on doing yours. I've seen similar in craftsman style homes before. I like it better than the squares with bulleyes or rosettes at the corners like many Vics have.

I know exactly what furniture layout you want. I too would love to have that in our Gentleman's Parlor but we have a two piece sectional and one recliner. I'd say it was very doable in your room if you had the right chairs. Two in the mission style you linked from Target would work with that arrangment. Let me see if I can draw up a simple mock up on Paint instead of trying to write it all down. Hopefully Photobucket will be back up by the time I'm done.

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Is this kind of what you were thinking of?
I don't know why I didn't leave the piano between the front windows like you had it. Just playing around. It's not floating at least. Too bad it's not low enough to work as a sofa table too. Our piano is from the Art Deco period so it's lower than yours and would work that way.

I was only guessing on scale of the furniture, rug compared to the room size so I'm sure you'll find it off at least a little bit. Didn't do the bump out where your woodstove is either, but you get the idea, I hope.

Yes! That's what I want.
I will write more tomorrow...need to get dinner on!
Astrid

I have been thinking a lot about your room, coming back and looking at the various pix, etc. It is hard because without measurements of everything, I can make suggestions that will end up not working because of size.

What I want to say first is that I think you are working against the room. You have the bulkiest pieces in the most closed off part of the space, and then you essentially don't use the end by the entry at all.

Here is what I am getting from reading:

You hate looking from the kitchen or while you are eating and seeing the toy jumble.

You like to sit and look at the fire.

The TV doesn't get used much (also judging by the furniture placements you have) and eventually is moving downstairs.

You don't entertain a lot, so the use of the room should be geared toward your family.

So, without knowing what the measurements really are (and being deceived by the monitor perspective), here is what I am thinking. I want to create essentially two areas, not three:

I would move the bookcase to the window wall at the front of the room, where the armoire was originally. That will become the "kid" end of the room.
Situate the kids larger toy pieces in that area ( the kitchen set, the easel, etc.).
If you can get a rug for the area to define that play space, that would be great.

Move the piano back to the wall opposite the fireplace, pushed toward the front entry end of the room.

Take the tv armoire and put it on the wall where the bookcase was, pushed closer toward the dining area. This will become more of a decorative piece, where you can put some accessories like a big plate on a stand, or a grouping of vases or candlesticks, one of your plants, and some art hung on the wall above it. It will feel like a bridge piece between the dining and seating areas.

Now here is where things get changed the most. Take the couch and angle it across the back corner of the room, where the kids' play kitchen, etc are now. Angle the long side of the rug to match the couch. This should end up (I think) kind of following the same angle as the flooring change from the kitchen to the eating area as well. If you can do it, either hang a couple of the plants you have behind the couch, or find some kind of table or old low bookcase to set plants on back there, which will soften the corner.

Place one chair to the left of the couch, tucked in between the window and stove area, and the other chair (probably the leather one) on the other side, angled out from the wall where the tv has been moved. Get the small cabinet that is on the floor up at the other end of the room holding plants and use that as a side table by the leather chair, with a lamp if possible. Another small table and lamp between the couch and the chair near the woodstove would be nice. A large round ottoman rather than a coffeetable, that could be additional seating and moved around the room if needed.

You should have enough room beside the piano to add another chair, which could face the couch but also be used to sit and watch the fire. A floor lamp between the chair and the piano would be nice to bring some light to that side of the room and also make the music easier to see.

I would also wonder if your dining table shouldn't be turned the other way, to parallel the longer wall and also stop working against the angle of the floor there.

Once you get everything in place, then you can work on hanging art or family pix, etc.

I think by using the one end of the room for a family seating area, and the other end for the kids, you will make better use of the total space, rather than trying to jam the seating into the middle of the room. Also, the fireplace becomes more of a whole-room piece, feeling like it is part of the dining and seating and music areas, rather than blocked off by furniture. You won't have to sit and look at the kids' stuff when you dine or even sit on the couch - it will be off at a different spot and the seating won't be facing it.

One other thing - what is on the wall behind the woodstove? I think that is something you need to address, because it really doesn't fit with the style you are trying to achieve in the space. It feels very much like something you would see in a kid's room. If it is wallpaper or fabric, I would take it down and think about perhaps doing some kind of wall treatment Maybe a faux stone or faux paint to look like stone, that picks up on whatever material the stove sits on - can't tell for sure from the pix what that is. Or even just an accent paint color in that space.

I think you have a lot of nice things, and a bright and cheery room to work with. You also have my Poang chair (in a different finish and covering), which I think is one of the most comfy chairs ever! Do what you can do now, and enjoy what you have.

Les- thanks for your suggestions. What? You don't like the birds I handpainted? :) LOL. I'm actually planning on tiling the alcove with slate tiles (similar to the ones that are on the floor of the alcove).

Astrid

chickoryflower

What program are you using to edit the bristlingacres photos. That is VERY cool.