Design my small condo living space! (exposed brick & wood)

6 years ago

I need to fill out the empty space on the other side of the island. This is the only living area in the condo so let's knock it out of the park!

A few things to note:

Area is 15 x 13 (I think)
I like natural, rustic, industrial, and farmhouse styles, but I want to balance the masculinity with some color and eclectic personality
Cable outlet is on the right wall and I will have a TV
Room for both dining and living?
Small dining table or is there room for rectangular one?
Greenery is welcome! Any chance I could incorporate climbing plants?
Ignore the kitchen style; this can be changed
Think big! I'm open to lots of ideas
Need an inspiring space that will help me avoid cabin fever

Featured Answer

loobab

6 years ago

Hi Kevin-

Oh, wow, this is a big condo, with a separate bedroom if this is New York, good for you! How many people do you think you will be entertaining at one time? How many for a sit down meal and how many for a party? Forgive me, I am not prying, but it is important to know your seating needs. Love seats don't make sense, two people really do not want to sit that close together, and even if they are lovers having a talk, they would rather sit on a proper couch and have some space to think, or on two separate chairs. Sectionals are totally ridiculous, they are unwieldy and not versatile and rarely move from one space to another.

If you are going to have a bona fide dining table, do you really need bar stools? The reason I ask is not merely the cost, but they are two more pieces of furniture that take up visual and more importantly physical space. And really, your dining table will only be a foot or so away, so why do you need those bar stools?

I understand wanting to work at the table. As a child I had a desk but I still preferred doing my homework at the kitchen table. But here are the questions. Do you work from home? How much actual office accoutrements do you need? Will you only be sitting at the table and opening up a laptop and have a couple of shelves of books or will you have a big PC and tower and three huge bookshelves stacked every which way and stacks of papers to mark and manuscripts to write and read? Are you a book hoarder? Do you have 200 DVD's? 75 bottle's of liquor?

Do you want furniture of fabric or leather? Do like the tan color family with off white and rust color as shown above or more like royal blue?

There are guidelines about where you should sit relative to the size of the television to preserve your eyesight.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-S230IUqZmyP/learn/learningcenter/home/TV_placement.htmlScreen sizeViewing distance range for 1080p HDTVs43"5.4-9 feet50"6.3-10.4 feet55"6.9-11.5 feet60"

7.5-12.5 feet

As for how high to mount it, please read these:

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/how-to-mount-tv,news-24719.html

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-high-should-your-tv-be-stsetivw-vs~47203714

You could mount the TV on the right hand wall and these days people have a sound bar, don't they, so put that underneath. Your sofa would be on the opposite wall, , maybe not on the wall, it depends on the exact measurements. If that is too far, you can move it forward a foot or two. It is really better to not have furniture lining the walls.

On the window walls, you would have curtains (I'll put in the next message how they should be hung) and a chair. On the far side of the television you could have a bookshelf unit with closed storage on the bottom with a few shelves for office supplies and then books of the upper shelves and since you have very high ceilings, you can have it go as high as you like.

In fact, if you only need a space to put a laptop, you can have the whole thing made with a folding drop down desk that will extend out far enough for you to put your laptop on and work at, like the old-fashioned secretaries.

On the left side closer to the kitchen would go your table and chairs. You can think what size you want and what shape depending upon how many people you think you might want to have for dinner. You can get a table that is can expand if you put in a leaf so you can seat six people if you really have a place to store the extra leaf and the two extra chairs. If you don't, just get a table for 4 and four chairs. And seeing how close it is to the island, you see why you don't need the bar stools.

People that live in small apartments in big cities don't have big sit-down dinners at home anyway, they don't have the space, and everyone knows it. When they are young, they eat on the floor, and when they are adults, they go to restaurants.

Depending on the exact size of things, you could use the wall on the other side of your refrigerator to hang a piece of art higher up, and for a small piece of furniture to act as a bar if you need that, although I would vote against that with the kitchen right there. I especially like to display three dimensional things, textural things, they are so interesting. Some people collect interesting pieces of driftwood or fossils or seashells or pine cones or architectural fragments, things like that. These things can be hung on the walls, or displayed on shelves because of their beauty and because they say who you are.

In front of your sofa you can have a great ottoman with a nice big tray to hold drinks and a magazine, and an end table next to the chair. Or instead of an ottoman in front of the sofa you can get a coffee table and they have the kind that can rise up with a little desk, and then you don't need the drop down desk on the book shelf.

You have that great pot rack for your pots and pans, but if you don't have that many pots and pans you can certainly hang plants from it. And you have that great beam in your ceiling as well to hang things from as well. You have great light, you could grow lots of things.

I am wondering if those three little track lights will be enough.

You might want an area rug for your seating area in the back, but not necessarily to include the dining area.

Do you know that when you buy at a store you get their designer service for free? Pottery Barn has very nice stuff, and even a line of smaller scale things for apartments, although your room is really a very big size for an apartment living room.

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