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Home Decorating

Help - furniture placement challenges!

Melissa Ehrenthal

5 years ago

Hi all, longtime lurker, first time poster.

I've just finished renovations which included knocking a wall down from my sitting room to my dining room. This now leaves one wall with a fireplace and the opposite wall for the TV. My family of 5 uses this room to sit by the fire, watch TV and gather. We also have a much larger more formal living room past the dining room for when we have guests. There is also access to the dining room from the entryway.

The dining room seats 8 and the kitchen the island with plenty of seating. I'm also contemplating adding a small round table by the kitchen windowseat area to create more of an eat in kitchen as an additional seating option to the island. I don't need more table/dining space.

Given how we tend to use the space, how would you arrange the furniture here? I was originally thinking 4 swivel chairs on rockers with a coffee table in the middle, but the space is just too small. What about 2 large slipcover chairs on swivels facing each with a coffee table or ottoman between them, with the ability to aim them towards the TV wall, or the fireplace, on swivels? I could really use your collective wisdom!

View to island/kitchen:

View of problem room from kitchen - dining room on other side

View from room to window seat / island:

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Comments (4)

rebeccamomof123
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Such great character in your home! It's a tricky layout to work with because either way, the back would be facing either the TV or the fireplace. I believe this could be considered a "Keeping Room" which is on trend right now, so you should have lots of great options for furniture. I think your best bet is to find two big, comfortable chairs with a low profile as not to ruin sight lines to your dining room. Get them on rockers/swivels and either place them in the middle of the room facing each other for easy maneuvering to face the TV or fireplace - or angle them with their backs to the the fireplace towards the TV. Find a nice light colored rug to place below them to anchor the space and get small round coffee table or tufted ottoman to use as a footrest or with a tray for beverages. Here are a few images I found when googling 'Keeping Room' that could work in your space.
lovemrmewey
5 years ago
Putting TV on arm that angles might help.
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@Jennifer Hogan Thanks for the questions. Answers on them below... How often do they entertain? How many people do they entertain? ~ once a month: total 10 adults and a few kids (including my parents). Adults usually eat dinner at the dining table and a folding table is set up in the living room area for kids (plus maybe one or two adults at the kids table to feed them) 3~5 a month: total 4 ~ 6 adults (including my parents) When they entertain is it at the table or watching tv/movies or both? Usually with 4 ~ 6 adults, they sit at the dining table to drink coffee or eat dessert With 10+ people, men often sit at the sofa area and women sit at the dining table to chat. TV is often left on, but mostly for the kids. Do they have any issues with mobility or difficulty getting up from deep or low seating? Nope, no mobility issues. But generally they don't like deep sofas, just because we're not very tall (mom is 5'3"), and deep sofas are less comfortable at our height. Do they use both the dining table and the kitchen table? Mom uses the kitchen table for food prepping (because there's not enough counter space and the height is easier for some prep work) Only the dining table is used for dining, even when there's only two of them. Unless there's people visiting, the other half of the dining table is often cluttered with work stuff, especially now that they are working from home (papers, computer monitor, etc.) Is there a better use of space rather than having 2 eating spaces (you mention they use the dining table for work from home)? I think especially right now, it's difficult to reduce down to 1 table, because large chunk of the dining table is used for work so the large dining table is a necessity... and my mom probably doesn't want to do food prep work on the nice dining table.
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rebeccamomof123
5 years ago
Lovemrmewey, it looks like it already is on an arm for turning... no?
Melissa Ehrenthal
Original Author
5 years ago
Yes we have it on the arm already! My husband is a little bit of a tv nerd and a tv must be seen from absolutely every angle possible. Insert sigh here.

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