1926 cape furniture & paint choices. New kitchen and main floor layout

5 years ago

Hi all,

We have lived in our wonderful 1926 cape for 5 years. It came with a horrible, narrow galley kitchen that was last renovated in 1985. The house has some interesting architectural details, like very deep arches between the living and dining rooms that have built in closets.

Dimensions: Living Room: 19x13. Dining room: 13x12. Kitchen: 7'6"x 13' (long wall) and 7'6" (short wall). Den: 10x13. The arch is about 21" wide and will be replicated in a smaller fashion between kitchen and dining room.

(please forgive clutter...was cleaning up Xmas. I can take new pics if requested)

We are currently renovating the kitchen and will be refinishing the flooring of the entire main floor. I will be painting the main floor and selecting all new living room and dining room seating. I generally like most of the paint choices I make for a long time, and conversely, hate the furniture I pick out almost immediately. I pick the wrong color, style, scale...all of it. And then I am also terrible at arranging my terrible furniture.

So, I was wondering if you all would help me figure out what furniture I need for the living room and how I would arrange it. I am leaning toward saddle or carmel color leather couch with some other color leather chairs. I have dogs, an adult kid, a teenager, and a grandbaby toddler. 'nuf said?

For paint: I'm planning to paint kitchen and dining room in SW Buff

upper cabs in SW They call it Mellow

Living room is currently a honey yellow (yes. I do love yellows!) but I'm willing to change it. Should I paint the living room a darker green or darker color and leave the dining room and kitchen same color?

Somebody, anybody tell me how I should paint these arches. Do I consider the part between the doors as ceiling and paint it white? I hate the current brown.

Is this too much for one post? I can break it up if that helps. Thanks all for your time.

BooksNBuns

Featured Answer

groveraxle

5 years ago

Please post photos that enlarge. Take them with the highest resolution on your phone or your tablet and upload them directly. Since you want help for the living room, take a photo from each corner of the room and upload all of them. Do it in the comment section on this thread, not on a new post.

Paint the arches the same color as the walls.

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Comments (37)

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JudyG Designs
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
No, stay with one post. Please! Otherwise there will be too many cooks in the kitchen. The right hand won’t know….

New photos are necessary.

First thoughts…separate areas, but I still get the feeling of an open floor plan.

Different paint/stain on trim. Why?

Living room and dining room are on the front of the house and get the same natural light….which is?

Den is not as open, so that would be a great room to choose a different, but complimentary wall color. Why not have the t v in the den?

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sloyder
5 years ago
Arches stay the same color as the walls.
colonialgp
5 years ago
When purchasing furniture, keep the size of the room in mind. Your chairs in the living room are too large for the space. If keeping the tv above the fireplace, which isn't recommended, you should have the sofa face it, with chairs on either side.
saratogaswizzlestick
5 years ago
What a beautiful house. It has so much potential. Your furniture is huge. Just getting the right scale will help immensely.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Hi JudyG,

I will upload more photos. Learning as I go here. Once I get it, I will be faster. Promise!

Yes, living and dining areas are basically the entire front of the house, separated by the wide arch. The windows face South. Dining room gets the most natural light because it has 2 windows. Living room gets some from one large window.

This living room is our only family living space. There is a basement cave that the teen uses, but we don't go down there. All relaxing, entertaining, etc happens in the living and dining room. The den is my reading room (librarian).

Trim paint and crown paint are different. How did I not realize that is bad?! wow. The trim I had painted when we moved in because it was horribly old yellow oil paint. It's SW Snowbound now. The crown was there when we moved in and I never thought to match the trim. Learning already.

Den is not as open to the living room but it is ALL windows. Literally 3 walls are floor to ceiling windows. Half of the fourth wall is taken up by a built in bookcase. It would be a hard room to watch TV in. I do hate the TV over the fireplace. I thought about framing it with molding or hiding it somehow. But it's our only TV room.
Let's see if uploading pics makes them able to be enlarged. If not, I will keep working at it.

Current state: Dining room to Living room

From Living room to dining room:

From front door to kitchen (we are renovating....thus the mess)

Thank you so much Judy.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Groveraxle and Sloyder,

I will take new pics from the four corners of my living room tomorrow. It's too dark right now.

So treat the arch like the wall. Makes sense! Should I also paint the part that faces the ground ceiling white?

Thank you both so much,
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
colonialgp,

I agree the chairs in the living room are too large and there are too many of them. I can't wait to be rid of them!

I don't like the TV above the fireplace either, but there is not one other place in the house for the family to gather. This is our everything room. Maybe I could add molding above the mantel that mimics the molding below and frame in the TV? Maybe my handy hubs could build a frame to hide it. Hmmm.

thank you!
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
saratogaswizzlestick,

Thank you so much! We love our little, old house so, so much! I love the old details and my husband loves having a big garage and barn out back where he works on cars and wood stuff in his spare time.

I agree that the scale of furniture will be important going forward. We are tall people so I have always bought really big stuff. That just won't work in this living room. Smaller and still comfy will be key.

Thank you!
Kathryn P
5 years ago
Chiming in to follow and add that I generally really dislike arches (my own personal deal, I realize many like them), but yours are really cool. Such a quirky design feature!
grapefruit1_ar
5 years ago
I would paint all trim and doors white. Adding lighter color to the walls will brighten things up. Be sure to have accent tables with lamps or floor lamps.
PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years ago
I just love homes from the 1920s, and I have lived in one for the past 30 years! Most of my clients are in my area where there is an abundance of these homes. Yours is very charming, but I can see how you can be overwhelmed with a kitchen renovation, repainting and refurnishing it.

Some thoughts:

I'd keep the TV in the living room but move it to the adjacent wall. Then instead of all those chairs, I'd use 2 sofas in an L-shape, one facing the fireplace and the other facing the TV. Maybe a smaller scale chair to the right of the fireplace. It looks like you have one there now--does it block the doorway? Sofas no larger than 7 feet long, no oversized pieces with big rolled arms. If you like leather, consider a tufted leather Chesterfield, but the other could be a chenille or heavy duty woven. Too much leather is not a great choice.

Paint all the walls and trim the same color--having a large contrast like you have chops up the space. The arches are part of the ceiling, so paint them the same. You could paint both the living room and dining room in a yellow-based neutral, like Benjamin Moore's Linen White. It's a great warm white for a Colonial Revival home, and would brighten up and unify the space. Then you could bring in more saturated colors in rugs, curtains and upholstery fabrics. The two colors you showed just don't make it for me--yellow and beige is not attractive at all. If you love yellow, then go with green or navy as a second color.

The most important thing to remember is to have a plan before you go shopping. Don't just go shopping, buy something, and then have no idea what you will do next. Have a furniture plan and a color palette selected so you have a guide when you go shopping.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Kathryn P,

I grew up with the standard arches as a kid and never really felt strongly about them. When we walked into this house for the first time, I fell in love with these weirdo arches. I love that they have closets built in. We keep coats and shoes in the closet by the front door and large kitchen items and board games in the other. Whoever built this house really cared about having storage...and I thank him/her everyday!
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
grapefruitt,

I'm thinking about painting the walls and trim the same color as Diana Bier suggested, but I don't think I can paint the wood doors. I love them too much. I wish the previous owner had never even painted the trim! After the kitchen is renovated, we are having the floors refinished to match the doors, kind of a darker walnut color...not a black or gray.

Thank you!
groveraxle
5 years ago
I have to disagree with Diana on a couple of points. I would paint the arch, all of it including the ceiling of the arch, the same color as the wall.

I also don't think you'll get two sofas in an L-shape in the living room. It's going to be very tight. If you are tall people, you won't want a sofa that is too shallow or it won't be comfortable. Consider one sofa in front of the window and perhaps two small recliners facing the TV. Above all measure measure measure, then for good measure (pun intended) tape your furniture footprints out on the floor.

Have you considered putting the TV on the wall opposite the window?
PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I agree booksnbuns, don't paint the doors--leave them as they are.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Diana Bier,

You gave me some great things to try! Thank you!

I'm going to rearrange furniture tomorrow and mock out a TV on the wall just to see what it would look like in my space. I don't have the right couches right now, but I have enough chairs, cardboard and painters tape around to get a good idea.

The Sherwin williams Buff color that I loved came out a very neutral yellow in my house. I even painted a big swatch in my porch so that it wouldn't get tainted by all my yellow walls. Maybe I just see yellow! I really want to avoid beige. The brighter of the yellow colors (They call it mellow) is for upper kitchen cabinets only. I was trying to use a neutral yellow around those cabinets and through the dining room. I'm totally willing to try again though!

It doesn't sound like you (or most) would suggest painting the living room a deeper color, like:

SW oakmoss

or SW artichoke

Thank you for the best advice: I'm not buying anything (including more paint) until I have a plan and a set of colors!
PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years ago
Great--remember also that paint color should be selected last.
PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago
The fewer colors you use the larger your space will feel. I agree with groveraxle on painting most all same color. I would rethink paint for kitchen cabinets. A gray/green could work well. But need more photos to see what cabinet configuration looks like. You need to select Main furniture pieces first and those fabrics, leathers and finishes will inform other choices.
PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago
Here are some gray greens that could work for you with light cabinet uppers. If you go creams and yellows this is good companion color but we need more info. You might want to use white with gray green wash over the white. We shall see.
sandi125
5 years ago
Love your arches. I agree with groveraxle to paint all of the arch your wall color. I lived in a similar house, though mine had a central hallway. I used a BM historic yellow. Can't wait to see your progress! You are lucky to have that charming home.
ptreckel
5 years ago
Take a look at BM Hawthorn yellow. It is soft clear yellow. To my eye, it doesn’t turn green or orange. It isn’t as strong a color as what you have selected. And it looks great with blues, greens, and white.
PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago
I did a Color Muse and LRV Guru scans and the BM Hawthorne Yellow has a lot of color and I wouldn't recommend it. I think you need something off white with a tad of yellow if you want that tone. So, check out BM Sugar Cookie OC-93, it has a hue angle of 89.2 which puts it smack dab in the center of the Yellow Hue and it is not going to go green or orange/yellow and has an LRV of 91 which makes it very light and bright. It would go nicely with your woods and "visually lift" the spaces. It could be used on walls in flat or matte finish and you could use a white trim, or even use the same color for trim, but in semi-gloss. There would be slight visual color difference due to the different sheen levels. The Hawthorne is similar Hue Angle of 88.1 but it's chroma (amount of color) is 31.7 compared to Sugar Cookie that has chroma of 9.2 The higher the number, the more strength of color.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
groveraxle and Diana Bier,

I am playing with new arrangements and like it better already, even with my existing ick furniture.

pics are from corner of living room. empty space on wall is where tv will go, probably on a old school dresser or console type piece of furniture.

sofa is 48"W by 93"L. I think I need a narrower sofa and maybe max 85". it will be interesting to look for 2 chairs/recliners for the area in front of the fireplace. Trying the new arrangement is really helping me see the scale of items in the room.
thanks!!
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Hi Flo,
Thank you so much for taking the time to find really beautiful colors. I love the science behind colors and now I'm going back to look at all of the specifics of the 2 yellows that I like.

oh, the kitchen...it's in such a state right now. We just found out the original hardwood floors in the kitchen are not salvageable. Next week, new hardwood will be going down after we rip out the floor. That was a huge bummer, but I am not giving up my hardwood floor.
I will post the kitchen plans. as you can see, it's a small kitchen. Originally, it was a galley with a 40" aisle. The fridge and range were directly opposite each other against the back window, making it a nightmare to cook.
We are changing it to an efficient L kitchen. My husband loves to cook and prefers function over all. I just want it to be pretty and not have a pinch point. We are not planning an island. There just isn't room. We will probably make a narrow cart type thing that can be moved around and uses as an island or extra counter when baking.

cabinets are Ikea (I know, I know) frames. Bottom fronts are gray Bodbyn. this was a compromise with hubs. If I don't like them after 6 months or so, I will have them painted. There are only uppers on the back wall. All glass fronts surrounding the window. We ordered door frames and will have glass added. These are the only cabinets I planned to paint SW They Call It Mellow. Countertop are a mix of Santa Rita soapstone from Bucks County and black walnut for the prep area. Husband will use the wood countertop like a real cutting board. We are top mounting a vintage sink with drainboard. yes, we know That's weird, but we like it and we are really tall so it works for us. I can post some other things like our lights (mix of modern and vintage).
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Ooops forgot pics.
plans
PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago
Sounds like you have done your homework on maximizing function in your kitchen.
PRO
Diana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years ago
I'd move the chairs to the other side of the room facing the fireplace. It's not the best idea to have chairs directly in front of a fireplace.

Kitchen plans look good considering the size--I'm sure your hubby will enjoy cooking there!
groveraxle
5 years ago
Yes, chairs facing fireplace, not in front of fireplace.
groveraxle
5 years ago
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
I'm on a bit of a hold for rearranging furniture. We are tearing out the kitchen floor today and this weekend for new wood! The living room is pretty much full of appliances.

BUT, is this set too weird? old? wrong color? I know it's only a love seat and not a sofa, but maybe that size would work better and I would have less leather in the living room. I tend towards buying older, vintage, reupholstered furniture.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
well, that set of furniture turned out to be a bust. It was not very nice looking in person and wasn't real leather. I will find the right pieces eventually.
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
I need to get myself off craigslist and fbook buy/sell groups! I love getting a deal and I love reusing stuff. I think I just figured out why my house looks like a mish mash.

Check out this sofa. It's a Hancock and Moore in a taupe color. 1100 used seems like a crazy high price, but I know the brand is $$$$ and quality. I think we are going to have to take a break from taking out floorboards to go have a look. My hubs will love that idea. :)
groveraxle
5 years ago
That Hancock and Moore taupe sofa is fat, dated, and totally lacking in style. It's more mishmash.
groveraxle
5 years ago
If you want to stay with traditional seating, at least look at sofas with some grace.
Tyler Leather Sofa | Pottery Barn · More Info

Calistoga Upholstered Sofa | Pottery Barn · More Info

Charlotte Upholstered Sofa | Pottery Barn · More Info
booksnbuns
Original Author
5 years ago
Thanks for the direction, groveraxle. I love all three of the sofas you used as examples, the Tyler and Charlotte especially. As much as I love the chesterfield style, the short back doesn't work well for my very tall family.

I'm picking out the sofa first as it will end up being the biggest piece in the living room. Having a style direction helps me skip on by all the outdated stuff available. Really appreciate it,

booksnbuns
PRO
Flo Mangan
5 years ago
Here is a favorite with 38” high back and 40” deep. Good tall people sofa. Styling goes with most anything. If this appeals, let me know and i can arrange getting you my Trade Program discount for a 5% off. Be happy to help if i can. This works for any Houzz purchases. Enjoy!