Are dividing doors between living & family room a good idea?
Roy Mathew
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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Room Divider - Need Creative Ideas!!
Comments (27)It's almost like Christmas morning!! I woke up to a many more gifts! Thank you. Karin, thank you for the insight. I absolutely love the idea of an armoire. It would be beautiful, but I do not think practical. I am in those files many, many times each day. The ones to the right of my desk are customer files, the rolling files on the floor hold a few more customer files plus other info I need access to. Patty and Mary, the bookcase idea sounds like a possible as well. Les, you have given me even something more to think about. Several others mentioned this as well -- purpose of this room. As I said, this is a center hall colonial. 20 years ago we added 5' to our family room and added a large sunroom on the back of that. Since that time (and even before that) the living room has just been for show, not function. Several years ago my sons suggested moving my office from the basement, where dry as it was, it was still a basement. I was so very reluctant, because after all I was going to disparage the living room. So I put the desk and files in and bought the screen. While a very large room, shoving everything down just made it worse, because now I had just moved the living room over to make room for the office. I recently got rid of the sofa and two tables. That was great. I had my family room furniture delivered and they would take away any used furniture for free and donate to a furniture bank. I had the sofa and a chair (37 years old). One of the men said he knew someone who could use it and asked if that was okay with me. It felt good because I knew it was going to be put to use. It was in perfect condition - I just didn't want it anymore. Anyway, this has all made me realize that this room is primarily an office and I should embrace that - I am going to start by moving things around. Thank you, Les. I do love the bookcase divider idea as well. I have been thinking of moving the desk anyway, as it is starting to "alligator" in the sun. My father brought this home from work many years ago and refinished it. I can still see his hands on it, so want to preserve it. Les, if you are still out there, --- you mentioned a loveseat to the left as you walk in the room. You cannot see well from the pictures, but there is a very large window there. I don't think I would want a large piece against the window. Thanks again to all who helped me. Now, I just need to break the news to my dear, dear husband that I have yet another "plan"....See MoreIdea for Layout - Kitchen w/ Living & Family Room
Comments (44)It's been a while, but here's a new idea, any thoughts? Someone suggested turning the DR into a reading room, and although at first I dismissed the idea, on second thought I think that may be a better idea, as I'll end up using that more often, looking out into the backyard watching the kids play in the evenings, and being able to read and hang out in a nice environment. The new everyday DR would be connected to the outdoor dining area which would be nice for indoor/outdoor entertaining. Since people have been saying that having a bathroom in such an open area is awkward, that would be turned into a small pantry, and a small half bath would be added below the new reading room (former DR), with a door from the hallway. A TV would be behind the new bathroom wall towards the living room. Does anyone think think the TV wall is awkward? It's 9 feet to the LR window in front, but someone feels a little too tight to me. There's not much of a choice because I don't want to strain my neck by hanging it over the fireplace, and don't want to hang it in the reading room either since I'd rather enjoy the outdoor environment from there, and have some quiet, too. Thanks for any thoughts on this new layout....See MoreUgly Stairs between family room and living room
Comments (16)Here is a thought: This idea moves the step to the Living Room to the left, which eases traffic flow from the adjacent kitchen doorway. Keep the wide base step, but extend it beyond the edge of this step from the Living Room. Take out the angled corner of the base step - it looks odd - and extend the base step to the outer wall if you can. You can then add a step to the Master Bedroom that is wider than the wall opening, so that this step does not look narrow/small. All of this gets the wider base to look more purposeful, acting as an extra seating bench/display shelf. You should add a partial-height wood wall extension/cabinet unit up to the right of the Living Room step, to break the "tunnel" look of the long narrow Living Room from the Family Room. You could also extend the vertical material of this unit as a tall wall base going around the Family Room, which could help to visually tie in this step condition into the rest of the Family Room, so that the steps looks purposeful rather than an after-thought....See MoreKitchen remodel (dining room & maybe living room too) - Ideas Wanted!
Comments (10)@ SapphireStitch While it would be nice to wave a magic wand with an unlimited checkbook - I don't have that. I do have access to some money (got a HELOC). If some of the changes need to be done in stages and can be done effectively - we can do that, because the more money I have to pull upfront from the HELOC, the more I'll end up paying in interest. (yuck). I'm also not averse to acting as my own general contractor/project manager, if needed; I've done that before (successfully) But I'd rather not have to overall manage the project, just because my current employment is a boatload more demanding than my previous employment. The nice thing is that we don't have a defined deadline where "this must be done by" - no one is getting married, boatloads of relatives aren't coming to visit, etc. However, the kitchen as it currently stands is a source of daily irritation. We're getting to the point that if anyone is already in the kitchen, we try to avoid going in there until that person has left the kitchen. Tempers flare....we've got my boyfriend (who was envisioning a quiet, child-free retirement), my teenager (while she's not as much of a drama queen as some teens - she's just starting the teenage years, LOL), and me - frustrated as the primary food purchaser, preparer, organizer, clean-up person. And if my boyfriend happens to suddenly realize his blood sugar has dropped - get the hell out of the way in the kitchen. He's not very good at listening to his body - he literally passed out one time when his blood sugar dropped too low - he dashed into the kitchen, grabbed a glucerna and the last thing he remembered was opening it up - but he woke up on the floor sitting in a puddle of the stuff. (I wasn't home at the time). When either I or my teen are in the kitchen and if boyfriend does the mad dash into the kitchen - we pretty much have to drop what we are doing so he can grab something and while he stands there and he starts shoveling whatever down his throat. And since the space is so tight - it can mean leaving stuff cooking on the stove, etc. One time he dashed in, grabbed a breakfast sandwich out of the refrigerator, yanked what was already cooking in the microwave out, and threw his sandwich in. Anyhow, I digress. I know that some of the things we want are going to be big-ticket items - new cabinets, granite or quartzite countertops, slide-in induction stove. That's why I'm also looking for cost-efficient plans, such as instead of moving the sink to the middle of the room, let's keep it on the same wall and just shorten the distance from the hot water heater to the new sink location. Let's not blow out any of the exterior walls, and we can keep the current windows, dishwasher, and refrigerator. If replacing the 10'x13' current laminate would be cheapest to match new hardwood to the existing hardwood, rather than ripping it all out and putting tile down in a 20'x13' space, I'm fine keeping hardwood. If a nice, medium-stain maple cabinet is cheaper than white painted cabinets, I'm find with the the stained version... I prefer it, personally. Rather than a huge pantry cabinet, if building a pantry closet with adjustable shelves is cheaper, I'm fine with that (plus with all the small appliances and bulk-purchases from Costco and BJ's - I think it would suit our storage needs better). If getting an island fits the layout, but is out of reach - I'm fine holding off on installing island cabinets and countertop and using a kitchen table in the meantime. And because we don't have a "get it done by" date... once I have a really solid design/layout... I have the time to shop different cabinet lines and stoves, wait for sales and then to be ready to capitalize on hopefully a decent deal. I don't know if it's true, but I did see some articles that indicate the best time to shop for kitchen cabinets is November to early January....See MoreSabrina Alfin Interiors
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