Any ideas? I knew Friday night was a bad time!

WOW that is one crowded room, can you post a to scale floor plan and also what can be removed ansd where is this space in the house.

Hi. Yes, room very crowded. In order to help further, I would need

1) Floor plan.

2) Photos of all 4 walls

3) Purpose of the room (Is it a music room?

4) Inspirational photo of what you would like the room to look like.

Here a to scale floor plan. (ignore the ellipse trainer and marimba blocks, anf the bookshelves in tye corner moved next to the chest freezer.

the room is a family room, in the “basement” of a split level, and the first pic in my first post is essentially what you can see from the door/kanding.

the functions Of the room: library, lounging, piano. (also currently office but let’s ignore that as covid)

The other walls:

the play area/chest freezer will be replaced by a reading chair and light in a year or two :) please ignore them

We have a small house and a small budget. :)

everything in the corner between the fireplace and the piano and everything under the tv can be removed. This dilemma is largely about removing it in at least one place! :)

I'd place the sofa facing the fireplace.

tv over fireplace.

Chair where easel is.

piano under shelving.

The space is never going to look good with an elliptical and a freezer. I am just being honest .

You will need to do some major decluttering also. Maybe you realize that.

Okay....I see that you will be moving the clutter stuff out. Thanks.

i Thought I said to forget the elliptical as it’s gone?

Not interested in moving the furniture, honestly (houzz helped me arrange the couch, chair and piano a few years ago); with the big bulkhead running down the room, it looks best in person with the couch running parallel under it.)

the vast majority Of the clutter is either the kids things (pic taken without cleanup), Christmas OR the very things I’m asking about replacing! :)

Okay.....if you don't want to move the furniture, then I'd either place tv above fireplace or where it is. However, you'll need to hide the wires.

I don’t like the loook of a tv Over the fireplace (plus it would be kind of hard to see from the couch); Definitely going to hide wires!

what would you do fir the DVD and small amount of gaming systems? The game systems could be stored in a closetif the hookups were east east to access... I’m stuck on what would look good with that tv centered where it is look.

With the piano there, nothing is going to look good shoved up against it.

Are you aware that an outside wall is not the best place for a piano?

Since you don't want to move any furniture, I recommend any equipment be stored elsewhere a connected wirelessly.

It’s a basement wall, and every wall except the small one with the tall black shelf is exterior in the Same way. old you it was a small house. :)

we can not afford to buy any new equipment. i plan to build whatever solution out of our wood pile (and saved stain, finish). The tv mount was handed down to us

Right.....I am familiar with those exterior half walls typical in many split levels.

Is the piano digital. I have ideas for the piano, but you don't want to move furniture.

Good luck.....sounds like it could be a great hang out for your family!

It’s a solid wood spinet, free, nothing fancy, but heavily used by my girls. :)

I could be persuaded to possibly swap it with the chair, if that makes sense... (the tall bookcase of record is transitionary and will be leaving eventually as we figure out new space for the records)

if I did that, would that work better? How would tv space look then?

The problem is the chair is so big. i Don’t know if it would fit in the corner...

That is one idea.

My second idea would be to place it behind the sofa. It would be a little taller than the sofa, but that is okay.

Then, you could make the back area your "music" area.

If you have furniture sliders, it is very easy to move furniture.

If you don't want to, that's okay.

What would “go” under the window By the fireplace if we moved it out and didn’t move the chair, out of curiosity?

A smaller chair. A plant. The ottoman. Plenty of ideas.

this shows the chair sizing in relation with switching it and the piano

my biggest hesitation on moving the piano behind the couch us the unfinished wood back of the piano sticking up? it will by about 6-8 inches. Also it feels like that would be very cramped back there?

Another thing you can put to the right of the fireplace is the easel. Chair could be pulled over a little. I think it would work by fireplace.

Would be cool to paint the back of the piano or add wallpaper. Make lemons out of lemonade.

Or move piano to the only inside wall.

If you don't want to move the furniture, you'll never know how you like it.

Mostly stuck on not moving the couch. (due to the bulkhead and having explored a lot of couch isotopes before.)

but- not until that tree leaves. Lol. Takes up way too much space!!!

You don't have to move the sofa. I do see the wisdom of keeping it under the low bulkhead.

Looks like piano could be moved without encroaching upon the tree, but up to you.

It will just be a lot easier in two weeks, with less crap on the piano and the tree out of the way. :) The tree has too many breakable (and with lots of family history) ornaments on it to move the small amount that would be needed to move it into either place.

(Luckily the piano is on tiny but functional wheels!!!)

Whoever told you the piano could go on an exterior wall was mistaken (unless, like the TV, it is rarely played.) You're risking its health, so move it to an interior wall. It might do opposite the fireplace, if that is an interior wall.

Deco- they are all below ground/grade exterior walls EXCEPT that small wall opposite the fireplace.

it was a free piano, and while we are musicians we aren’t pianists, so I don’t think we have it much thought. (Along with it being below grade, so a pretty stable temperature year round.)

(It is heavily played now by my two daughters. ❤️)

Since TV is rarely watched, I'd wall mount it in the corner right of the FP and use some cord covers to control all of the cord clutter. You have a lot of low storage pieces (right of the freezer, and from the piano on around behind the tree) while your wall mounted bookcase looks to have space and need organizing. I would do a pare down of the books so all those shelf units around your lower perimeter could be removed. Be ruthless with de-cluttering. Re-work your "L" bookshelf, stacking books lying down flat on the top shelf. I would devote that shelf unit entirely to books, no decor items except maybe on the ends. Center the piano between those two windows, and hang a big piece of art on the wall above it. Use textured or fiber shades at the windows. Eliminate all the pieces from the piano to the right and around the tree. It may be that a new location for the easel, rocker and antique record player will emerge after the de-cluttering. Angle the chair in that newly available corner where the desk is, hang that piece of art that's by the stairs centered at 5' above then floor on the wall and add a floor lamp by the chair so you have a comfy reading corner. I think a pare down when you clean up after the holidays will make the room so much more airy and inviting. It is starting to look like basement storage rather than a comfy place for your family to hang out.

Thank you! The rocker isn't required...I go back and forth on it, honestly, whether to make a spot for it and keep it or not. I love the styling, but it needs recaned. COVID and forced work from home has definitely created some issues (the filing cabinet and desk) in making it even more cluttered. The easel can be folded into a box and stored. It's a long story, but it was a gift from my husband, but unfortunately not highly useful for watercolor painting (what I dabble in), so I started using it for display so at least it was used at all. The ratan drawer set only holds video game components- which based on how frequently they are used, could be stored in a box in the closet under the stairs just fine. Behind the easel are two dvd storage towers. Again, pretty optional and really need pared down to what we actually want to keep.

The shelves next to the freezer are the kid's book and maker space shelves right now...but it's ugly as all get out. I need to sit down and think about what they really need for space, and create it instead of just using those two black bookcases because they are there. But all of those books are kid books, as opposed to the wall shelf which is all adult books. The other big bookshelf is only records for the record player, and a few board games (that we never play. Need to declutter those. The played ones are upstairs by the table.)

I agree the decor items don't look that good on the bookshelf...but I don't know what to do with them elswhere in our house. There's really no other place for knickknacks, and honestly that's the extent of our non-Christmas knickknacks. Almost all of the pictures and items have a personal history that is strong enough to keep them.

Ok, started moving some things around with these suggestions...green chair matches one that is upstaurs and will probably go back. black bookcase will leave, piano centered? i feel it needs sometging under tge window? and a new a/v hutch...

And it’s all still flexibkr! As you can see, we removed a LOT of things, so it’s easier to see what’s going on. :)