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Home Decorating Furniture Design Dilemma

What do we do with these spaces?

2 years ago

Hello. My family and I moved into our house last November and we are struggling to figure out what to do with two spaces. Either of them could be the dining room, but then we don't know what to do with the other space.
We tend to be on the minimalist side when it comes to furnishing and decorating (I'm procrastinating here). The idea of buying furniture just to fill a space or create a look makes me uncomfortable, but I'm feeling like we might have to do that. Sure, if we put a sofa in one of the spaces it will get used, but I've never lived in a house with two before and it just seems silly to me. I think I need to relax my ideas about what makes sense. Anyway, I know this post is a bit ramble-y, but I guess that just shows you my frame of mind when it comes to these spaces. Does anyone have any ideas for what we could do? Where should we put the dining table? Should we have a breakfast table in one room and a dining table in the other? Should we buy a loveseat? Help!
A few things to note about the pictures: when our new sofa was delivered, we temporarily moved the old one into one of the rooms we're trying to figure out. We're buying a dining table soon. We plan on moving the books to another space where we will mount some shelves on the wall.

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Comments (5)

Sammie J
2 years ago
Can you post a floor plan, with dimensions? Without that, it's guesswork and hard to tell where a dining table might best fit...
pricklypearcactus
2 years ago
Please do post a floor plan as @Sammie J suggested. It's difficult to determine the exact purposes of the rooms without seeing how they relate to eachother, the entry to the home, the kitchen, etc.

Aside from that, a lot of homes have a "formal" living room and a "family room" or "den". This suits how some people live, but doesn't suit everyone. I would recommend thinking about how you could or would like to use the extra space. Do you need a separate room for TV and reading? Do you need a separate play room or crafting room? Think about how you might like to live in the spaces. It would be better to furnish them in a way that you can use rather than just buying furniture to visualy fill the room.
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The black accent wall is amazing, but also very important are the touches of yellow to make this room wake up. In the pictures without the black and yellow it all looks lifeless. If you were to move the couches further apart a rectangular glass and metal coffee table probably would fit in nicely, and the shine of the glass would take away some of the heaviness of the couches.
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ashtonchic
2 years ago
The room with the hanging light and sliding glass door appears to be the formal dining room given the light in the center of the room. I would set up a more informal space in the other room for everyday. Where do the doors go? Laundry? Garage?
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Sharon Fullen
2 years ago
Looks like from the fencing there are children. How about creating an area for play, crafting, storytime and dress-up. Perhaps they aren't old enough yet but the space could be used from toddler on up. Call it the Creativity Room.
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cubby14
2 years ago
I think the original intention is for the space with the hanging light to be the dining room, however it looks a bit small and so I would use the area just outside of the kitchen for a nice dining room table and find another use for the other smaller space. Could be an office or bar area, even a playroom. Whatever you need.
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