Remodeling main living floor, how to lay out furniture?

last year

I live in a split level house, roughly 2800 sq.ft of living space. Here's a pic of the front of the house, taken last year, to give you an idea of the look and style:

The main entrance is to a level with a living room, dining room, and kitchen. There are stairs right in front of the entrance that lead upstairs, and then another set that lead downstairs.

Those stairwells have made it VERY difficult for me to come up with a good floor plan for that main level, so I could really use some thoughts!

This is with my back to the front door. You can see the upstairs banister on the right, and note the 6' long sliding glass door on the opposite wall (closed in with a curtain in this pic):

Same location, just turned to focus on the stairs:

This is the other side of the living room. The front door, where I was standing above, would be to the right of this picture:

Closer view of the stairs to the basement:

This is with my back to the opposite corner in the kitchen; in the previous picture I was standing in front of the sofa, near where you see the mirror and floor lamp:

Same location as the previous picture, just turned right so that you can see the dining room:

This is from the last corner, in the dining room facing the front door (where I was standing in the first picture):

And finally, I drew up a layout. This is as close to scale as I could get it, with each block representing 1' squares:

This isn't perfect because the sofa and rug are actually a little angled instead of straight. And he + area next to that is a chair and footstool. Other than that, it's pretty close.

The problem I have with the layout is that, even though the level is technically about 500 sq.ft, it feels tiny! The stairs and the orange wall that divide the rooms close everything in, and a full 25% of the level (the dining room) is completely unused.

In my dream world I would tear out that orange wall and eliminate the dining room entirely, then build a faux chimney along the outside wall in it's place. Something like this:

These would all be permanent fixtures. I hate the look of the banisters and would love to redo them completely, too, but without a huge expense the stairs have to be there regardless

If I did that, then how would you suggest that I place the furniture?

Assuming that the fireplace is 2' deep, that leaves 10' from the fireplace to the banisters that lead downstairs. I obviously have to leave enough room in front of those banisters to get by, so I really have a working area of about 6-7'.

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Comments (5)

mcarroll16
last year
In this dream layout, where do you want to eat? In your other thread, you said you use the dining area once a year. But you don't have an island with seating. What is your ideal solution for everyday meals? Knowing that is a crucial part of solving the entire layout question.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
last year
Breakfast is usually me sitting in the chair and my girlfriend sitting on the sofa. Those meals are usually some sort of sandwich (bagel or biscuit).

For dinner, we eat out 3 evenings each week. Of the remaining 4 evenings, 3 are Lean Cuisine meals (or similar) which are also eaten in our regular seats.

The remaining meal is usually eaten at the coffee table. I'm open to buying one of those coffee tables that lifts for eating; I haven't seen them in several years, but they were all the rage in the late-90s / early 00s! LOL

The only times we've used the dining room is when her mom comes over to eat with us, but that's only a few times each year. When we go to her house we usually eat in the living room, either with a TV tray table or balanced on our laps. She comes over rarely enough that I have no problem following that same system.
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I've looked at the fabrics. Fabrics are SO hard to choose, for a lot of reasons. One thing I learned when I was doing this for myself was to absolutely NOT select a fabric without seeing it in person first. They look completely different in person. You want to hold them up to furniture in the light of the room in which they will be. Light affects colors and fabrics dramatically. If you're doing this strictly online, you should be able to request swatches from Smith Bros. Better still, if there is a retailer near you yo can actually walk in and look at the large swatches and take some home, do so. Other considerations. Cleaning. It is my understanding (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that the fabrics that are 100% man-made materials ,i.e.: polyester, acrylic, etc., are very hard to clean, that you want a fabric which at least has some cotton or wool or whatever in it. Also, you want to feel the fabrics so you'll have a sense of how comfortable it will be to sit on. Will if "feel" too cold in winter? That sort of thing. And wear: you don't want to have to reupholster the pieces in five years! Re: the fabrics you picked. Love, love, love 334211, the chair fabric. Beautiful. gorgeous colors, and it'll look stunning on that carpet. You absolutely can do the entire chair and ottoman in that fabric, and should, IMO. I love the chocolate brown/muted gray/blue color combo. Didn't particularly care for the second patterned fabric you chose for pillows, but that's just a matter of personal taste, of course. I do think the two patterns clash. re: the sofa fabric. I'm really not sure about it. It strikes me as being too dark for the carpet you've chosen, but it's hard to say w/o seeing a swatch in person. I think that with such a dark carpet, I'd want a bit more of a contrast. I think you're right, though, to go with a "railroad" pattern for the sofa, rather than jacquard or floral or whatever. I believe in being conservative with sofa fabrics (so they won't get dated and need to be recovered fairly quickly) and dressing sofas up instead with pillows and throws. Okay, I've gone through all the fabrics, matched them back and forth by using multiple windows, and this is what I came up with. For the sofa, purely by coincidence, I kept coming back to #329511, and it's the only one I settled on. It also has some cotton in it, which is good for sofa fabric. It'll look stunning on the dark brown carpet, and it goes very nicely with chair's 334211. The herringbone pattern gives it some texture, which you will like on a large piece like a sofa. For the sofa pillows, I love the Palm Island counter fabric, 334311 OR the same fabric you'll have for the chair, 334211. These fabrics contrasting with the richness and starkness of the deep brown rug will be gorgeous, in my opinion. but again, ALWAYS look at swatches in person before making a final decision. If you were to get a set of wood slat blinds for the two windows on each side of the fireplace, I think that would be the icing on the cake for that room (see link). Room with this color combo and these blinds would be warm enough in winter, cool enough for summer, serene…just beautiful, IMO. and why won't you use the wood-burning fireplace? Oh my! You must! Just remember to close the flue in the morning so your heat doesn't escape up the chimney! It's gonna be gorgeous, Carol! Here is a link that might be useful: Fireplace window blinds
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Can you sketch out a floor plan with some measurements? The photos help, but the distances seem to be distorted, for example the distance from the corner of the fireplace to the kitchen pass-through in the 1st and 2nd picture.
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Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
last year
Also notable about the fireplace in that dream layout:

I'm not married to it being centered in the room like that. I just put it there in the drawing because I figured that I could put in faux rocks to create a "chimney" instead of repairing the drywall from removing the orange wall.

But there's not technical reason why it couldn't be shifted to the left or right.
PRO
RL Relocation LLC
last year
Is the orange wall load bearing?

I also have no idea why so many want to put a fireplace in, unless you plan to use that sucker 6 months out of the year, its a space eater and a room definer.

as to island, id skip that and work on a peninsula instead.
Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author
last year
Is the orange wall load bearing?

No, and I had a contractor double check to make sure :-) The top cracked a little shortly after I prettied it up, though, so there's SOME weight on it! That's a concern, but it hasn't cracked any further so maybe it was just from house settling?

I also have no idea why so many want to put a fireplace in, unless you plan to use that sucker 6 months out of the year, its a space eater and a room definer.

In my area, 4-5 months would be likely; October or November through February or March. Snow in February is common, sometimes it happens in March, and rarely as late as Easter. Our last frost is typically early-to-mid May, though, so cold nights can be as often as 8 months out of the year.

I originally wanted to put in a gas fireplace as a heat backup when the electricity goes out. I'm still thinking about that, but I don't have a great place to hide the gas tank so I'm not sure. The electric goes out enough over the winters that I'm seriously considering solar panels, too.

Last but not least, in theory I could save electricity by using a 1500W fireplace to heat the main floor throughout the day, and only turning on the heat pump near bed time.

as to island, id skip that and work on a peninsula instead

I'm totally open to remodeling the entire kitchen, too. I like the cabinet style, but the refrigerator is against a short wall that keeps me from opening the right door completely! That was fine 20 years ago when I had a regular fridge with a thin door, but now I have French doors with the door-in-door compartment, and with it fully open I can barely get into the main section!

I could also put in a corner cabinet to connect to the peninsula, giving me more storage :-)

I'd want to keep the cabinets beneath the peninsula, but I could always make that part of the counter a little deeper to create a sitting area. Maybe even some pendulum lights over that counter to define the kitchen area better...

Remodeling main living floor, how to lay out furniture?

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mcarroll16

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
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Remodeling main living floor, how to lay out furniture?

Comments (5)

mcarroll16

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NCOriginal Author

Related Discussions

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NCOriginal Author

RL Relocation LLC

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NCOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author

Jason, zone 7A, near Greensboro NC
Original Author