Room of the Day: Strategies for Laying Out a Large Space
A designer helps a New York City homeowner make sense of her living room after it doubles in size
Becky Harris
January 24, 2017
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe as "collected."
I got into design via Landscape Architecture, which I studied at the University of Virginia.
Houzz Contributor. Hi there! I live in a 1940s cottage in Atlanta that I'll describe... More
This living room story is a perfect example of a situation that called for a designer’s expertise. The homeowner had a great eye and fabulous furniture and artwork, but after she merged two Upper West Side apartments into one, the large scale of the room was too overwhelming for her to handle alone. “She really just needed help with the layout and tieing it all together,” says interior designer Julie China, who helped give the extra-large room great flow and cohesive, chic style.
Photos by Anna Herbst
Living Room at a Glance
What happens here: Entertaining, conversations, reading, dining, traversing through a long apartment
Location: Upper West Side of Manhattan
Size: 474 square feet (44 square meters)
Designers: Julie and Darren China of Idea Space Architecture + Design
The space was originally two living rooms in two separate apartments. (The beam in the ceiling marks where the wall between them used to be.) Once the apartments were combined, the new room measured 24 feet by 19 feet 9 inches. China divided the space into two distinct but cohesive areas: the living area on the left and the dining area on the right.
Living Room at a Glance
What happens here: Entertaining, conversations, reading, dining, traversing through a long apartment
Location: Upper West Side of Manhattan
Size: 474 square feet (44 square meters)
Designers: Julie and Darren China of Idea Space Architecture + Design
The space was originally two living rooms in two separate apartments. (The beam in the ceiling marks where the wall between them used to be.) Once the apartments were combined, the new room measured 24 feet by 19 feet 9 inches. China divided the space into two distinct but cohesive areas: the living area on the left and the dining area on the right.
“My client has great style but she was stumped as to how to lay out the space,” China says. The kitchen is to the right, so it made sense to put the dining area on that side. Toward the bottom of the plan, you can see two runners, which create an open corridor to direct traffic through the apartment.
Extending a custom broadloom rug across both areas helped tie them together, soften the room and avoid the costly move of redoing the floors, which were a little wonky where the wall had been. Plus, at 474 square feet, that’s a whole lot of parquet. “The rug has a nice texture to it that has kind of a subtle mottled pattern and incorporates the neutral tones my client likes,” China says.
Chair and ottoman: Room and Board
Chair and ottoman: Room and Board
“My client had a lot of cool pieces but needed help putting them all together,” the designer says. For example, she already had this fantastic daybed, which China placed in the center of the space. “It’s a great transitional piece — it’s low and it’s not bulky like a sofa would have been,” she says. “It has an open, inviting quality so that people can sit on it and converse with either side of the room.”
China created a comfortable seating area by incorporating existing pieces like the armchair, the artwork and the vintage Harvey Probber coffee table, and by adding new ones like the sofa, classic Grasshopper lamp and custom pillows. The chair on the right mixes in leather and walnut. The entire tableau is a fresh nod to midcentury modern design. The table lamp is a classic designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1962.
Sofa: Custom, in fabric by Perennials; pillow fabric on right: Knoll; pillows on left: custom with Samuel & Sons leather piping; Taccia table lamp: Flos
Sofa: Custom, in fabric by Perennials; pillow fabric on right: Knoll; pillows on left: custom with Samuel & Sons leather piping; Taccia table lamp: Flos
To the left of the runners is the kitchen, and the entryway is just out of view to the right. The bench brings in texture and serves as a spot to put on or take off shoes as one exits or enters the apartment.
China worked with her client’s existing dining table and added new upholstered chairs. A fiddle leaf fig in a midcentury modern-style planter adds life in the corner of the dining area. A large mirror matches the scale of the space.
Dining chairs: Design Within Reach; chandelier: Visual Comfort
Dining chairs: Design Within Reach; chandelier: Visual Comfort
The layered window treatments were the final touch. “The windows felt cold before — the new window treatments make the room inviting and complete the space,” China says. The structural sheer Roman shades offer privacy while letting the light through, while ripple-fold wool drapery adds softness to the wall.
More
Divide and Conquer: How to Furnish a Long, Narrow Room
Most Popular: The Top 10 Living Room Photos of 2016
More
Divide and Conquer: How to Furnish a Long, Narrow Room
Most Popular: The Top 10 Living Room Photos of 2016
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@Madison Hogan, I smiled when I saw "day day" — thought it was a cute nickname for "daybed" until I saw your correction below. I think I'm going to start throwing "day day" into casual conversation :)
I love your room! Really unique and functional:). Where is the chair and ottoman from?
I might be in the minority here, but this seems like the same error that I see at my institution when confronting large spaces. There are some nice pieces shown here, but the eclectic styles show collectively as a yard sale of items displayed rather than a space that is inviting. The challenge of these spaces, in my opinion, are they lead to too errors of design. One, you try to zone the spaces to limit the parts that we can 'take in' so that we feel invited what to do in each space ; the error is that you end up with fighting zones that don't talk well with each other as a collective whole; or,you try to unite the space with a border called an area rug--that seeks to unite the space--but it doesn't recognize the clatter of all the parts in the plane of the room. Yes, its a nice space, but just my reaction to what I think is missing. Maybe I would change my mind if i could see it all in the round.