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Hoping to get some ideas for our living room. We just moved into a condo and in desperate need of design ideas for the living room space. We'd like to break the space up to accommodate a guest or a baby for the future. Not too much space to play with but we don't really have any furniture and looking to refurnish anyway. The only piece that would need to stay are rug and the media equipment. Have a ton of books in storage currently as well.
Any suggestions, help greatly appreciated. Plan and some photos attached. It's the NW room on the plan.
That is a floorplan but without knowing the details we are playing guess. Can you detail the floor plan for us. Which room is the the one you need hlep with?
Its' the top most left (NW) room with the windows at the north. Doors lead to the bedroom (NE) and to the bathroom directly south of the bedroom/living room. The hallway leading to the living room has 2 closets opposite each other and the kitchen and small dining area are at the south with the main entrance. Hope this helps.
Last edited by citydweller5; 02-21-2012 at 01:28 PM..
Got it the room, upper left. Now are you saying that you want to divide that room into two separate areas and make a guest room/nursery and a living room? You have a problem in that if you divide it into two horizontally, you will then either need to walk through the guest room/nursery to get to the living room or vice versa. While that gives you two roughly 8.5 x 14 rooms (allowing for the hallway) the vertical divide answers solves the "passing through a room to get to the other room" problem but creates a new problem by leaving you with two very long and narrow rooms. The best suggestion I can offer is to worry about the nursery portion when it comes into play.
That said, I would buy a futon or nice pull out sofa (depending upon how much company you are expecting, I would buy a better one rather than a cheaper one, if money will allow, because very often they are not too comfortable to sleep on). You would then have the sofa as a guest bed. You could put up a screen as a room divider for some privacy, again this all depends upon your company. I would take advantage of the wonderful light you have from those windows and I would put cellular shades with the optional top down feature so you have better light control.
It is hard to see the rug colors but I would pick one of the minor colors in the rug and use that as a guide to pick the fabric for the sofa and chair. You don't say if you can paint the walls or not but that will also help create a very different look. Lighting can really define a space too. Perhaps a reading lamp by the chair. Good luck
thanks for the suggestions. You can really treat the room as a blank canvas and really looking for ideas. The walls can be any color. We did try to find colors that complemented the rug but it was quite a challenge. Certainly open to suggestions. I like your idea for a sleeper sofa and was thinking that as well but need some help with layout and furniture placement for the room.
Well i tried a couple of layouts in google sketchup but am still not terribly thrilled with the results and not quite sure how to manage for 2 zones.. (living room and guest/nursery space). The bookshelves are an afterthought and I was playing around with the idea of using them to break up the space in the middle or how they're shown creating a hallway. The furniture models are all from the google library and are more for scale than taste. The bookshelves are the Ikea Billy since they are tall and may be used to break up the space. I've also attached a closeup of the rug so you can see the detail and the colors.
Ok, now I am really confused. Are you trying to divide the room now or not? Better stated, exactly what are you going to be using the room for in the coming year? If you are going to divide it now you need to determine how, vertically or horizontally. That is important so you know the scale of the furniture and how to place it.
The colors in the rug seem like an open canvas for the walls. What colors do you like? You could be very safe and go neutral a warm beige tone or you could capture the pinky mauve, gold or green in the leaves. I would not go too dark, as the rug is dark enough with the dark blue.
Do you know the style of furniture that you like? You need to define how you want to use the space before you do anything else.
I don't like extending the hallway with the shelving units. That makes the room smaller. Are these all pieces of furniture you already own?
The guest space doesn't need to be a separate area, just a futon or pull out sofa.
There's enough space to divide the room in half at a later date, not literally in half but to create a nursery area, by not having the living room furniture centered in the room. When that time comes, you could put the TV up against the kitchen/bathroom wall and have your sofa with the back to the window in the middle of the room. The nursery area can be on the far side of the room. And seriously, a nursery only needs to be a crib. It doesn't need to be its own separate space.
Ok, now I am really confused. Are you trying to divide the room now or not? Better stated, exactly what are you going to be using the room for in the coming year? If you are going to divide it now you need to determine how, vertically or horizontally. That is important so you know the scale of the furniture and how to place it.
The colors in the rug seem like an open canvas for the walls. What colors do you like? You could be very safe and go neutral a warm beige tone or you could capture the pinky mauve, gold or green in the leaves. I would not go too dark, as the rug is dark enough with the dark blue.
Do you know the style of furniture that you like? You need to define how you want to use the space before you do anything else.
Well I'd really not want to permanently divide the room but my wife feels there needs to be a separate space for a nursery since we are already considering redoing the floors at some point and that would cause us to redo any room partition we permanently install now. So I'm trying to find a way to break up the space. I also thought about moving the dining to the main living area and using the kitchen alcove as a nursery area. This is really becoming a headache. Please help
I am really trying to be of so assistance but you are not helping yourself. You want help but how can we help you if can't answer the basic questions we ask? I will only try to help once more, IF, you can answer some questions, like the ones in my above post.
So if I understand you, you will need the nursery down the road at some point in the future and you are setting it up as a nursery now, for when you might need it down the road? (Not trying to get too personal but is your wife trying to tell you that she is expecting a baby, now? IF she is not, are you telling me that you want to divide the room now set it up as a nursery now and another as a guest room living room? If that is your answer you need to respond to all th above questions before I or anyone else can help you, taking the problems with the division as noted into consideration.
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