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The house that we are about to move into basically has 3 living rooms. There is the HUGE one which we are going to use as the living room-t.v. and such. The back room will be our library. The front room we are calling the "Memorial Room." It is basically the room where we will put all our family heirlooms in. My husband's grandmother's portrait will hang over the fireplace, we will have my grandmother's antique oriental rug, my mother's Hitchcock chairs, etc. etc. You get the picture. Both rooms will serve as bedrooms when we have a lot of people who spend the night (like at Christmas).
There are some great ideas here! Thank you! I really like the music room/ library concept. My youngest and middle want to start playing the piano so this might work perfectly. There is enough space for a piano. Our office has more built in book shelves than we could possibly fill but I do like the idea of adding in some comfy furniture along with a good table for homework/ art projects/ etc. The floors are hardwood so it would be a much better option for the kid's crafts due to easier clean up than the carpet in the office. I just need to figure out how to keep it all neat and organized looking since it is an open living room to the rest of the house and you see it just as you walk in.
There are some great ideas here! Thank you! I really like the music room/ library concept. My youngest and middle want to start playing the piano so this might work perfectly. There is enough space for a piano. Our office has more built in book shelves than we could possibly fill but I do like the idea of adding in some comfy furniture along with a good table for homework/ art projects/ etc. The floors are hardwood so it would be a much better option for the kid's crafts due to easier clean up than the carpet in the office. I just need to figure out how to keep it all neat and organized looking since it is an open living room to the rest of the house and you see it just as you walk in.
A piano would be great. Enjoy.
Looks like you can start researching organizing ideas for craft projects I know my stepdaughter would love that room for her wood shop(if she could add a door)
OP, I have a formal living room (13'6 x 23'6") with a fireplace in the middle (which now has a pellet insert) ... it has gorgeous hardwood floors and 4 windows (actually 3 since one is a door to a porch, but with the window treatments closed it LOOKS like 4 windows). It's quite symmetrical. I am so NOT a formal person, but I have another room on the first floor that I use as an informal living area (big TV etc.), so I use the living room as my reading room/music room -- it has a piano on one end plus lots of bookcases and probably 1,000 books. I put 2 identical transitional-style sofas perpendicular to the fireplace with a coffee table in between, so it's a really nice gathering area when I have guests. I also have my Bose music system in there but NO TV!!
(With the pellet insert going, it's also my kitties' favorite room ... I always know where to find them!)
My neighbor changed his formal living room into a bar---just like a real bar you'd see at a business, not the type that's at people's houses. It's all tricked out. The rest of the room has various seating areas and tables just like you'd find at a bar. He's in his mid-20s and shares the house with a few of his friends. They put it to good use for hockey and football games and every weekend. It's very appropriate for his age and lifestyle. He was smart enough to design the bar over the flooring so it can be easily removed if he wants to tell the house.
My neighbor changed his formal living room into a bar---just like a real bar you'd see at a business, not the type that's at people's houses. It's all tricked out. The rest of the room has various seating areas and tables just like you'd find at a bar. He's in his mid-20s and shares the house with a few of his friends. They put it to good use for hockey and football games and every weekend. It's very appropriate for his age and lifestyle. He was smart enough to design the bar over the flooring so it can be easily removed if he wants to tell the house.
My husband would LOVE this....but unfortunately for him he is a married, middle aged man with three kids living in the suburbs--LOL!
I live in a neighborhood built primarily in the 1910s-1920s, so every house has a large formal living room, as large as 35' by 20'.
There is a generational divide in how the room is used. The "older" folks (over 50) continue to use the room as a formal living room. The younger families have been more creative and what seems to be common is to treat the room as a library or music room or a combination of the two. Quite often I see families placing a handsome desk at the rear of the room to be used for working from home, and a piano at the front of the room, and lots of bookcases. On the few occasions the room is used for entertaining it doesn't take much straightening up to make the room look presentable. Since most people work on laptops these days, it's easy to put away the laptop and other work materials so the room doesn't look too much like a home office.
Some families even use the room as a playroom for the children.
There was one family that converted the formal living room into a formal dining room and combined the original dining room with the kitchen to make one large open great room. But when the husband was transferred to another city and the house was placed on the market, the family was clobbered in the resale and the new owners undid everything they did, including putting up the wall back between the old dining room and kitchen. So be careful in doing anything structurally to the formal living room.
My husband would LOVE this....but unfortunately for him he is a married, middle aged man with three kids living in the suburbs--LOL!
It's in the front room of the house with a large picture window. He has neon beer signs in the window. He turns on the neon OPEN sign when he's having a party. It's a hoot. More power to him for making his house fit his lifestyle. It makes our neighborhood feel less suburban and like we're living in a walkable neighborhood with pubs down the street. LOL
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I know my stepdaughter would love that room for her wood shop
(if she could add a door)
That's Awesome!
