Question: Our fireplace is not centered in the room, and in order to be able to walk through the door into the family room, we cannot have facing sofas in front of the fireplace. The bookcase, on the same wall, does not allow furniture placement in front of it.

As it is now, we have a sofa in front of the picture window with lamp tables at each end and a coffee table in front of the sofa. Behind the sofa is a drape that goes almost from one end of the room to the other, and over the drape is a fabric-covered cornice.

Would you have any suggestions, please, to improve the look?

Carol van Bronkhorst
Stockton

Answer: You certainly do have a design dilemma but, fortunately, one that can be easily solved. The practical challenge you face is traffic flow: getting from the entry of the house to other rooms beyond the living room.

To solve your problem you have to disregard the expression "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line." As well, from your floor plan, it seems like your living room is of enviable size, so you should consider breaking up this large room into smaller, more intimate areas.

Of course, you won't be taking a jackhammer to the task, but will create these smaller spaces through "the art of illusion."

The positions of the entry door and the doors to other rooms have been driving your decorating and furniture placement decisions when, in fact, there is another, more important element that should be taken into consideration: the fireplace.

This design feature should be the focal point of the room. Historically, the fireplace was where family and guests gathered for warmth, to cook and eat food and to converse. Obviously, the necessity of the utilitarian functions has gone away thanks to modern heating systems and appliances, but the natural inclination to gather near the fire still remains inherent in us all.

I suggest that your sofa, chairs and tables that are the primary pieces of living room furniture be moved closer to the fireplace to re- create the gathering place there. The path that people take to the family room and dining room will reroute itself around the new sofa arrangement without too much difficulty (though I suggest that for the first few nights a small light be left on to avoid collisions with the sofa en route to the refrigerator for midnight snacks).

Once the large pieces of furniture have been drawn nearer to the center of the room, designing small areas of visual interest around the outer edges of the room creates something appealing for the eye to rest upon. Also, now that the sofa arrangement is closer to the fireplace and away from the picture window, you've created the opportunity for another seating area in the living room.

This window can be a very inviting area to sit near, whether the drapes are closed in the evening or open in the daytime. Bringing some of the other chairs you already have and adding a low console or sofa table to this window area will give you a secondary seating area that maximizes the use of the living room. And you've created a separate conversation area for your guests when you entertain.

The long wall next to the entry archway is an important wall to decorate in order to add balance to the changed furniture arrangement. It seems like this would be a good place for more bookcases.

As your floor plan indicates, since you already have a chair there, adding a floor lamp and small side table so someone can curl up with a good book would make this a perfect reading corner.

On the two symmetrical walls on either side of the dining room archway you could add a pair of small antique dressers or one dresser and a small writing table for additional storage space (who doesn't need that?). Or add a pair of console tables. This arrangement would also add balance and interest to the room and create another small space within the larger space.

I hope this gives you some basic design principles to help you solve your design dilemma. I'm sure your own eye for good balance will take over now that you've been pointed in the right direction.

 

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