Question: We have a long, narrow living room
(201/2 by 13 feet). The wall expanse is broken on
three sides by the door to front entry, the door to
the dining room and a large picture window. We have a
big bookcase/CD cabinet in one corner which is white,
adds a "weight" to that corner and can't be moved
because of a heat register. We are ready to start from
scratch, other than the cabinet.
We desire a furniture arrangement that is
comfortable for the two of us but can easily
accommodate up to eight for social functions. One of
the problems is that the living room serves as a
necessary passage to the dining room and kitchen. We
think our arrangement is too crowded and chaotic. We
would welcome your ideas.
Betsy Frank, Berkeley
Answer: Wanting a nicely decorated living
room for guests and maintaining a significant traffic
flow to another part of the house isn't an uncommon
dilemma. But the other, less obvious dilemma here is
how to eliminate the feeling of chaos.
Using the living room as the main passage to the
kitchen from the front door is challenging since
coming home with bags of groceries is at least a
weekly occurrence. This means the passage cannot be a
slalom course worthy of an Olympic athlete.
To solve this dilemma let's create a living room
that's an inviting area for entertaining while keeping
sight of the necessary traffic pattern.
Flexible furniture arrangements is the key to our
solution. This approach allows you to make changes in
the furniture placement as your social calendar
dictates.
Additionally, to avoid that chaotic look in our
design, we'll create the space so all the colors of
the new furniture relate to each other as well as to
the architecture of the room. This creates calmness,
unity and harmony. No opportunity for visual chaos in
this formula.
Since there's a lot of wood in the room --the
floors, door and window casings, crown and baseboard
molding -- we'll use soft colors for our palette.
Tones of beige, caramel, camel and cafe au lait are
all wonderful choices to complement the wood.
Start by painting the walls a soft, light beige
that will tone down the contrast between the walls and
all the wood trim.
Because of its size, the largest piece of
furniture, the sofa, will anchor the room's
arrangement and will always be in the same place. You
don't want to call in the heavy-lifters every time you
have people over for dinner.
Also, because it's so large visually, its color
should be soft to help it relate to the room. A white
sofa can look like a beached white whale in its
massiveness. Let's place it under the windows opposite
the main entry to the room.
Next comes the primary seating arrangement. A club
chair, with matching ottoman (on casters, please), is
seating for one and a comfortable place to sit and
read. But the ottoman also creates a second seat for
guests. On casters it can be moved easily for a better
conversation group. Another medium- sized chair placed
near it, opposite the sofa, completes this
arrangement. Voila, seating for six people.
The secondary seating arrangement should be in the
corner between the living and dining rooms. Two
smaller chairs with a little "incidental" table
between them creates an intimate corner for two. When
you have more than six people in the room these two
chairs can be brought nearer to the sofa for
additional seating.
Now that the walls are beige and the sofa is a
neutral camel color, the club chair and matching
ottoman should also be in the same color range. Making
the club chair and ottoman a deeper tone of beige, say
caramel or cafe au alit,
will complement the size of the sofa, using color
to create visual balance.
The second chair near the sofa can also be in the
same color range, perhaps with a small pattern in it.
Use this same fabric for a couple of throw pillows on
the sofa to help unite the pieces visually. Choose
another patterned, camel- color fabric for a second
set of throw pillows on the sofa, and use it as a
little oblong back pillow on the club chair as well.
This fabric can also be on the two small chairs in the
corner.
The coffee table can be wood, but think about metal
with a glass top. This won't take up space visually
and adds an interesting element to the design.
An area rug also helps define the primary seating
area. Select one in a dark color so it blends with the
wood floor and maintains that calm feeling in the
room. An Oriental rug with burgundy as its primary
field color will complement all the beige tones
nicely. Later you can bring the burgundy color into
the accessories, tying all the elements together.
Well-placed lighting will enhance the softness of
the room. A floor lamp behind the club chair, a table
lamp on the end tables on either side of the sofa, and
a table lamp on the incidental table will create focal
points.
When you add accessories to the room, remember to
keep small items together to create visual groupings.
Small pieces placed without a plan contribute to a
feeling of chaos. When thinking about the placement of
art on the walls, again, think about groupings.
With this concept in mind you've created plenty of
flexible seating for guests, the traffic hasn't been
impeded with this furniture plan, and the chaotic
feeling is nowhere in sight.
