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Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Posted by thepond (My Page) on
Sat, Nov 7, 09 at 14:02

I posted a while back and got some great tips for arranging furniture in our Great Room. It's sort of long, and over large. I wanted to make it multi use because there are 3 focal points in the room; #1 Fireplace, #2 TV, #3 Piano, in order of importance, I think.

This is a rough idea, with lots of room for tweaking. Also, I am reusing furniture, with hopes that I could get something more suitable later. So, after hauling in everything we own and re arranging a hundred times, I was trying this:
PB070038
You can see the TV is on the left with the two navy chairs facing it. The piano is on the right opposite side. The back is the fireplace with lots of seating. And I really, really have always wanted a table (maybe not this one) for small card games or checkers, etc. Can I have all that here, without looking horrible? So many previous attempts got changed because just looking in to the room was an awful view from the front door!


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

I have to admit it's all a bit overwhelming. Are you committed to having all that furniture in the room? I think I would start with taking everything out of the room rather than bringing everything in. I've seen some amazing transformations done here, particularly those like LES917 who is great at rearranging. The first thing that comes to mind to me is to have a sofa facing the fireplace creating a visual divider between the front and back of the room. And, what is the function of the little table with the red runner?
Dee


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

The most glaring thing I see is no drapes on the other side by the fireplace. Yet they are on all the other windows. If you want to preserve the view hang the drapes just on the edge and past the windows. Just the outside drapes will unify the windows.

Perhaps a round table wound look better. It could go in the corner behind your love seat. In any case I would make the table a bit smaller. Stuck in the middle it takes away from the overall look of the room.

A couple of slipper chairs in red to match your drapes might be nice beside the fireplace, but if you decided to keep what you have, when you move the table move the sofa and loveseat down a bit and move the chairs back a bit so the big one doesn't block the view of the fireplace. If you put the table in the corner it might give you more room to switch them.

Look where the footstool is--right in front of your fireplace. You want to showcase the fireplace not hide it.

It is a lovely room and just a little tweeking will make it a showplace


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Can you post some more photos of room so we can see its entirety? Lots of nice windows,but also looks like you may be short on wall space due to windows and number of door openings in room?

On first impression, I'd try to simplify by combining TV viewing and game table areas. Is TV-viewing with just the blue chairs okay, or would you prefer people seated around fireplace to be able to watch too?


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Is the tv visible from the fp area or does viewing take place from the front portion of the room, with the blue chairs?


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Dee~ I've moved that funky table w/red runner a dozen times. I think I've been trying to create zones within the room. But it's starting to seem pointless to create a "TV" area, because we can all see the TV just fine even back at the fireplace chairs!!
Oilpainter~We have a ways to go as for window treatments. But I needed some privacy on that side now, so I used the panels from our last house temporarily. I want the windows to look prettier someday. I really like the idea of a round table, smaller too. I'll try this one in the back corner.
MJLB~ We are absolutely short on wall space in here!! I think we goofed and took someone else's idea too far. The two chairs in front of the TV are going to move! It isn't working.
Squirrelheaven~ On the blueprints, I thought it would be a TV viewing area, but it's not quite the way I thought. We can easily see the TV from anywhere in the room.
Thanks to all for your responses. I'm going to tweak!


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

I would try as much as possible to move the sofa and patterned chairs so it's centered in front of the fireplace. Is there a potential clearance issue caused by that? Hard to tell...


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Hi,

Yes, that's a lot of furniture lol. It would be helpful to see the rest of the room.

I'd start by moving all the small pieces of furniture out of the way...just stash them in a corner for now until you've moved the major pcs. I'd put the sofa facing the FP and the two club chairs flanking the FP (each with end table off to the side)facing the TV. Coffee table in middle obviously. Take the long game table and put it behind the sofa for a sofa table look.

Is there a reason the piano is angled? If possible, I'd put that flush on the wall and over a bit. With the TV...can you scoot that over more into the corner so that you're not seeing the backside from outside the entry?

Lamps...anymore lurking about?

What you can do with the drapes temporarily is take the inner panels off the two end windows and use those panels on the two empty ones; put the panels on the outer side of the windows. It's a good look when there's an FP in the middle. I'd take them off tension rods and buy new rods that will allow you to take them back off the window when desired. I'd probably do away with the knots and let them be FREE lol! Let them drop to the floor.

Maybe try that and take some pix and we can go from there?


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2RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Another thought. IF you had a desire to put a large, tall piece of furniture in the room (perhaps to hold the TV in the future?) consider draping that middle window and putting it there. Just pretend there's no window there. You certainly wouldn't lose any light that I can see! :)

I'd probably not use the little table with the runner or the one in the far right corner. If the rocker is your choice of chairs instead of the club, use that by the FP.

Looking again at your pix...is that a matching loveseat or chair? If it's a loveseat, just create an "L" shape in front of the FP with another chair by the FP.

Love to see the rest of the room.


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Sounds like a wonderful plan that Jan suggested...
what do you think about trying this?


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

I'm gonna try these suggestions and get another photo posted (or two)! Thanks a whole bunch!


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A start....

Please try to overlook the piles, we aren't finished moving in.
I took out some tables, moved the navy club chairs, for a start. This is view from the about center of room, just before the coffee table:
PB080041

TV and piano are on angled walls. Beyond that you can see the entry way; front door on right, about where that hanging light is.

Here's the view from the entry, with tables removed (definitely want to get more lamps, that's the only one I have now) You can see there are french doors on the right, that open in to the room, so that space is somewhat clear and traffic lane open:
PB080037

Someday, I will co-ordinate window treatments, and put coverings on all windows except french doors.

This is just a start, I feel like I am playing GIANT chess by moving these pieces from spot to spot, lol.


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Well, it certainly looks better with less furniture! The area around fireplace works pretty well - might be better if sofa shifted toward center of room by a foot or so. You could place narrow table behind sofa, or just leave open.

The alternate arrangement suggested by prior poster (sofa facing fireplace, with two chairs flanking fireplace and facing sofa) would also work well, and make it easier to center your seating in front of fireplace.

I generally prefer TV to be lower, not higher. But with your limited wall space, I do think mounting TV over fireplace would be a good solution. If you don't want to look at TV when it's not on, there are lots of ways to hide the TV by hanging hinged artwork over it, etc.

You could then perhaps have the game table you desire, with a couple of side chairs, on one angled wall, with piano 'as is' on other angled wall.


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

Oh, we just spent $250 to mount the TV on the wall!! Nuts! Also, the skinny table beneath will change as soon as we can get something that suits that space better! Good News: it doesn't seem to need a viewing area up close, so that frees me up to focus on the fireplace more.

I pull the sofa to the middle of the room, seems to work better. But that coffee table leaves guests tripping over others' feet. It may go away!

I have had the sofa facing the fireplace, and it's good in the room, but looks ominous and uninviting from the front entryway.

You're right, one angled wall would have been perfect for a game table, but the TV and piano are going there indefinitely. There is very little wall space other than there.

Here's my most recent try, maybe the 'bones' of the layout are developing
PB080039:


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

I'd love to see a pix with the sofa facing the FP and the loveseat perpendicular to it. Did you put that cute painted/antiqued table behind the sofa? That's KEY to eliminating the "ominous" look which it can if you're only staring at the sofa back. Put the lamp off to one side of that table, grab some photos from your piano, maybe books or a plant and you'll see a huge diff I think.

This is a very common layout in many FR's...give it a whack and post some pix?

Right now things aren't going to look that great until the FP is finished, drapes help the "black holes", art is on the wall "etc". That's another reason the sofa might not have looked good...the blue chairs by the FP might help draw the eye towards that direction because of their color. Might try them over there.

What's the FP going to look like? Hope you're not getting a backache from all of this!

Here are some pix of these layouts:

sofa back

sofa with chest behind


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RE: Would you look at furniture Layout? Thanks

If you do not absolutely need the two blue chairs as part of the fireplace grouping, I would remove them. It was working pretty well without, but looks crowed with.

I thought the pieces opposite sofa were two large chairs, but is one actually a loveseat?


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