Living Room Finished!

This post I’m sharing our living room with you. It has been a huge project that we took in phases. I’ve shared with you the wood floor we refinished and the wall we paneled. In case you missed it, you can read about those projects here——-> Wood Floor and Hiding A Door.

This room, Todd and I always thought, has special charm to it. It is cozy and tight, and when the blinds are open, full of sunshine. It is not big, only 10×11 feet. In the winter it is the warmest room in the house because of our wood stove. We do have forced air heat, but the wood stove heat is so nice. There really is no better way to warm your bones then sitting by a fire. The kids get so excited every fall when we light the first one.

I will share photos of the room, first the ‘Before’ photo and directly following the ‘After’ photo of how it looks now.

North wall of the room is short, because it has a door that opens into a bedroom and another opening into the kitchen.

The Design Story behind this room is one of patience and creative problem solving. How can I have lots of seating without getting crowded. How can we keep the furniture far enough from the stove? How will the kids play in here? These are the questions that ran through our minds as we were designing this room. That was really the main goal in the design making this small room not feel crowded.

We decided to erase certain things. Like the trim. We painted it to match the wall so it blends instead of standing out. This helps the space feel bigger and masks crooked lines of this old room that has shifted over the years and is no longer perfectly square. We painted the door to make it blend with the wall. This tricks the eye by making it seem like the wall just continues on. It simplifies the room, again, making the wall seem larger. There are four doors in this tiny room leading to other rooms of the house. I wanted to draw attention away from them. 

In addition to the sofa and two chairs, we added more seating by building a window box that duels as a wood box, holding logs to feed the fire in the stove. We painted the bottom to match the wall. This tricks the eye to see it as empty space (part of the wall).

In such a small space you really have to edit out extras and go with clever tricks to maximize seating and storage, but keeping in mind you really don’t have room for extras. It is a tricky balance. I am very picky about the furniture in all my rooms. Large pieces just do not work here. I like to move easily in my space and have flow.

I hope this gives you some ideas or inspiration for designing small rooms in your home. Thanks for reading! I can’t help but share a few more photos 🙂