And the Living Room layout is....

Yesterday I shared three space plans for a tricky living room in New Jersey.  Interestingly, of the Facebook commenters I don't think anyone chose the layout the clients did (which was my favorite for them, too):  Number 1.

The one with the pair of loveseats and the little reading area.

In terms of the look and feel, the clients wanted something rustic modern.  They wanted to keep their warm clay wall color (Behr's "Suntan Glow")

and a cool old trunk they use as a coffee table, but everything else was fair game.

Here are the looks I came up with, one a little more modern and one a little more rustic.

Look 1:

With a detail of the TV room side:

And look 2, with the upholstered pieces, curtains, and key accessories swapped out.

What do you think?  Do you have a favorite?  I know grey seems a little counter-intuitive with clay walls and copper radiators, but the fabrics are quite a green-gray that looks beautiful with the warm tones.  Plus, brown (the more obvious neutral) would have gotten real muddy real fast.  All the reds run to the rust end of the scale to bring the scheme to life, and all the white keeps things airy (together with the leggy furniture).

Speaking of white: white rugs in a room that's meant to be kid friendly?  Makes me think of Secrets from a Stylist, when Emily covered all the furniture in white linen and then jokingly asked the (mom) homeowner "oh, you have kids?"  But hear me out.  Hide is incredibly forgiving--just wipe a spill down, like any kind of leather.  And the other rug is a super deep shag with lots of different fibers, perfect for hiding anything but grape juice or red wine.

It will be fun to see this room come together.  Being a big fan of COLOR and PATTERN, it was really fun for me to do something that derives its interest more from texture and finishes.  I know the clients are already busy painting the walls (the suntan had been on two walls, they added it to the others), and priming the fireplace to paint out the brick white.  I know they're planning to do this in bits and pieces over the course of a year, but it will be fun to see the status along the way!

Space Planning

I'm just wrapping up a long-distance project with a client in New Jersey, and I thought I would share a few of the challenges of the project with you.  (Or as we used to say in my life as an Arts Administrator, "opportunities").

The big issue: this living room is twice as long as it is wide, literally 12 x 25.  To add to the intrigue, there is a 5-foot-wide entrance on one side (where those circles are indicating the columns), which is OFF CENTER from everything.  The opposiet wall has a centered fireplace, flanked by exposed TALL radiators, flanked by a pair of double french doors.  See all the opportunities?  Because the husband is a gamer, the TV was an important component of the layout, and without mounting the TV above the frieplace ( a look I hate anyway), it wasn't possible to center a seating arrangement on the fireplace.

I gave them three options:

Option one offers a little sitting area when you enter the room, with a pair of comfy chairs, a side table fro drinks, a pair of wall sconces for light, and a tall bookcase.  The TV area has a pair of small-scale loveseats with low arms and a pair of X-benches in front of the french doors, to offer seating while leaving the unused doors at least visually open.  A pretty, leggy desk backs the loveseat in the center, and the chair at the desk can be positioned to be a part of either seating area.

Option 2 puts a long built in bench along the wall where the pair of chairs was, with storage underneath and upholstered cushions on top.  A round library table and two upholstered dining chairs complete the area.  The room is divided by a wide low daybed to keep the feeling open, and a full size couch  ground the far end of the room.  Fewer, bigger pieces fill the space.

Option 3 expands the TV area to take up 2/3 of the room, using a full size couch and a pair of armchairs, with a coffee table and ottoman breaking up the large rug.  An additional occasional chair could sit in front of the french doors.  The second area is a pretty office space, with a big desk, upholstered chair, and tall bookcase, with a tree in the corner to bring the outside in.

I know floor plans aren't super sexy, but nailing the space planning was such a huge part of this job, I thought I'd throw it out there to the world.

I'm curious:  what would you have done?  Would one of these layouts work for you?  I'll tell you what they picked, and share design boards, tomorrow.