Trying to place your furniture in a narrow and awkward living room can present a whole host of challenges. Often, “dead areas” are created because you try and center furniture around a focal point that is usually on the wrong wall. Or one side gets all the furniture while the other side feels abandoned! We came across these exact challenges in our latest Ironwood Project. Keep reading as we share our best design tips for designing around an awkward floor plan.
You can see how long this fireplace wall is... almost 30ft! The previous owner pushed all the furniture to the left and actually blocked the fireplace with a chair. This placement resulted in an empty and awkward space to the right. The wall opposite the fireplace transitions into a low wall behind which are the stairs that lead to the lower level making another challenge because anything sticking up or past this wall is seen from the entry and looks strange and out of place. The deep red paint screams “focal wall”, yet this strong color also makes the room seem even narrower. Read on for how we solved these common challenges.
Design Tip: Paint the Entire Room One Color
We chose Westinghouse White by Sherwin Williams for the entire condo. Choosing this soft white and eliminating the strong red on the long wall made the room feel deeper instantly! Using one color on all four walls let’s the eye travel around the room. Your eye doesn’t stop jarringly on a particular wall, but instead stops on the furnishings and artwork, which is exactly what we want!
Design Tip: Divide and Conquer
If you’ve got a long and narrow room, you might feel like you’re stuck with only one layout option. And while it’s true that awkward spaces leave you with fewer design options, you’re far from out of luck! Narrow spaces can have huge potential. We divided this room into three different areas with different functions! On the left of the fireplace, the primary function of this space was “living room”. While the area to the right dual functions as “bar” and “dining room”.
Design Tip: Create a Secondary Focal Point
Once you’ve divided your room, another tip is to create a “secondary focal point” on the wall where most of the attention will be focused. Once we determined the left side of the FP was to function as the living room, we made the vaulted wall the secondary focal point. This wall will have the TV (not yet installed for photo shoot) and therefore, most often, people’s attention will be in this direction. We made this focal wall interesting and beautiful by adding the moulding details.
Design Tip: Create Balance
Once you’ve divided the rooms into their different functions, you must consider balance. The previous owner had all of the large pieces to the left of fireplace with all the seating facing the vaulted wall. Nothing but a large cabinet and chest was on the other side of the room; thus leaving the space feeling unbalanced. Our advice is to give equal weight to both sides of the room. (see previous photos)
We opened up the living room by opening up the seating and choosing pieces that had dual functions. The large sofa/chaise is extra deep and great for curling up to read, spreading out to watch TV, or provides plenty of seating when entertaining. The chaise portion of the sofa also acts as a bit of a divider between the living room and the dining/bar area. By placing two accents chairs opposite the sofa, we further balanced out the area. The ottomans can be moved about the room as footrests or additional seating. (see previous photos)
In the dining/bar area, we placed the large bar credenza in the corner and the extra dining chairs paired by the window make another intimate conversation area. The credenza and larger dining table balance out the heavier pieces in the living room. The taller bookcases on the other side of the window are used to balance the credenza and do double duty as storage and a place to showcase fine objets d’art.
Design Tip: Coordinate Like Finishes Throughout
Once you’ve divided and balanced your room, it’s important to coordinate similar finishes and accessories throughout all areas. We did this with color, texture and materials. We made sure to bring the leather details of the floor lamp to the other side of the space in the chandelier and armchairs. Then we paired the gold finish on the sconces with the gold finish of the drapery rods. The natural grass roman shades on all the windows ties everything together nicely too. Pops of black move the eye around the condo. Now all areas feel intentionally designed, coordinated, and beautiful.
