Monday, December 06, 2010

Monday Redesign: Danielle's Living Room

Happy Monday everyone!  Danielle contacted us about her living room and needed help designing the space.  I asked Danielle a few questions, and in her own words, this is what she had in mind for her new space:

"A modern, chic & calming space design.  And the main things I want accomplished are to have a painted {or wallpapered} accent wall.  I'd like to get rid of the chaise and love seat and replace them with 2 arm chairs - If there's space for another chair in the living room, I'd love to see a third chair for additional seating. So, a new seating arrangement will be necessary. We'll be installing hard wood flooring in the living room in the near future, so a color suggestion would be very helpful.The fireplace has this 70's rock material happening that I'd like to update in some way.  If you have any ideas to share I would love to hear em'!"

So to work I went on a space design.  Just so you have an idea, here are a few pictures of Danielle's space currently.
Before pictures


The first thing I worked on was the floorplan.  Danielle wanted a more open layout with three chairs in addition to the sofa, if possible.  Here are the changes I made with the new floorplan pictured below.

  1. Mount the television above the fireplace to give her more room to work with.

  2. Place a bookshelf on each side of the fireplace to balance out that wall.

  3. Place two chairs across from the sofa to make it more conversational as well as the best use of the space.  This will give Danielle ample access to her sliding door, and great traffic flow through the room.  And if she needs to turn those chairs around, say during movie night so everyone can see the tv, it should be easy enough to do.

  4. For additional seating, a bench would be great centered on the wall with the opening to the dining room.

  5. I kept Danielle's end tables and coffee table as requested.


floorplan living room


After planning the layout, I did a little shopping for the space.  Here is a mood board for a visual of the new space.
Moodboard Living room
And now for a breakdown of the goodies:




  1. The color palette actually derived from the pillow sitting on the orange chair {#3}.  It has a neutral base, but color pops using contrast throughout the room {with mainly the orange and whites}.  The bottom color of this palette is Danielle's existing wall color and the color on top of that is the color suggested using for the accent wall.  The color is Behr Pepper Spice.

  2. I love the modern and sleek look of this couch.  It's the Silhouette Sofa from Crate & Barrel in Maya: Taupe.  I would put three of these pillows and one of these on the sofa to bring in the orange color.  I loved the idea of hanging the three mirrors Danielle already has on hand from Ikea above the sofa.  It will make a great statement and mimic what I think she should do for the fireplace.  I also think this Nash floor lamp is great to put either behind her end tables for additional lighting, or next to the bench.  A pair of them in the room would be nice.

  3. I saw this orange chair, and immediately fell in love with it.  It has such clean lines and fits Danielle's room so perfectly.  It's the parlour tangerine chair from CB2.  I would recommend a pair of these placed across the sofa each with a bull's eye silk pillow in berry from west elm.

  4. To dress up the sliding glass door, I would recommend putting up some drapes, and Pottery Barn has great drapes at an affordable price.  I would get the Cameron Cotton Drape- two of them in the 50 x 96 length in white {hang the rod about a foot above the door frame, and let the drapes pool slightly on the floor}.  This will make the window seem bigger and more expansive.

  5. I went with a darker wood floor to give a little contrast to the neutrals in the room.  I found a great wood floor at Lowe's made by Natural Floors by US.

  6. I placed an 8x10 rug underneath the sofa and chairs to tie everything together, and so it didn't feel like the chairs were floating in the middle of nowhere.  I love the flexibility of FLOR and recommend the Sophistikat in Barley.   30 tiles to make an 8x10 rug.

  7. Danielle has a couple options when it comes to the fireplace.  She can either paint over the rocks {in this case, I'd paint it all white}, or remove the rock and start over.  I went for removing the rock and starting over.  I would recommend something like this fireplace {scroll to photo 4 of 10} as it puts a little more chic into this modern room. I found this tutorial online too that seems like a pretty good step by step.

  8. To provide additional seating in the room, I would get the Besta bench from Ikea.  I would recommend placing it just about centered on that wall.

  9. To balance the room, I put two bookcases in the room, one on each side of the fireplace.  I would recommend the six shelf in the 36" width in white.  The bookshelves should be place nearly centered between the wall and the fireplace on each side.


So what do you think?  Is there anything you would add?



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