Your Perfect Living Room
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE LIVING ROOM THAT MAKES IT SUCH AN IMPORTANT SPACE IN OUR HOMES?
The living room is the centre of our home; our daily interactions are based around entertaining, dining, relaxing and residing which all takes place in this particular area of the home. It's a space that every member of the house feels comfortable, shares in happiness and engages with one another.
THE SECRET TO A GREAT LIVING ROOM
Personally, I tend to gravitate towards living and kitchen spaces; for me, it needs to provide a comfortable environment to look at AND to be within. In addition, a sun filled area is imperative - I can never get enough sunlight in a living room. I definitely believe each individual has his or her own style and aesthetic, so in my opinion ‘personality’ has a big role in a ‘great living room’. Accessorize and use specific colours that suit your own taste. Whilst saying this, an open plan design allows the overall feel of the space to be more inviting and less cluttered. An open plan living room means an integration of the kitchen with the family living…and so, this would mean no separation between the two spaces. As the kitchen is the core of all ‘coming together’ and the heart of the home, it is really such a beautiful concept to combine the two areas into one.
When designing the layout for an open plan space, I always like to play with placement of ‘dining’ and ‘lounging’ spaces. As so much entertaining takes place around an Island bench AND so often around a coffee table, I like to look at working against the conventional placement of the ‘grand’ dining table adjacent to the kitchen area. In some cases, when presented with more space, I will let the open kitchen run into the living, offsetting the dining area. In other cases, I like to combine joinery of the living room into the dining space – e.g A floating shelf becomes a bench seat for the table.