Help! I need to update my difficult den!

11 years ago

I need some new furniture and a new room arrangement for my den. I have to work around 2 difficult issues: the lovely 1960's freestanding fireplace (love it/hate it?), which takes up WAYYY too much otherwise-very-usable space, and the drum-shaped (I kid you not) stairwell behind the couch that hides a spiral staircase. This room is "connected" to the kitchen and it's the main pass-through from front door to back door, so lots of traffic and it's where everyone congregates! The open "closet" is sort of our mud room/coat closet/catch-all spot. I need to replace the couch and want to recover and keep the club chair with ottoman (although it could go in another room). I also need to figure out where to put a flat screen TV. Which wall? Should I get rid of the old kitchen hutch? What new furniture pieces should I buy and how do I arrange them? What size and style couch? Or skip couch and get overstuffed chairs? I want to increase seating and allow for traffic flow. I need casual but durable furniture (2 kids and a dog).

Comments (6)

tennisanyone
11 years ago
Have you tried the couch where that hutch is, near the stove?
tennisanyone
11 years ago
and tried the hutch where the mirror is and tried the couch facing the stove?
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rinked
11 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Could you please draw a simple floor plan of the house? Do you want new deco and furniture or are you prepared to make some structural chages too if 'needed'?
PRO
Katie Anderson Interior Design Consultants
11 years ago
This room is actually not that bad. With a few simple changes it can look very cool! First embrace the "modern" that is there and forget "transitional" or "traditional" furnishings.

The fire place is the center piece so make it a focus but blend in. This is a great DIY project, you can use engine spray paint (it's for car engines and heat resistant), paint the entire piece a mat white so it blends into the ceiling and flows to the floor.

Replace all of your furnishings with a more contemporary line. See the photo below, a semi-circle shaped sofa will contour around the fireplace and allow for path of travel through the space.

The hutch is very heavy and not doing much for the space. I recommend removing it and replacing with a low linear buffet for storage.

The wall with the small mirror could be your "media" wall, there is no other place that I can see from the photos. the semicircular couch could be placed here, again, this shape allows for path of travel around it to the kitchen.

There also seems to be no light sources. Invest in a lighting plan and install lighting. The lamps are heavy and not very functional, adding overall clutter to the space. You need down light, wall washers, uplight and some decorative sconces to evenly illumintate the room and not clutter the space.

I hope this helps, have fun with making a change!
PRO
Katie Anderson Interior Design Consultants
11 years ago
Images, sorry I forgot to attach
decoenthusiaste
11 years ago
I would replace the black computer armoire with the hutch. Then I'd build an upholstered storage bench around the curved stairwell wall. That's where shoes and boots can be removed, and coats hung in the closet, which needs doors. I like Katie Anderson's suggestion about painting the stove/FP. I would surround it with a sectional placed on the left side and pulled from the wall enough to leave walk through space behind it. On the wall where the hutch is now, I'd put the flatscreen flanked with two swivel chairs that can turn to watch TV or toward the fire and sectional.