I need ideas for the family room in our new house!

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

Hey everybody,
I really need your help with our new family room. As you can see in the picture its´a rather big room for combined dining and living with the column in the middle (chimney). I marked the place where our new fireplace will be placed.
I was thinking about separating the room with bookshelves (yellow in my plan) to make the room more cozy and also to add more book shelves as we have lots of books to store.

I have sleepless nights about where to place the sofa(s) and the TV.
=> I want the TV not to be the focus of the room
=> It would be nice to face the fireplace as well as the TV from the Sofa(s).
=> We need lots of book shelves.
=> We´d love to have either one love seat and one recamier or a combination of both

I was thinking about placing the sofa where I placed the green rectangle in the plan. But placing the TV on the opposite wall it would be about 3,5m far off the sofa.

Do you have any suggestions, advise, help to offer? Thank you so much, my husband´s not very helpful :-)

I want to add, I am sorry for my mistakes in spelling / grammar, I am no native speaker.
The measurements are metric, hope you can read them as they are pretty light blue on the picture.

Featured Answer

decoenthusiaste

10 years ago

Check the Library picture above with yellow chairs and a FP flanked by bookcases. I was suggesting you put the FP on the right side of your space (on the plan) and add a bookcase to either side of the FP. The bookcase with the TV would have an opening and swivel mechanism. Do you have room to make the bookcases wide enough so the TV could be built in to the one on the left side of the FP and leave enough room to pass between the smaller and larger spaces? Would probably need to be 42" wide to look and feel right. Mark on the floorplan where that would come to, so I can see if what I'm envisioning would work. Thinking a duplicate of the center section of the mahogany shelving in my last post. The books would show on one side and TV on the other, however it turns. The other pic was just to show you more of the concept of a swiveling TV. It would help if I could see a better drawing of how the FP will be installed against the current chimney. I'm not real handy with measurements other than feet and inches, if you don't mind converting. Thanks.

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Comments (11)

Veronika Sophie
Original Author
10 years ago
These are the measurements without my doodles.
qam999
10 years ago
For a space so small and already chopped up, I hope you are not considering partition walls where you have drawn lines. Such walls would take away all your flexibility and light and air circulation. I would focus on flexible furniture, such as modular seating, possibly on casters.

To get a longer TV viewing distance, the TV could be wall mounted immediately to the right of the door from the terrace. Bookcases underneath.

Not clear where your fireplace is going...right in front of the apparent ducts in masonry column? Then you must keep seating away as no one wants to roast their knees or side of head.
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Dytecture
10 years ago
I agree with providing more distance for TV view by placing the sofa of the left wall and TV on the right just beside the terrasse door.
Veronika Sophie
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you so much for giving me advice. Is there a "thumb rule" about the distance between TV and Sofa?
I was so focused on my partition walls, thanks for giving me a new "point of view".
decoenthusiaste
10 years ago
Partition walls don't seem like a good idea to me. Rather than chopping up all your space with bookshelves, line the walls with them, allowing space within one of the bookcases for a TV installation - perhaps mounting it on a swing arm so it can flex for viewing from different areas of your space. Wrapping the spaces with your library of books will be very warming and will create a kind of intimacy that won't be achieved by other configurations. Consider placing the FP on the side of the chimney that serves the longer part of the space. It will be viewable from the dining room that way. Then you could flank it with some slender floor to ceiling bookcases as in pic #4. That still leaves openings and passage ways around the chimney. Alternatively, install a wrap around FP that serves both spaces using the single chimney. Try arranging four swivel chairs around a hassock or coffee table rather than a sofa. The library in pic #5 is an example.
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Veronika Sophie
Original Author
10 years ago
Again, thank you for your suggestions. I think I´m skipping my first idea of separation walls, you´ve convinced me!
But isn´t there any possibility to include a sofa? those chairs wouldn´t be comfortable for our long movie nights...
Tarey Cullen
10 years ago
here's a guide for TV/distance . however, I suggest reflection and light become factors, http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html
decoenthusiaste
10 years ago
You can always go with a more comfortable style chair than the ones in the inspiration room. How many watch movies together? I think you could float a sofa in front of the longer wall of bookcases in the smaller space. Here's a thought for you. If you do the FP with the two tall bookcases on either side, modify the one on the left side of the FP to install a swivel TV which can turn to be viewed from either side of your space. Do a combo of pics 1 & 2 with 3. Pic 4 has more comfortable seating, and you can add a leather hassock for putting your feet up. You can probably do a sofa and one chair in the left space, and two chairs and a table in the right space off the terrace.
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decoenthusiaste
10 years ago
Sorry, lost pic 4 - it was just more cushy, comfy chairs with a large hassock/coffee table where you could put your feet up.
Veronika Sophie
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you for your suggestion. At the moment it´s just the two of us watching together... My husband´s insisting on his beloved recamiere seat for watching movies.
I love love love your idea of the pivoting tv (it would help hide the ugly TV set!) - but the tv is 40 zoll diagonal size, which means 96 cm / 37,8 inches width! How would you suggest to integrate it on the left side of the fireplace - the wall is just 60 cm / 23,X inches? Maybe I got you wrong?