Create an ideabook for your next remodeling project!
Browse more than 1,000,000 photos from top designers and save your favorites
Living Rooms That Take Up Little... Room
I am an architectural design writer who often focuses on how environment can affect behavior. Before consulting privately, I received my MA in writing and ran a design boutique in Los Angeles.
I am an architectural design writer who often focuses on how environment... More »
Confession: I grew up in a huge three-story house on some property in east Texas, beautifully created by my mom and the architect, and loved it--but I love small spaces. I also don't eat beef much, and my family shakes their head, bemused at me.
Small spaces create a feeling of security and economy--and a strange sense of success with having pulled it off with panache and design sensibility. Small rooms, like a living room, say, don't need to be any less regal or elegant or legitimate as a spanning living room in a centuries-old English manor. The success is in the meticulous thought of furniture choice and placement, and in the details. Like me against my five enormous and strong Texas brothers, these small-ish spaces hold their own.
Small spaces create a feeling of security and economy--and a strange sense of success with having pulled it off with panache and design sensibility. Small rooms, like a living room, say, don't need to be any less regal or elegant or legitimate as a spanning living room in a centuries-old English manor. The success is in the meticulous thought of furniture choice and placement, and in the details. Like me against my five enormous and strong Texas brothers, these small-ish spaces hold their own.
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
The smooth, thin rug and the seating that provides visual space beneath makes this little space more . . . spacious. This sitting room is definitely not without character, but the design choices (also in the artwork and curtains) are kept tasteful and consistent. For a family with children, there is still plenty of room around this setup for playing.
A couch. Coffee table. Two sitting chairs. This classic arrangement provides a calming symmetry to eliminate feeling crowded AND plenty of circular seating for facing company and having hours of fireside chats. The beautiful wall color and architectural details leave no need for overstuffing the room with extra objects.
This modest-sized library and seating area is as well-thought-out and elegant as any English manor's. The meticulous details, from the furniture placement to even the light placement over the couch, allow this room to have all that it needs AND the feeling of spaciousness. The amazing windows help.
| This unusual placement of furniture works well. The clean lines of the furniture and the continuity of color help make this possible. And that geometric fabric boldly but unobtrusively ties everything together. And yet the unusual effect of this room doesn't require much space or extra furniture and decor. |
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Another look at the traditional setup. The color choice gives this room a sort of Colonial feel. Very calming. This room, in contrast with the previous, shows that smaller details can quite successfully be added to such a space without cluttering it. The simple turning of the chairs keeps the room from feeling too regal.
by pierre senechal
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Sometimes, especially for someone living alone or as a couple or living in a VERY minimal amount of space, a living room of sorts can be created by placing a chair and reading lamp in a corner. These two facing chairs here make a cozy visiting space without TAKING up space. The fabric on the chair is amazing.
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Another look at what could be a living room of sorts in a small space. Turn the chairs, and the sitting area could be a breakfast area. Such dual-purposed spaces give more living room without taking up more room. And who needs more room with that view anyway? Sheesh.
Sometimes just placing a [uniquely gorgeous] couch between windows and a coffee table provide just the living room needed. I love the detail of the rug and the plant to the left and the flowers and even the temporary tea service. Can't you imaging laughing with a friend or reading on this couch all afternoon?
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
An intimate grouping of chairs around a fireplace. Classic. And done with class. The round mirror gives the perfect geometric balance to the many squares and lines in this room. You want to be close and intimate when chatting anyway, right?
Comments
Emma I like the cozy and intimate feel of these spaces. The Gleicher Design Group photo is amazing. I could sit there and look at this view for hours...
4 years ago · Like
Margaret Everton There's something secure about them. I fantasize about spending leisurely breakfasts with that view. And, for some reason, coffee, an orange, and The Wallstreet Journal, though I have never been known to do more than skim it in my life...
4 years ago · Like
Ideabook updated on Sept. 7, 2009.
What are you working on?
News From Our Partners
Latest Ideabooks
People found the photos in this ideabook after searching for:
