Shelby
I am going to be moving into my first new home. It is a tiny one bedroom duplex. The living room is pretty small and the walls are white. The floor is a dark hard wood. I have a beige love couch that I will be taking with me, but other then that have no other furniture. I want it to be cozy and chic, but i'm not quite sure where to start. Can you guys please give me some ideas as to what I should do with a rug, curtains, coffee tables, and all around decoration? Thank you!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y53/tiediefrog/CIMG0060.jpg
This is all I have to work with. Right next to the door you see I am planning on putting a flat screen.
Answer
To make a small room look less cramped it is wise to paint the walls a shade darker or lighter than the largest object in the room and that would be your couch. I know, it sounds boring, but hear me out. With the couch and the walls almost the same color, you are blending your furnishings into the wall. This leaves room for great accents in the way of colorful decorative pillows on your couch and a possible area rug under the coffee table. Use rather plain draperies or drapes that are a solid tone on tone design, like damask. Perhaps add interest to the walls with art work. Select armless upholstered side chairs without skirts which will add extra seating without bogging down the room with heavy upholstered items. Check out Overstock.com for the occasional chairs I am referring to.
Most people hang mirrors incorrectly. If the mirror is not reflecting a pleasant sight, there is no point in hanging it. So, prior to hanging a mirror, have someone hold it up and you walk around the room to see what that mirror is actually reflecting. A mirror is no good if all you see is the reflection of a ceiling or a blank wall across the room.
Just be sure that you realize dimensions of new furniture in relationship to your space prior to making any purchases. Scale and proportion is ultra important.
Make what I call a "House Bible". This is a loose leaf book which you have sectioned off into individual rooms. In each room you will draw out the footprint on graph paper (1'=1 square) where you will mark each doorway and the windows, heating vents and so forth. This way, when you go out shopping, you will know exactly what will fit in your room without guessing. In this book you will have magazine photos of what you like or want to copy and you will have paint and fabric samples with you at all times. You never know when you will fall upon a sale that you cannot pass up.
If you are soon buying a dining set, consider multi use furniture. get a table with leaves so you can keep it small for day to day use and open it up for company or push it against the wall for a buffet. If you are limited to four chairs, see if you can get two side chairs and two captain chairs (captain chairs have arms). This way you can easily move the captain chairs into the living room when extra company arrives without it feeling like dining room seating. A chair pad works wonders for this quick transformation.
You may want a huge ottoman for your coffee table. Some have storage underneath. Large ottomans are great for coffee tables and small ones are fantastic for end tables. Ottomans are so versatile. They can be used for a table when a tray is placed upon them, they are great for extra seating, and a bonus if they house storage. They are easy to move about to make an instant change, if need be.
Consider a dresser or a bombay chest for your TV stand. These furniture options have drawers and can hold a bunch of CD's, DVD's, electronic equipment and magazines and such.
Colors?? That all depends on the accent pillows you select or perhaps the area rug if you want one. That would be your inspiration and jumping off point. Go shopping and buy a bunch of pillows. Really, a cart full of them. Use your credit card and take 'em all home. Play with them for three days, keep what looks good in your space and return all the rest. Check return policies prior to your purchase. You can find great pillows at Pier One Imports, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Home Goods and other department stores.
Above all, have an open mind and always buy what you love, not because it is on sale, because you really love it. Only then will you be able to walk into your home and have your heart smile.
To make a small room look less cramped it is wise to paint the walls a shade darker or lighter than the largest object in the room and that would be your couch. I know, it sounds boring, but hear me out. With the couch and the walls almost the same color, you are blending your furnishings into the wall. This leaves room for great accents in the way of colorful decorative pillows on your couch and a possible area rug under the coffee table. Use rather plain draperies or drapes that are a solid tone on tone design, like damask. Perhaps add interest to the walls with art work. Select armless upholstered side chairs without skirts which will add extra seating without bogging down the room with heavy upholstered items. Check out Overstock.com for the occasional chairs I am referring to.
Most people hang mirrors incorrectly. If the mirror is not reflecting a pleasant sight, there is no point in hanging it. So, prior to hanging a mirror, have someone hold it up and you walk around the room to see what that mirror is actually reflecting. A mirror is no good if all you see is the reflection of a ceiling or a blank wall across the room.
Just be sure that you realize dimensions of new furniture in relationship to your space prior to making any purchases. Scale and proportion is ultra important.
Make what I call a "House Bible". This is a loose leaf book which you have sectioned off into individual rooms. In each room you will draw out the footprint on graph paper (1'=1 square) where you will mark each doorway and the windows, heating vents and so forth. This way, when you go out shopping, you will know exactly what will fit in your room without guessing. In this book you will have magazine photos of what you like or want to copy and you will have paint and fabric samples with you at all times. You never know when you will fall upon a sale that you cannot pass up.
If you are soon buying a dining set, consider multi use furniture. get a table with leaves so you can keep it small for day to day use and open it up for company or push it against the wall for a buffet. If you are limited to four chairs, see if you can get two side chairs and two captain chairs (captain chairs have arms). This way you can easily move the captain chairs into the living room when extra company arrives without it feeling like dining room seating. A chair pad works wonders for this quick transformation.
You may want a huge ottoman for your coffee table. Some have storage underneath. Large ottomans are great for coffee tables and small ones are fantastic for end tables. Ottomans are so versatile. They can be used for a table when a tray is placed upon them, they are great for extra seating, and a bonus if they house storage. They are easy to move about to make an instant change, if need be.
Consider a dresser or a bombay chest for your TV stand. These furniture options have drawers and can hold a bunch of CD's, DVD's, electronic equipment and magazines and such.
Colors?? That all depends on the accent pillows you select or perhaps the area rug if you want one. That would be your inspiration and jumping off point. Go shopping and buy a bunch of pillows. Really, a cart full of them. Use your credit card and take 'em all home. Play with them for three days, keep what looks good in your space and return all the rest. Check return policies prior to your purchase. You can find great pillows at Pier One Imports, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Home Goods and other department stores.
Above all, have an open mind and always buy what you love, not because it is on sale, because you really love it. Only then will you be able to walk into your home and have your heart smile.
Very small Living Room measures 9.5 x 13 feet. How to furnish so it looks nice, sophisticated, not cramped?
John
Answer
Don't make the common mistakes that most people make when furnishing a small room. Small room does not mean small furniture.
You just need a few key pieces. A couch that is not over sized with large wide arms is a must. You would be wise to get an ottoman that can double as a place for storage, extra seating, or transform into an end table with a tray on it. Using furnishings that have multi usage is key to good design in small spaces.
Selecting furniture with no skirts will allow light and air movement, giving the illusion of more space. Rather than use traditional upholstered chairs, consider over sized dining room chairs or smaller chairs, with or without arms. Check Overstock.com for chairs. If you have a dining room near by, you may want to use two captain chairs for the dining room table ends -- then use them in the living room when company arrives for extra seating. A bench is a good idea to have for extra seating as it is easily moved and fits just about anywhere. With a couple of decorative throw pillows, it can look very inviting. Again, not a tiny piece but airy.
Take advantage of your vertical space for storage so things are not kept on the valuable floor real estate. Hang shelves with nice canvas or wicker baskets for magazines and what not. If you are going to have a television in the room, consider a small dresser for a TV stand so you have all that storage for your CD's and DVD's and what not.
Scale is key to a well designed room, so you must pay attention to proportion. You may want to buy a couch with a big print on it and have that be the focal point as you decorate the rest of the room around those colors, using smaller prints elsewhere. Or, you may want to go with all solid fabrics with good texture and use accessories such as tabletop decor and decorative pillows and curtains as your color input.
If you buy a solid couch and paint the wall behind it the same color, it will give the illusion of more space. Then, you can use a great design print in the decorative pillows, where you get your colors for the rest of the furniture/chairs/curtains and such.
About mirrors. Everyone thinks a mirror makes a room look bigger. That is not necessarily the case. Whatever the mirror reflects should be interesting. If it reflects a blank wall across the room, then it is worthless as the reflection is not of any decorative value and therefore that mirror does nothing for the space.
Lighting is important, so pay attention to the lighting. Have several forms of lighting to set the mood for various reasons. If you use shiny metals and add glass objects here and there, then you are adding reflective materials for light to bounce off of, which is great.
About paint. If you are going to paint, wait until you get your inspiration from something you are using in the room. Too many times people paint their room a random color and then go nuts trying to find things to match. Get your inspiration first, then pick a paint color from that, second.
Lastly, try not to match any furnishings, like wooden legs of furniture to the floor. The floor is best to have a contrast color so everything on it pops and does not blend in too much, making a boring room.
I like to do something of interest outside the window of small rooms. Kind of making it look like a visual extension, creating the illusion of space. So, if this living room is on the ground floor, try to make a small inviting space outside. even if it is a window box with flowers or a small bistro set with a flower pot on the table, this set up will extend the view and bring the eye outside. I once set up a small arbor several feet away from the window and a small round table with a chair just beyond that, with a bird feeder and it made the room look so much bigger as the eye caught movement outside from the birds coming and going. Easy stuff you can do.
About window treatments. If you hang the window treatments above the window on the wall, it will make the ceilings look higher and bring the eye upwards, again giving the illusion of space.
Finally, go to BHG.com and click on "arrange a room". There you can create a virtual room without lifting a piece of furniture as you design your floor plan. You can e-mail it to yourself or even print it for reference while shopping for furnishings.
I hope some of these ideas have help spark your imagination.
Don't make the common mistakes that most people make when furnishing a small room. Small room does not mean small furniture.
You just need a few key pieces. A couch that is not over sized with large wide arms is a must. You would be wise to get an ottoman that can double as a place for storage, extra seating, or transform into an end table with a tray on it. Using furnishings that have multi usage is key to good design in small spaces.
Selecting furniture with no skirts will allow light and air movement, giving the illusion of more space. Rather than use traditional upholstered chairs, consider over sized dining room chairs or smaller chairs, with or without arms. Check Overstock.com for chairs. If you have a dining room near by, you may want to use two captain chairs for the dining room table ends -- then use them in the living room when company arrives for extra seating. A bench is a good idea to have for extra seating as it is easily moved and fits just about anywhere. With a couple of decorative throw pillows, it can look very inviting. Again, not a tiny piece but airy.
Take advantage of your vertical space for storage so things are not kept on the valuable floor real estate. Hang shelves with nice canvas or wicker baskets for magazines and what not. If you are going to have a television in the room, consider a small dresser for a TV stand so you have all that storage for your CD's and DVD's and what not.
Scale is key to a well designed room, so you must pay attention to proportion. You may want to buy a couch with a big print on it and have that be the focal point as you decorate the rest of the room around those colors, using smaller prints elsewhere. Or, you may want to go with all solid fabrics with good texture and use accessories such as tabletop decor and decorative pillows and curtains as your color input.
If you buy a solid couch and paint the wall behind it the same color, it will give the illusion of more space. Then, you can use a great design print in the decorative pillows, where you get your colors for the rest of the furniture/chairs/curtains and such.
About mirrors. Everyone thinks a mirror makes a room look bigger. That is not necessarily the case. Whatever the mirror reflects should be interesting. If it reflects a blank wall across the room, then it is worthless as the reflection is not of any decorative value and therefore that mirror does nothing for the space.
Lighting is important, so pay attention to the lighting. Have several forms of lighting to set the mood for various reasons. If you use shiny metals and add glass objects here and there, then you are adding reflective materials for light to bounce off of, which is great.
About paint. If you are going to paint, wait until you get your inspiration from something you are using in the room. Too many times people paint their room a random color and then go nuts trying to find things to match. Get your inspiration first, then pick a paint color from that, second.
Lastly, try not to match any furnishings, like wooden legs of furniture to the floor. The floor is best to have a contrast color so everything on it pops and does not blend in too much, making a boring room.
I like to do something of interest outside the window of small rooms. Kind of making it look like a visual extension, creating the illusion of space. So, if this living room is on the ground floor, try to make a small inviting space outside. even if it is a window box with flowers or a small bistro set with a flower pot on the table, this set up will extend the view and bring the eye outside. I once set up a small arbor several feet away from the window and a small round table with a chair just beyond that, with a bird feeder and it made the room look so much bigger as the eye caught movement outside from the birds coming and going. Easy stuff you can do.
About window treatments. If you hang the window treatments above the window on the wall, it will make the ceilings look higher and bring the eye upwards, again giving the illusion of space.
Finally, go to BHG.com and click on "arrange a room". There you can create a virtual room without lifting a piece of furniture as you design your floor plan. You can e-mail it to yourself or even print it for reference while shopping for furnishings.
I hope some of these ideas have help spark your imagination.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar