Entertainment
How To: Arrange your Living Room for Entertaining
By: Kelly Goldthorpe
Your living room is typically the location for entertaining and conversation when you have guests over. By simply rearranging your living room you can create an area perfect for such activities. While this task can be accomplished in an afternoon, you should plan ahead to make it easier.
The first step is to measure your room. You’ll want to know the dimensions in case you decide to purchase additional living room furnishings. Also, you may think your sofa will fit one way, but why waste the energy moving it only to find out it is too big. Spend five minutes to accurately measure the living room and the furnishings within. While you’re surveying, take note of anything that will influence how a room is set up. Where is your cable jack located? Typically there is only one and you will have to plan your television around that. Do you have a fireplace or large windows? These are focal pieces that help determine how the room is to be arranged. Also consider the placement of electrical outlets. Usually these are found throughout the room, but if you have an entertainment system with a lot of plugs or you have many lamps it will be important to keep track of those.
Next you will want to pick a focal piece. There can be multiple focal pieces if you divide up your room; you can do this by placing a sofa away from the wall to create a natural partition, or by using screens. Fireplaces naturally draw the eyes of visitors, but if you lack one, a piano, dramatic piece of art, or the entertainment center will all add focus to the room. If you do choose to have multiple focal points do not place them too closely together.
Plan your furniture around your focal point, but keep in mind the purpose for the room. If you have a fireplace and would like to encourage conversation you would not want to simply put the sofa in front of the fireplace. Doing so would make it difficult for guests to face each other. Instead, have a couch facing a loveseat or chairs positioned close to the fireplace. That way it is still in view and in the middle of the area, but is not inhibiting conversation by alienating others. If your main feature is the television make sure all the seats available can easily see the screen. You don’t want guests craning their necks in order to watch the movie. A general rule of thumb though is to keep couches, chairs, and other seats all within reach of a coffee table or end table.
You can distinguish these areas of the room by using area rugs. They provide nice accent features, but also serve as natural space definers. Make sure that throughout the room there is adequate space to walk around in. Typically two feet is enough space for walkways.
Make your living room multi-functional by creating sub-areas in your living room. A great example of this is creating a reading nook, with a comfy chair and a lamp. This method is perfect for a living room where children will be present. You can give them there own area with a kid’s table and toy chest.
If you are interested in Feng Shui, a Chinese system for creating a peaceful home, make sure your seating area faces the doors of a room. This is a nice thing to do anyway because then guests can readily welcome newcomers to a room. If your living room has more than one entrance make sure you leave a defined path from one entryway to the next, this way people will not have to cut through the conversation or television viewing areas.
By planning ahead of time you’ll cut down on the time, energy, and effort it takes to rearrange your living room. For a simple way to “test-run” a room search online for room arrangement programs, that will give you an virtual reconstruction of what your room could look like.
***
Kid-Friendly Family Rooms
By: Kelly Goldthorpe
Whether you have a bundle of kids at your house or your grandchildren just come to visit on the weekends, you probably want to have a room where kids can just be kids. That way you won’t have to worry about them tracking mud on your new carpet or ruining your favorite sofa. But the family room doesn’t need to be a free-for-all with crayons on the wall and toys littered everywhere. Through storage, sensible living room furnishings, and plenty of entertainment you can create a room that is both kid-friendly with an adult design.
First, develop a creative look for the room. If it is going to function as a playroom and an entertaining area is should signify that. If you want, you can do a more serious design, but adding some bright colors and fun accents will lighten the mood of the room. Use paint to create geometric shapes or make a wall stand out. In the kid’s corner you can even buy blackboard paint, which essentially paints a chalkboard on the wall. This is a unique and interactive way to include the kids! When decorating though, don’t invest too much. If the furniture is going to be trampled on you’ll want it to be durable but not too expensive or sophisticated.
However, there are definitely some essential items you will want to purchase for your room. Furniture covers are probably the most important and beneficial way to transform a room into a kid-friendly place. They don’t have to be plastic like you see in the movies either! There are decorative slip covers that are stain resistant and can be easily washed at home. Area rugs are another worthwhile purchase. This prevents the floors from getting scuffed and ensures the kids won’t hurt themselves when they fall.
To create a natural divide between the kid’s area and the adult’s space use simple partitions. A couch works great because it identifies the conversation area and works as a natural boundary. Behind it you can hide the play table or toy chests. By separating the areas it makes it less likely that the mess from the play station will end up in the entertaining section. Use storage to disguise the play area when it’s not in use. You can use a bookcase for the children’s books and put colorful baskets on the shelves with toys. This follows the out-of-sight, out-of-mind principal. Instead of using a boring box for toys stash them away in photo boxes, pails, and other unique storage options.
A room isn’t kid-friendly though until it has something for them to do. A bright room won’t entertain a child for long, so you’ve got to include toys! If the children will frequently be using the room than probably anything goes. This room can be your makeshift playroom if you use enough storage. If the kids just visit every once in a while there is no reason to buy every toy under the sun. Your house doesn’t have to look like F.A.O. Schwarz. Some toys you might not want around, like Playdoh. While it fosters creativity it gets everywhere! Building blocks, coloring books, dolls or trucks, and board games are relatively mess free and great for keeping the kids contained. While some pieces might go astray, you probably won’t have any damage to your home or furniture at the end of the day.
When your family comes to visit keep them happy with a space to catch up on old times and an area for the kids to enjoy themselves.
***
How to Have Fun Again
Putting the ‘living’ back into living room
By: Kelly Goldthorpe
Formal living rooms, parlor rooms, and decorative furniture – these all make a home look polished and refined, but definitely aren’t family-friendly. For large homes these magazine-worthy rooms are fantastic, but if you have a moderate or small sized home you don’t want to sacrifice livability for design. Your living room furnishings should be fun, enjoyable, and useful – not stiff and uncomfortable. Turn your living room into a space for family fun and entertainment.
The entertainment center is both a living room design aspect and a component for home entertaining. Your entertainment center can be something as easy as a TV stand with a DVD shelf to a full standing cabinet with swinging doors. While budgets vary, choose something that is practical for your family and fits with your living room design. With bigger units you can display family photos, collections, or books as well. Stock your entertainment center with the video games, movies, and music that you use regularly. When these items are easily accessible they are more likely to be used; you might rediscover the joy you feel when you listen to your favorite old album or learn to enjoy videogames.
Take pleasure in family game nights by purchasing a range of board games for your family. Learn a new game once a month to avoid getting sick of the same person winning Monopoly each week. Board games a great way to have fun because they aren’t messy and involve a lot of interaction, compared to watching a movie. They are also compact and can be easily stored in an entertainment center or closet.
Make your living room more entertainment-friendly by having a variety of seating options for family and guests. Arrange them so everyone can see each other, along with the focal piece of the room (such as a fireplace or television). Choose living room furnishings which are cozy and durable. You don’t want to have to worry about guests or children ruining them while you should be enjoying the evening.
Your living room or family room can still be beautifully decorated but functional. Don’t buy pieces which need plastic covers because those aren’t practical for rooms that see a lot of family use.
