How to arrange a living room and separate functional zones?

How to arrange a living room is a question that we unexpectedly had to ask ourselves again three and a half years after moving into our home. There is nothing bad that would not work out for good - at least we always try to do that, so when half of our house was renovated after the flooding that affected us in March this year, we decided to make a metamorphosis of our living room and separate functional zones: dining room, TV corner and play corner.

 

So far our salon was an organizational mish-mash.

 

Place under the stairs it was perfect to hold children's toys, and right next door we fitted ours dining corner, that is, a round table and chairs. I admit - I did not like to sit there, because I was terribly irritated by the toy look and the feeling of eternal mess it caused. So I regularly arranged different furniture for storing toys under the stairs, from a black chest of drawers, through a children's bookcase with containers for toys, to high-gloss cabinets, so that every time I came to the conclusion that the toys would "flow out" anyway.

 

I am addicted to the sun, a under the stairs, where I arranged our dining room, there was probably the darkest corner in our house - another reason why I didn't like spending time at the table. All other corners of the living room were already occupied (one by the kitchen, the second by the sofa, and the third by the TV), so I dreamed of running a cable in the ceiling and hanging a table lamp, but moving the cable in an already furnished house with concrete ceilings is a real challenge so this topic remained in the dream zone.

 

Like most of us, I placed the couch and the TV "intuitively" against the wall, which made it difficult to talk about any TV and seating corner, because this zone covered the whole room. What's more, in our case sofa and TV were located on two opposite walls of the living room and were separated by 6 meters. It made us have a serious problem to choose any video on VOD while sitting on the couch, not to mention watching movies with subtitles, which we had to completely give up, despite not the smallest 51 inch TV - just the distance made it We have long since started to think about either a new (bigger) TV (which was never my dream design element) or a new sofa that would be put in a new place. Also, during family movie screenings, Mikołaj did not want to sit on the sofa, but preferred to lie alone halfway along the living room on the carpet, and I did not join him only because I rated the comfort of a comfortable sitting higher than the comfort of watching a movie.

 

Our living room with a kitchenette is about 30 square meters, which is not large, considering our large kitchen with U-shaped furniture. The arrangement of all the furniture under the walls meant that in the middle of the living room was big space, optically adding a few square meters to the interior, which at the initial stage of decorating the living room was our priority.

 

In this arrangement, when there was a dining table and 5 chairs next to the toy cabinets under the stairs, naturally the play corner fell right in the middle of the living room. So completely dominated the day part of our house.

 

 

How to decorate a living room?

 

Division of the living room into zones

 

During the renovation, where the whole living room and staircase was painted (among others), we decided to, however, in this small space separate functionally and almost physically 4 zones: kitchen, dining, leisure and children - to play. And that's all putting the corner sofa right in the middle of the living room - because we decided that although this would make the room optically smaller, its area is still large enough to allow you to move freely around it.

 

Because of that now couch she was to become a central element of our salon, we took a closer look at our old one, where for 8 years both the cat and two children managed to leave quite visible traces. Centrally positioned, it turned out to be a bit overwhelming because of its height and lack of legs, which is generally a heavy construction.

 

I thought it was the perfect opportunity to think about replacing a worn-out sofa bed with lighter, but still a spacious and comfortable sofathat will ensure our whole family rest together - we love to hang out not only with children, but also with Grandma or cousins. That's why we rejected the idea of ​​a small sofabecause, although optically it would fit better, it would not provide us with such a comfortable rest, and there is nothing more beautiful than after a hard day or on Sunday morning to wield a comfortable sofa with the whole family.

 

Seeing our interiors, it is not difficult for you to guess for sure that I love everything that is bright, warm and nice, but I was sure that with two children, it's at least a crazy idea to have a bright upholstered sofa again, one of which was enough for us only for 8 years, of which over 4 were without children. Many people recommended a leather sofa that is of good quality almost like an oilcloth, but I did not take it into account at all, because the skin is too cold for me, raw and unpleasant material, which, moreover, cozy pillows that I love so much .

 

When I bought a year ago feeding chair in a very light gray shade, due to its purpose, the lady in the store offered me to order it from an easy-to-clean fabric. I didn't use it then, because time was running out, but now I decided to sell the old sofa and put a new one here, quilted, totally light gray sofa with openwork legs giving lightness to this huge furniture that appeared centrally in the middle of the living room in the elegant, easy-to-clean upholstery.

 

It was this corner sofa that allowed us to divide the living room into four functional rooms:

 

TV and entertainment corner

Placing the sofa this time 3 meters from the TV, I managed to create a cozy corner here, and this impression is enhanced by photos, flowers and decorations set on the windowsill.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Corner with RTV equipment and ramp for curtains i lighting have been designed so that my next dream will fit perfectly here - wall unit, in which I plan to house family treasures and souvenirs, arrange photo albums and frames on the shelves, vases and knick knacks that will give this interior an even clearer character. Like today, cosiness the salon adds fireplace i small woodshed.

 

 

Before:

 

After:

 

 

A dream, sunny dining room

 

Table and chairs arranged under the window they provided light to the dining corner almost all day, and I I loved this place with myself and it completely compensated for the loss of this space in the middle of the living room. Moreover, it can be said that I moved here with almost all my activities - I drink my morning coffee here, do my makeup, eat meals and even work. Since the table was set up here (3 months ago), never once in the evening went to work in our home office in the attic. Wojtek, moreover, neither. The proximity of the kitchen, coffee and water make it difficult for us to return to the attic. This is my fairy tale.

 

Before:

After:

 

An indispensable element of our family dining room - in addition to a fold-out table, which will seat 8-10 people at Sunday dinner, are high chairs for children - they look almost like those for adults, but both the height of the seat and the footrest are adjustable according to their height, thanks to which we develop good habits in our family from the beginning - eating at the table, with the whole family, at pre-planned times and of course - without company TV.

 

 

 

Play corner under the stairs

Since toys have lived here for years, it was natural to create a play area right here. There are not many of them here anymore, I gave up on all shelves and cabinets or drawers. Each son has a dozen or so of them here, with which he is just playing: Mikołaj keeps them in a box on wheels, and Maks in a natural basket, every week or two we exchange them together with toys from their children's rooms, because the rule is perfect for us - the more toys on hand, the less interest they get. And since it's just a toy corner, not a dining room, the sight of them stopped annoying me completely, you can just see that it's a children's zone. The only thing missing here is a fluffy carpet.

 

After:

 

Kitchen has changed little and I will devote a separate post to its functional organization.

 

Probably every person who enters our living room and sees two raging children and this one turbo-couch, rubs his eyes with amazement, but after three months of use it still looks like new, a it was already dirty from apple juice (Santa baptized her on the first day), milk, coffee, pizza sauce, strawberries, banana… I trolley wheels (I don't remember any more dirt), a we wipe any dirt off it using only water and a paper towel.

 

It is provided by Italian fabric Persemprain which we can buy ready furniture in one of the stores cooperating with Persempra, the list of which is available here with convenient search on the map and even buy it by the meter to get along with it give your furniture to the upholsterer. Bright furniture in the living room no longer has to be just our dream, even if we have children, a dog and a cat, and at the same time we love to enjoy red wine, of course on a comfortable sofa.

 

 

How do you like our salon metamorphosis?

There is nothing bad that would not turn out to be good, right? I would never decide to do this renovation myself, and yes - the changes for the better happened somehow by the way.

 

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