How to arrange this room?

[KungFuPanda]

I want to make this room my family room. It’s been a dance studio so I haven’t had to place furniture here for a decade.  I don’t know where to put the TV, sofa, or chair and still have wheelchair access. Are any of you good at this? Right now the tv is on one of those 8-cube IKEA shelves, but I do have a smaller stand I can use. The shelf would need to remain in the room but I can flip it upright to reduce the footprint. 

[Stacia]

Could you put your tv over the fireplace?

Maybe center the sofa in front of the fireplace, leaving plenty of space behind it (or in front of it) for wheelchair access. Then, put the chair on the perpendicular to the sofa near the 4 x 6 window, facing the far end of the room with the sliding door.

I would probably put the Ikea shelf centered on the 14' wall behind the chair. (This is assuming you could get the tv over the fireplace.)

[PinkTulip]

Put the sofa on the wall between the 2 door openings. The TV can go either above the fireplace or next to it on the wall closest to the sliding door. Put the chair angled in the corner by the window near the fireplace, and then the bookcase on the 14’ wall by the chair and the opening to the front hall. I envision a little reading & bookshelf areaon that end of the room near the window. 

 

[Chris in VA]

You could arrange the TV on the wall across from the fireplace, and put the sofa (pulled away from the wall) on the side of the room where you wrote 14. Two chairs can go by the glass door (on either side or arranged some other way). Are the sofa and chairs small enough to get around with the wheel chair if arranged this way? If you do use this way, everyone can sit and see both the TV and the fireplace. 

[KungFuPanda]

My sister informed me that I’m not supposed to put my couch against a wall. This confused me and induced decision paralysis. 

I only have one sofa and one chair. That space where most people put a second chair is where ds parks his wheelchair. I’m not philosophically opposed to a tv over the fireplace; I just don’t see me making that happen any time soon.

I’m getting 4 rooms involved when I move stuff around and summer is my only time to do it all. I’m also purging like I’m possessed and on the verge of painting my basement ceiling black. I’ve lived in this house for 17 years and just realized today that my basement ceilings are 7’ tall. I don’t know who let me have a house. ?

[Chris in VA]

oh, don't paint the ceiling black if it's that short! Unless you like the Bat Cave look. YMMV. lol

 

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, KungFuPanda said:

My sister informed me that I’m not supposed to put my couch against a wall. This confused me and induced decision paralysis. 

I?

I've seen this advice. I think it is for people with bigger rooms, lol. Because yeah,  have no idea where else to put one in my house!

[KungFuPanda]

14 hours ago, Chris in VA said:

oh, don't paint the ceiling black if it's that short! Unless you like the Bat Cave look. YMMV. lol

 

I didn’t even know that was short for a basement ceiling! It was higher than I guessed it would be. I’m trying to get the wood and pipes to disappear so I can use the space without truly finishing it. The Marley floor and tape will also not be cute. ? I’m getting a lot of pipe and drape involved to hide the storage parts of the basement. It’ll be a bit tent-like, but that’s ok for bellydance classes  ?

I probably shouldn’t have tossed in details about a room/space that’s not in the diagram. That ceiling is gabled, white, and above grade. 

[PeterPan]

I think I've seen basement ceilings painted *grey* when they pipes are exposed, and that can really work. I wouldn't go all the way to black, but a neutral color would indeed make things disappear. You could even go lighter grey on the ceiling, a shade darker on the walls, let the floor be light, and bring in punchy furniture and color accents. Grey walls are great for photography too, so if you need to take pics of the classes for promo they'll look good. Just a nice, neutral grey. 

Or go buttery on the ceiling and something colorful on the walls, but I'm all about the yellow. 

You might draw this out to scale on grid paper and make a little paper rectangle for your couch and see what happens as you move it around. That way you can see clearances. If this is an older house, the tv might be very high above the fireplace. The glare from the sliders might be unpleasant on the tv with it in the corner there. If you try doing the tv at the other end (where the bookcases logically go), then you'd curtain that smaller window and could turn the couch parallel to the sliders. But I can't really tell from the scale if that would work. My mother had an awkward living room like this (older house) and she used smaller furniture to make it work. Like instead of a couch, she kept two recliners and a setee (don't even know if I'm spelling that right). So the room was essentially divided into multiple zones, and she only watched tv in 1/3 of it. Keeping the scale of the furniture small helped.

 

[ktgrok]

Ikea has a virtual office software you can use , if you have mostly ikea furniture or can find furniture that matches the size of yours. That way you can move it around and see how it looks. 

 

[Chris in VA]

I always have to move my classroom furniture around --the actual furniture, because I have no spatial skills! lol

Have fun--I'm about to work with a room that is a giant rectangle and has to serve as dining room, living room and perhaps den. I have no idea what I'm doing. 

So, don't listen to me! hahahah