What would you do with this space?

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

What would you do with this space? I am moving stuff around tonight but usually it’s just empty.  I’m trying to make the house more efficient(it’s small, we went from 2500 to around 1500 square feet) and this is our primary living area.

Table? Seating? We have our sectional across from it.

[KungFuPanda]

We need more information or a blueprint or something.  Do you have a dining area in your kitchen?  Do you have enough living room seating? How many people and how old? Do you need a workspace?  Where is your TV? Do you need more storage in this room?  What size is it and where is your sofa?

 

ETA: Can I have your rug?  I like it and i need one.

Edited November 18, 2023 by KungFuPanda

[Teaching3bears]

I might put a couch between the door and window so that it is parallel to the coat wall and separates that area from the living room.  If you have room, you could put a narrow table behing the couch to put stuff on.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

It is a pretty typical 1950s ranch house. Fairly large eat in kitchen. The living room(this room) is large-ish about 20 x 10 with the picture window. The TV is next to the window with a bookshelf filled with games underneath. Then all that empty space until the door, the opposite wall has an oversized sectional and recliner.  I don’t need more seating, but would use it if I had it. Same with storage. 
I’d take a picture from the other side but my husband is sleeping on the couch and would not appreciate that lol.

[marbel]

What about a table and chairs for games, projects, jigsaw puzzles....?

[Faith-manor]

34 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

It is a pretty typical 1950s ranch house. Fairly large eat in kitchen. The living room(this room) is large-ish about 20 x 10 with the picture window. The TV is next to the window with a bookshelf filled with games underneath. Then all that empty space until the door, the opposite wall has an oversized sectional and recliner.  I don’t need more seating, but would use it if I had it. Same with storage. 
I’d take a picture from the other side but my husband is sleeping on the couch and would not appreciate that lol.

I double dog dare you! 😁

[Katy]

I’d put more seating or maybe even a small table & chairs for 2 person games or puzzles. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

Different view.‘I’d like to somehow take advantage of the picture window because we have a beautiful view out of, but I’m not sure how.

eventually we’ll have a floating curtain on it after DH finished the trim.

[mmasc]

I would move the sectional to where the back is parallel to the coat rack by the door (so facing the wall with the door to the kitchen), then put the tv on the wall to the left of where it is now. That would make the picture window be more of the focus of the room, and you’d have the full view available. I think with that arrangement, you’d likely not feel like the space needed something. It would feel sort of like the room was “closed in” a bit with the window as the focal point. 
 

eta: if my dh was like “no way am I re-mounting that tv somewhere else” lol, then I’d probably just leave that space open with the nice view if I didn’t need more seating. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by mmasc

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

It’s not a coat rack on the wall, it’s an antique piece of furniture that has a storage bench with a coat rack attached to it. There is a closet next to it 

The sectional will only fit against either the wall it’s up against or the window.  Otherwise it blocks the closet and the entry into the small den behind the living room. So I am stuck with where the sectional is.

[Ditto]

That window is beautiful and I agree you need to take advantage of it.  They make lower "benches" with cushions on them.   You might find one that would fit just under the window and hopefully the length of it too.  It would provide options for seating but also to lay on and read a book or to put a game on and kids sit on floor to play it if they want to.

 

Another option is a short bookcase that would fit under it and possibly several together to go the length of the window.  For books, games, puzzles, etc.

 

[rebcoola]

I would do storage benches with cushions under the window

[PeterPan]

You might draw out the space. You seem to have a lot of doors/walkways, which is why it's not feeling logical to put the sectional in front of the window. 

If you do some *sheers* you can lower the tv onto a piece of furniture and put it in front of the window. 

Are we seeing a recliner as well? Can it sort of curve around? Everything seems very lined up. You could pull the sectional off the wall a bit, put a sofa table and a lamp, plants, pictures behind it. Bring the tv in front of the window using sheers and some panels to make it look nice. If you have a den, would the tv fit in there? It's that perpetual problem of a house designed to have a formal living room when people don't do that any more. Do you have a piano or other instruments around the house that could create a music area? 

What happens if you move that coat furniture piece thing to the space between the window and door? Then put something thinner like a hall table or a shoe rack there. I'm not much of a decorator, but there's this idea of balancing weights in a room. So then the heavy of that coat furniture would balance the heavy of the couch that is opposite. And repeat the colors of the woods if you can. Are the woods oak and the walls grey? Or they're white? Maybe what you're really craving is a soft creamy wall color, something to bring the colors together. Plants and some wall color, move the tv, it will come together.

There are links on tv height. Odds are it's way high for the space, so the inconvenience of finding a piece of furniture to put it on will also make it more comfortable. https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/tv-mounting-height You might have some luck with craigslist or an antique shop for a long something (table, buffet, hutch, whatever) to put the tv on. They sell them at Hobby Lobby and TJMaxx too. Then your christmas tree (if you do that) could go to the right of the tv. So the tv centered on the window, tree to the right.

Maybe center the rug in front of the window and do a runner at the entry.

Edited November 19, 2023 by PeterPan

[PeterPan]

This is cute. Something like this. https://www.google.com/shopping/product/6590046937660895942?client=safari&rls=en&q=tv+hutch+hobby+lobby&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prds=pid:3353659549107353974,rsk:PC_5783122520852360330

 

[fraidycat]

I would remove the t.v, and do built in bookcases on either side of the window with bench and shelving underneath, connecting the two floor to ceiling bookcases. If a bench doesn't make sense, then I would just have additional bookshelves under the window and put a photo gallery or other decorative items in the top of the shelf.

https://www.heytherehome.com/built-ins-with-bench-seat/

Like this, but with stained wood instead of white.

[Halftime Hope]

Could you sketch the perimeter of the room, adding any doorways and other fixed items that need to be taken into account, traffic patterns, etc.?  It feels like your large space needs to be broken up into functional areas, but without seeing what is on the wall opposite the window, it makes it difficult to help. Sometimes, it's much better to make a plan "for now" and then a longer term plan that involves knocking out and re-installing walls in a space that works better for the family, *if* this is your home and you can do that.

For me, that TV hanging off the wall like that would be a short term plan, one I'd not want to live with longer term. But I do understand guys and their desire to watch TV from a certain angle, sprawled on the couch.  (I really do think most guys are wired differently than most women on this issue.)

Edited November 19, 2023 by Halftime Hope

[prairiewindmomma]

Does your tv need to be mounted there? Honestly, that's a terrible spot for it. (Sorry! 🫣)

I'd think about the function of each space.

When you come into the house, you want to deal with shoes and coats and stuff.  If this is your main entrance to the house, doubly so. For guests, a coat rack/pegs and place to deal with shoes is sufficient. You've got that taken care of.

Next, you want to frame up whatever is the highlight of the room. From here, it looks like the picture window is that (is there also a fireplace in the room? There often is in ranches.  We see one connecting doorway; is there another? Is there a view of the dining or other space from this room?  It's really hard to get a sense of the flow. 

[matrips]

We had a similar living room in our cape cod. We had our couch on the window side- it’s nice to curl up and read by the window or look out while sitting there.  I like that better than sitting across from the window. My grandmothers hope chest was between the end of the couch and the front door.

we had our tv in an entertainment type unit (with bookcase/cabinets)across from the couch (where your couch is). 

we had an oversized chair floating between the end of couch and the end of the entertainment center.

basically, I’d flip-flop your room. If you do, then you have a wall area to work with instead of windows. It’s much more usable than low space under a window.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

There is no other place for the TV unless we put the sectional on the picture wall and put it on that wall. The other side is the front door with only a  small wall space between the door and the window.

The living room is partially open to the den, and if we move the sectional to the door side and face the kitchen, the sectional is wide enough the you would then have to walk all the way around through the  den then laundry room into the kitchen.  The den is only about 8 feet by 10 feet with a non working fireplace taking up one whole wall, so not a good place for a true family room. 

I’ve been down a rabbit hole of 1950s house designs today and from the original illustrations on many of the blueprint catalogues from then, it looks like people would have put a small table with two comfortable chairs in front of the window .  And of course in 1950 no one considered TV wall space. We bought this house from the estate of the original owners who designed and had it built, then never updated anything other than the bathroom(which is handicap accessible and has fantastic lighting).  It’s honestly interesting to me to consider how much fewer electrical outlets were needed especially in the kitchen, and other societal implications of house design.

We originally did try the sectional in front of the window but the back of the couch blocked so much of it that I had to peer over to watch the kids playing outside, so I moved it.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[KungFuPanda]

I might be misunderstanding the scale, but would this work? So it would look kinda like this

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by KungFuPanda

[KungFuPanda]

I do admire the commitment to mounting the TV before you're confident about where the furniture goes.  That's a real husband move. 😂

 

 

[PeterPan]

Is your laundry room really that big?? 

The immediate solution would be to put the tv on a stand in front of the window and use sheers. It looks like you have other ways to see the kids play or could pull the sheers aside at times. Long term, you might take with someone about what could happen structurally to update your flow. I'd even be tempted to flip it and do a formal dining room in the front and put the sofa in the kitchen. The dining could be where the laundry is if the laundry could sort of trim up. Is there an entrance to the back yard there?

 

[Teaching3bears]

I think it would work if you put the sectional flush against the wall so it is facing the tv.  Put the chair on the other side of the room so it is also in good view of the tv.  Put a rug and coffee table in the middle.  Put a narrow table between the window and door to make an artificial hall near the door for an entrance or else table height shelves.  Put low shelves with storage bins below the window.  And, of course nice curtains.  

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

3 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Is your laundry room really that big?? 

The immediate solution would be to put the tv on a stand in front of the window and use sheers. It looks like you have other ways to see the kids play or could pull the sheers aside at times. Long term, you might take with someone about what could happen structurally to update your flow. I'd even be tempted to flip it and do a formal dining room in the front and put the sofa in the kitchen. The dining could be where the laundry is if the laundry could sort of trim up. Is there an entrance to the back yard there?

 

The laundry room is the size of a bedroom, but the bedrooms are small. We actually may convert it to a bedroom at some point since we need another room. 
We only have one door. There is no back door unless you go through the garage. 
My husband is a contractor and said there is no really good way to flip the flow of the house without adding on an addition to the back, which we don’t want to do. 
Researching the function of 1950s homes today has been pretty enlightening.  I think this was designed to have an open foyer into a large formal living room, and a small den with the fireplace for informal living.  The family that designed and built it(or picked the blueprint and had it built) only had one child and farmed, so I am sure they were thinking of space utilization very different than I do. 

Unfortunately the TV is in a fixed place for two reasons: I don’t want to block the window and there are only three electrical outlets in that whole living room, clearly designed to be where the floor lamps were places(there was no ceiling lighting until we put it in). So it is stuck where there is both wall space and electric.

Theres only two electric outlets in each bedroom two and three in my whole kitchen.  They had a lot fewer electrical devices in 1955 lol.

[ScoutTN]

Benches with storage in/under them. Comfy benches with cushions.

[PeterPan]

15 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

contractor

For some reason I was thinking he was medical! How handy!! 

 

[PeterPan]

Did you already explore putting the sofa and tv in the kitchen and having the dining in the current living room? 

[KatieJ]

I completely get not wanting to block your view!

My suggestion is have built ins made that would be bookcases /cabinets   on both  sides of the window and a bench or book case with open shelves under the windows. The bookcase on the left could be made to accommodate the TV. 
 

Another thought is to get rid of the fireplace and move your TV viewing to that room.

Your front room then could be cozy chairs, small tables for reading, puzzles etc. 

[SHP]

Do you have a basement that is open? If so I would probably move the TV and sectional there for a more relaxing area and use that space for more active things.

Other random things that pop into my head that may or may not be practical.

Since the laundry room is next to the kitchen can you build walls around the washer and dryer to hide it/muffle sound and put the dinning table in that room, move the couch and TV to the dinning room?

Or if that bathroom is laid out with some space would a stacking washer dryer in it be an option that would free up that laundry room?

 

The best advice I ever received is to commit to nothing until you see how your family will intuitively use the space. In our current house the previous owners always used the back door as the main entrance. They were kind enough to leave the key hooks. We always use the front door soo the key hooks were useless in that area.

[Faith-manor]

Privacy fence it and declare it a mom only zone? 😁

[prairiewindmomma]

In your shoes, I think I would stop and think about a long term plan for the house.  You guys want to stay there, because of location, right? 

How is the electrical box? Is there room to upgrade it and redo the wiring in the house to drop more outlets for you? If you guys are still knob and tube, you'll want to be doing that anyway. Knob and tube has no ground wire, and honestly, with kids, I always feel better with GCFI outlets.  And, if you're going to open up to replace knob and tube, you might as well lay some Cat6. 

I'm assuming you want to have a functional fireplace at some point? Or replace with a wood stove, given your location and mega snowy event likelihood?

I'd be inclined to push the tv and sectional into the den, along with toys and kid crap and school stuff, and find some way to hang slider doors or something over that doorway for visual privacy. Steal room off of the laundry if you need it. I'd turn the front room into a proper front room, for company or quiet.  Having one room that stays clean and looks decent is necessary for my sanity. I need a quiet (visually) space to deal with stressful days. Fake plants, candles, the whole bougie nonsense where I feel like a human with a right to take up space in the mix of all of the kid chaos that comes my way. Eventually get new furniture for the front room that works with the space that you have. I'd pick something that can fit all of your girlfriends for margarita night. You want to start margarita or whiskey night because you need some down time with adults.  I'd also pick a nice ottoman or something where you can stash your laptop or do whatever so that if you need to WFH you have a quiet and clean space to work from. 

I know about zero of this is helpful in the short term, but I think having a master plan is worth it, even if it takes 3-5 years to get there. I'd use the time while you're saving and working to continue downsizing the amount of stuff that you own. Make it fit a 1950s house. It'll be a lot easier to keep up with. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

3 hours ago, PeterPan said:

For some reason I was thinking he was medical! How handy!! 

 

He’s a paramedic but he has done contracting since he was 16.  He does it on the side now since he only works two 24 hour shifts a week. Keeps him busy and out of my hair lol.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

5 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

In your shoes, I think I would stop and think about a long term plan for the house.  You guys want to stay there, because of location, right? 

How is the electrical box? Is there room to upgrade it and redo the wiring in the house to drop more outlets for you? If you guys are still knob and tube, you'll want to be doing that anyway. Knob and tube has no ground wire, and honestly, with kids, I always feel better with GCFI outlets.  And, if you're going to open up to replace knob and tube, you might as well lay some Cat6. 

I'm assuming you want to have a functional fireplace at some point? Or replace with a wood stove, given your location and mega snowy event likelihood?

I'd be inclined to push the tv and sectional into the den, along with toys and kid crap and school stuff, and find some way to hang slider doors or something over that doorway for visual privacy. Steal room off of the laundry if you need it. I'd turn the front room into a proper front room, for company or quiet.  Having one room that stays clean and looks decent is necessary for my sanity. I need a quiet (visually) space to deal with stressful days. Fake plants, candles, the whole bougie nonsense where I feel like a human with a right to take up space in the mix of all of the kid chaos that comes my way. Eventually get new furniture for the front room that works with the space that you have. I'd pick something that can fit all of your girlfriends for margarita night. You want to start margarita or whiskey night because you need some down time with adults.  I'd also pick a nice ottoman or something where you can stash your laptop or do whatever so that if you need to WFH you have a quiet and clean space to work from. 

I know about zero of this is helpful in the short term, but I think having a master plan is worth it, even if it takes 3-5 years to get there. I'd use the time while you're saving and working to continue downsizing the amount of stuff that you own. Make it fit a 1950s house. It'll be a lot easier to keep up with. 

No fireplace or wood stove.  DH hates them both. The fireplace is decorative at this time and I expect at some point we’ll get rid of it.

The sectional won’t fit into the den.  A loveseat is about all that will fit and still allow the walk through to the laundry room and kitchen.  There is only a half wall dividing it from the living room so no true doorway we could  put there.  Probably it is best suited to be a small office; we can fit a desk and two tall bookshelves in there.  The people who built the house had a loveseat in that area and put the TV above the fireplace; we just need more seating than a loveseat.

We don’t ever have people over except Christmas morning and DH probably isn’t going to change his desires on never having people over, so enertaining is pretty low on the concern list. We purposely downsized from a 2500 square foot home and got rid of a lot of stuff, and clearly 60 years ago people lived very differently.  I am thinking we will just continue to get rid of things and use the rooms as originally intended. My grandparents had a similar layout and put a couch one the wall facing the picture window and a small table with small but comfy chairs in front of the window.  It’s just such a long living room and I don’t have room in the house for empty space, but a table or bench with storage would work fine.

We won’t ever move because the house will be paid off completely when we sell our other house and the property taxes are low lol.

[Lecka]

I have moved with a sectional.  
 

Whatever the story is with the sectional, I think it’s something where you have to consider if the sectional works with the space.

 

It’s a big, finicky piece of furniture, and they often do not fit into new spaces well.  
 

Edit:  well, when I look at it, it doesn’t seem like the sectional is causing any problems.  But I think it’s worth considering, if it would open up any more options. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by Lecka

[KungFuPanda]

I JUST realized that you want to leave your furniture where it is and were literally asking what to do with that space. 🤦‍♀️
 

I change my answer to little bistro table and comfy chairs for sipping tea and gazing outside. A drop leaf table would be nice too. 

Edited November 20, 2023 by KungFuPanda

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

Lol we’ve tried different things with the furniture but the issue is that the living room is rectangle and has only two walls, and one of them has a picture window. There’s a half wall leading into the kitchen where we’ve got the short side of the sectional. There’s few ways to really rotate the furniture. I just don’t like that empty space.

[Pam in CT]

I don't know how much that door will really be used, but I think I might try to create a visual "entry" through furniture placement - maybe something like those IKEA Kallax cubes (dunno whether 3x3 or 2x2 would work better) that you could fit with baskets or drawers for storage.

And then on the window-side of the divider, I like the idea of a comfy storage bench under the window, perhaps with a drop leaf table to its left (beside the Kallax) that you could set up and draw a couple small chairs to if you wanted the space for games / puzzle / homework etc,  I puffy heart love drop leaf tables; they are dead useful even if sort of out of fashion.

[Clarita]

On 11/19/2023 at 4:15 PM, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

Unfortunately the TV is in a fixed place for two reasons: I don’t want to block the window and there are only three electrical outlets in that whole living room, clearly designed to be where the floor lamps were places(there was no ceiling lighting until we put it in). So it is stuck where there is both wall space and electric.

When are you going to put in the ceiling lights? When you do that you can put electrical on the wall where the sectional is (so TV can go there) and put the sectional by the picture window. 

I love having a couch against my picture window, makes for a good reading space.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

33 minutes ago, Clarita said:

When are you going to put in the ceiling lights? When you do that you can put electrical on the wall where the sectional is (so TV can go there) and put the sectional by the picture window. 

I love having a couch against my picture window, makes for a good reading space.

Unless the plan changes, we aren’t. We have a ceiling fan in the living room but I prefer floor lamps and fewer electrical outlets as it is. I’d love to wean my family off electrical devices lol.

[KatieJ]

You are planning to leave the sectional, and tv. I would look  for a small table to put in front of the window, with a small lamp, small plant..and a comfy chair, rocker next to it. I love your window! 

[Halftime Hope]

I'm with the others on making a plan to change the furniture, over time, to suit the space better.  (I've had to fight a couch that was wrong for the space; I should have made the change much sooner.)

If you think it would improve anything, perhaps hubby could frame in the half-walls, or perhaps re-position the doorway into the kitchen and dining areas?

It doesn't look like you can frame in the window with symmetrical built-ins, due to the left side of a symmetrical unit blocking the door, even if you wanted to move the TV. If the TV has to stay where it is, is it possible to get a better hanging unit that is flush to the wall or that is adjustable to it's flush until someone is watching it?

I like the idea of a divider to your right when coming in the front door. That could wrap around (same materials, same style) into a bench seat under the window. Or have a bench seat, plus two comfy stuffed chairs paired in front of the window, so it formed a three-sided conversation unit.

Good luck!

(Your house is a bit like my parents cottage style home with 1400sf.  Built in 1965, their layout was a marvel! I've thought about replicating it for our age-in-place needs.)

 

 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

By half wall I mean it only comes halfway into the room, and then opens for entry into the next room. Any framing into create a room with three walls, which to me is easier to organize, would result in a weirder layout to get to the kitchen.

I don’t mind the sectional where it is. Only my husband watches TV and he likes to lie on that side. I just want to utilize the space on the other side of the room better.

[almondbutterandjelly]

I would put shelves between the front door and the picture window.  I would put a table and chairs in front of the window, for puzzles and board games.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

6 minutes ago, almondbutterandjelly said:

I would put shelves between the front door and the picture window.  I would put a table and chairs in front of the window, for puzzles and board games.

Ooh, I have not thought of shelves. Floating shelves might be great there.

I am leaning toward the table and chairs. We like to play board games and the living room has the best lighting.

[BusyMom5]

Our first house was very similar, but had 2 giant windows- one to the front, like yours, and one to the side where your dining room is.   There were not a lot of options, but we didn't have a sectional,  we had a smaller sofa and 2 chairs.  I had one chair with a side table over by the entry way, but facing the sofa,  sort of in front of the corner of the window.   It sort of made our room more of entry way, then living room.  I think you need something similar on that side to even out the TV and frame your room.  I would get a wing back style chair with a small end table with a lamp- put them at the right corner of your window, sort of catty-corner.  End table would be best round, so you can just push it in there and not worry with square corners. 

Another possibility is a drop-leaf table in front of the window, but I always liked that area to be clear and open.