Awkward Layout Solved

I've been enjoying the all the Fall decor out there in blogland. It's pretty awesome. But can I confess something? I see all that pretty and I feel, well I mean, I know I shouldn't compare my house with others, but it's hard sometimes not to think, "oh, mine doesn't look as nice". Especially right now as this place is still a work in progress. But you know what? It doesn't have to be fancy or look like other places. I truly love this little house. Quirks and all.  We're making it ours and that's what matters. So, I'm really ok.  :o) Let's get on with it!

Our farmhouse is a cozy 1250 sq. ft. house. Not tiny but smaller than what we have in the city. I don't mind...I'm ready at this stage in life to downsize.

It was pure country when we found it. Brown paneling, brown cabinets, brown floor...lots of brown. Yay for paint!

In the living room, the fireplace sits on a diagonal at one end, creating this awkward layout with this really high shelf for the mantel.

 And the room is about 14 ft. wide, with the front door opening directly into the living room.

What's the focal point? How do you arrange furniture so that it makes sense? How do you create a sense of an entryway? (What do you do with that shelf?) Where should the sofa go?

All are issues to figure out!

I definitely didn't want the sofa on the lefthand wall close to the front door - it would be smack in the traffic pattern!

Of course, we started with the couch on the  righthand wall (why do we do that?) but it really didn't make the room feel cozy. Plus, it left us with putting a tv where everyone would walk in front of it. Bad.

sofa facing the lefthand wall

So next, I tried pushing the couch in front of the windows and placing the chairs in front of the fireplace. Better, but the fireplace still felt like an after thought and it felt cramped! And now my view out the window was blocked by the couch. Again, bad.

That chair by the fireplace and wall felt crammed in there. The other one didn't really work in its spot.

Oh dear! I needed fresh eyes on the space. So last week when my friend Mira came up to go to Canton, we spent that afternoon editing, cleaning, and rearranging both the living room and the dining room.

We tried things here. We tried things there. We made a mess. Then at last, success! The dog kennel was the main obstacle in the placement of a chair so it got moved by the back door (hopefully in the future, it will be in a completely different room but this is reality for now).  Of course, that started a chain reaction of moving things in the dining room. ha!

Back to the living room: The couch got moved from in front of the window to facing the righthand wall, creating a walkway from the front door to the dining room and hallway. Now when you walk in the front door, there's a definite pathway and it feels like an entryway.

I need a rug! Plus I think the ladder and throw need to be moved.

Wow. It's amazing how big the room feels! The furniture makes sense and the tv is not in the traffic pattern. And the biggie -  the fireplace now feels like a part of the room!

When I sit in the chair by the fireplace, I can see out the window on my pretty view!

And the tv is easy to see from both the couch and chairs! Yippee!

The table that used to be by the front door got repurposed for the tv stand:

 While the old chippy toolbox now holds all our movies (Instead of sitting empty most of the time):

They fit perfectly!
Of course, we had to decorate for Fall:

Sunflowers:

 Fall sign and pretty faux foliage:

And the book page decoupaged pumpkin along with other Fall decor:

A big thank you, Mira, for helping me figure this out! Sometimes you just need a friend who's willing to help you see things differently and then help you move things around until it's just right.

Someday it will undergo another transformation (when we move here and bring our permanent furniture). But for now this works and gives me a blueprint for the future.

My takeaway from this? Keep moving things around until it works. Don't be afraid to try out different layouts or to completely remove some items. And if that's not enough, bring a friend up who can see things with fresh eyes. Sooner or later, something will click.

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