Inspiration
Antique double doors lead from the children’s living room to the master bedroom. They fit almost perfectly into the original space. Any irregularities were corrected with a new door frame. Its brick-red colour also helps the doors to stand out against the walls. The wooden railing was painted in the same shade.All of the doors on this floor were modelled on this antique pair. They were also painted white and aged by a restorer.
Since the ceiling is about 15ft (4.5m) at its highest point, Zhdanova and her team created a mezzanine. It can be accessed by a light metal ladder, also made in a local workshop. The kids are old enough to comfortably and safely climb upstairs.This room is fitted with skylights. Both they and their roller blinds can be opened at the push of a button.
The seat: A humongous armchairWhy it’s a contender: It’s brilliantly space-savingYour living room seating doesn’t have to take up an enormous footprint. If comfort is your priority, then an oversized armchair could be just what you need instead – especially if space is tight or you live alone. While sleek, flat-cushioned corner sofas often lack the snuggle factor, a cosy upholstered seat like this was made for retreating to, blanket over your knees, at the end of a long day.
Could one of these be a better seating option than the L-shaped sofa?The seat: A super-deep sofaWhy it’s a contender: Has all the comfort with added flexibilityCorner sofa designs often feature lovely deep seats, but their L-shape can be restrictive – having to commit to either a left- or right-hand corner can limit future room layouts. By contrast, a simple, deep-seated sofa offers the same glorious benefits of being able to stretch out – but you can easily move it around in the future if you want to mix things up. The sofa here looks modern and stylish without being too chunky. It also offers the opportunity to add a second, complementary sofa, if you wish.See more of this gorgeous 1990s home transformed with a Scandi-style makeover
Many budget finds also stand out. “I found the trolley that’s next to the sofa out on the street,” Lidén says. “Otherwise, there are things throughout my home that I found at the flea market or bought while travelling, and I painted many of the paintings myself, too. It really is a mixed bag, and I didn’t buy much new.”Follow this expert advice on how not to kill your houseplants
The apartment’s rooms are large and pentagonal, which can make it very difficult to furnish. “I’ve found furniture for the space and have redecorated a lot over time,” Lidén says. “Actually, nothing in the whole apartment is the ultimate perfect fit.” She designed much of the furniture herself, including the coffee table in the living room.
“Exactly where I live is a bit of a blind spot in Söder. It’s a lush oasis – you wouldn’t stumble across it on the way to somewhere else,” Lidén explains. The houses in the area are from the early 1900s through to the 1930s,” She made the lamp in the window herself out of an Ikea lamp, a piece of marble and some scrap brass, all of which balance on one another.
The back door of the cottage is at the opposite end of the living room to the fireplace, and opens to a pretty view. The home is located amid fields, with an estuary view from one side.An old apothecary’s chest creates interesting detail alongside one of the room’s inviting leather chairs. The flooring is timber, and a seagrass rug extends under all the seating. “I like to work with different textures,” says Lichtig.How to choose the right rug for your space
The owner wanted the upper kitchen cabinets to merge seamlessly with the living room. Melin suggested using Ikea cabinets for a cascading TV stand and storage space. The neat finishes are made of birch plywood.The new lighting is particularly noticeable in the living room. “Lighting always has a great impact on the atmosphere and general comfort, and I like to pay particular attention to it,” Melin says. “As we had soundproofed the ceiling, I didn’t want to make new holes for spotlights. We hung a single pendant light above the breakfast bar and elsewhere installed wall lights and LED strips.”10 things Houzz designers have taught us about living rooms
Despite being downsized, the living room still measures about 170 sq ft (16 sqm), so Melin decided to include two sofas, so friends could be entertained in comfort. To optimise storage space, a custom-made, birch plywood cabinet surrounds the glass wall of the sleeping area.What do you think of this studio transformation? Share your thoughts in the Comments section.
Melin tackled this problem by padding the walls and ceiling with about 4.5cm of Rockwool and two soundproofing plates – from French company Placo – one on top of the other. She also laid oak flooring on a 5mm cork underlay.“It’s impressively effective. The owner doesn’t hear noise from other parts of the building anymore,” Melin says. “On the other hand, a lot of work went into it: we had to cover the whole apartment with two layers of plasterboard sheets and carry each of them up the stairs because the lift was too small. Two out of the 10 weeks of the renovation were devoted to insulation-related work.”In addition, double-glazed, soundproof windows were put in to block noise from the street.
6. Animals in designAnimals are anything but a new trend in Danish design. There are old porcelain dinner sets decorated with seagulls and fish, Arne Jacobsen’s Ant chair (pictured above), manufactured by Fritz Hansen, the Quack jug by Maria Berntsen for Georg Jensen (in the following picture), the Pelican chair by Finn Juhl – not to mention the wooden monkeys and numerous other animals by Kay Bojesen (in the last photo).
Connect open-plan areasTo give a busy, open-plan room cohesion, the trick is to define the different areas while creating a visual connection. You can do this with colour and pattern in a rug. Here, the edge of the rug separates the living space from the kitchen area. At the same time, the black and white design picks up on the colour scheme in the kitchen to conjure up a neat visual link.
Dear Kate:What colour ‘white’ paint would you suggest I use on my woodwork as we have old uPVC window frames that are definitely not sparkling white. Last time I used Pointing from Farrow & Ball, but this looks too creamy against the windows. I want the woodwork bright and clean looking without making the frames look dingy. Hope you can help.333jlh
Break up pattern with shelvesTemper bold patterned wallpaper by using it behind open shelving, as these homeowners have done. The glimpses of print and colour peeking through the books give this space an interesting feel. This print is strong, but the colour palette in grey and warm yellow is nicely muted, so it doesn’t fight against the books and shelves. This is a great idea for an office area, as the graphic print wallpaper livens up the view from the desk.
Expose a brick wallConsider using the original structure of your home to add pattern by showcasing a wall of exposed brick, stone or plaster. A surface left in its original state will add texture and another dimension to a room. An entire wall may feel too daunting for some, so you could consider stripping back a chimney breast instead. As a rule, the older your property, the more attractive any raw surfaces will be. There are a number of benefits to leaving a wall in its natural state: if sealed well, it should be easy to clean; it won’t need touching up with paint, and it will conceal stains well.You decide: is this the new exposed brick?
The ‘chill corner’ features a sofa for reading and relaxing. It was, once again, made by Torchi, who loves DIY. It’s a simple piece topped with large cushions, which were handmade in Matera with fabric from Morocco. There are metal lamps, also from Morocco, on the wall. Guida has added a variety of heart- and angel-shaped items throughout the house. In this room, there’s a rare piece of furniture that suits the theme: the Angelo Necessario (Necessary Angel) bookcase by Paolo Pallucco and Mireille Rivier.
The large living room is organised into three zones. In the first, there’s a big, minimalist fireplace, which Guida uses often in winter. Along the wall is a shelf consisting of a grey-white stone lying atop bricks made of tuff (a rock formed of volcanic ash). “This stone was the best deal I got when furnishing the house,” Guida says. “It comes from India, and I got it for free. I went to Gorgoglione, a little village in the Basilicata region [where Matera is also located] that is famous for stone caves, though most of the stone there has been coming from India in the past few years. The people who gave me this stone were about to throw it away, since they thought the fossils visible on the surface were a defect. It was a great deal, and I also really like it.”
Under the window next to the fireplace, a cosy window seat delivers more ‘farmhouse feel’ in a buffalo check fabric. The navy and blue tones in this room travel to other areas of the house to create a cohesive colour palette, while the larger print gives an extra layer of scale and contrast to other patterns in the living room.Rug, West Elm. Ottomans; lamp, all One Kings Lane. Coffee table, Gabby Home. Sound bar, Sonos. Sconces, Visual Comfort.
To match the exterior’s quintessential farmhouse look, Montgomery chose old-looking materials inside. The flooring in the open-plan living room and kitchen-diner is new, pre-finished, wide-plank hardwood, while timber accents pop up elsewhere, from the mantel to the kitchen extractor hood and open shelving – all done in the same stain. White, tumbled, handmade bricks on the fireplace help the home give a nod to years past. “It really looks like an old farmhouse, like it’s been here a long time,” Montgomery says. Flooring, Hallmark Floors. Sofa, Four Hands. Leather chairs, West Elm.
Lesson 2: How to avoid looking squareHere’s a top tip for keeping a look relaxed from designer Kia Stanford’s work on this apartment in a converted Beaux Arts building. “When you have a room that’s so very square, adding more square furniture can take away from the relaxed feel, but these rugs keep it informal,” she says. She combined a runner (left by the previous owner), a new cream rug, and her client’s cowhide to disrupt the geometry. Another contrast to the square room is the restored parquet flooring, with its eye-catching pattern – albeit one that’s geometric. Its lines are complemented by the legs of the butterfly chair and side table, harmonising original features and furniture. Check out more of this Edwardian flat
Create a cocktail bar…Keep things casual with a drinks station. Your guests can help themselves to what they want, which gives you more time to mingle. And if you’re too busy pre-party to search on eBay or at your local flea market for a drinks trolley like this one, a desk or console that you already have could also play the part.
Protect light-coloured upholsteryDo you have a white rug and sofa? It might seem overly cautious, but it could be worth rolling up that rug and storing it in a cupboard on the big night, and treating your pristine sofas to a throw or two for protection. A new throw can be an opportunity to introduce a cool print to your scheme. If you don’t want to spend a fortune on an expensive one, head to a fabric store and pick up a washable design in a standout pattern to tuck into your sofa.
Clear the decksNot only do you need clear surfaces for guests to put down their drinks, a cluttered room is unstylish. And you don’t want any precious items getting knocked over when the dancing starts (more on that later). Don’t clear everything away, though – it’s a good idea to keep one or two decorative objects out, otherwise your space could start to look like a minimalist cube. Just swap your best pieces for some under-a-fiver ceramic vases or decorative bowls, which can be picked up at most homes stores.Time is tight when you’re prepping for a party, so instead of spending hours going through paperwork and the bits and bobs that are littering your space, opt for the ‘box method’. That’s when, in one fell swoop, you put all that nagging clutter in a box (or two, or three…).
…and sub-zonesYou can also zone within smaller areas. Zone bookshelves, for example, by having business books at the top, cookery books in the middle and kids’ books down low.Kitchen cabinets can be zoned, too, with pantry essentials near the fridge, pots and pans beside the cooker and large serving dishes or tableware that isn’t used very often slightly further out of reach in upper sections.
Start at the bottomOptimum organisation comes from keeping flat surfaces clear. And your largest flat surface? Your floor. Clearing clutter from the floor, or even from a section of it, will give you such relief. Until it’s gone, you probably won’t realise the impact it’s been having on you subconsciously.Too much furniture can be a real obstacle to the organisation of a room. Sometimes, removing just one piece can be all it takes to create breathing space, and to give you the physical room to manoeuvre. This, of course, will also make it easier to get organised.Rugs, tiles and wood flooring can be used to your organisational advantage, since they create a subtle divide between spaces; this can help to keep the functions of a room separated and, by extension, organised. It’s particularly useful in open-plan areas. You can see how the idea works in this space, where the kitchen-diner and living area are marked out by their different floor surfaces.Check out these life-enhancing resolutions for your most organised year yet
Have a place for everythingEvery shelf, cabinet, wardrobe and even container needs to get its own organising job to do. If you’re not specific with what every bit of space –storage or otherwise – does for you, then family members are more likely to dump whatever they like wherever they like.For instance, if you have shelves that are half full of books, then you get the scenario where random bits and pieces, such as empty sunglasses cases, batteries, papers and so on, are thrown there for no other reason than the fact there was available space. This is how clutter builds up. However, if you fill those shelves with the books and DVDs you want, then they have a clear job to do and the books and DVDs get a clear home. It dissuades anyone from leaving other items on the shelves.
How do you think we’ll be living in 10 years? Share your predictions in the Comments section.
Your home will also be able to distinguish between the different people entering it and create environments to suit them as well. While the influence of technology in our lives will increase, its presence will be more seamlessly integrated. Wi-Fi, for example, has already begun to be integrated into the walls of new buildings, providing perfect connectivity anywhere in the home.
The living room and adjacent dining room were originally two totally separate spaces, but Lavers opened up the wall to create more living space and improve the flow.“Our clients really enjoy hosting, and having the two spaces joined encourages guests to move easily from the living room to the dining area and vice versa,” she explains.
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