My home renovation is shaping up at Timeless Acres Farm. So today I wanted to talk about some of the changes in my living room and furniture layout ideas for a center fireplace.
First, an update on our renovation progress
When I first saw our new house, what bothered me the most was where the dining room was located. Basically when you walked into the front door this is what you saw (below).
And now? The floor tile in this entryway has been removed and the engineered hardwood floor re-sanded and restained. I’ve added moulding to both sides of the beams and they have been painted the trim colour as well.
Oh, and that ceiling is now blue. Did you see my latest obsession here?
Anyway, the existing layout makes arranging furniture in the remaining living area, super awkward and unbalanced:
By the way, notice the lack of lamps here. Instead of ‘sticks in a vase’ arranged on the dining room console, those should have been lamps. And, the same with the other side of the room where the television is located (above). Every living room needs at least 6 lamps.
Anyway, I digress. I ended up moving the dining room. Now it will be located in my sunroom right off the kitchen which then leaves me with the living room of my dreams!
I’ve always loved the idea of having a living room with two or three seating areas!
We just installed 24″ x 24″ Calacatta porcelain tile to replace the existing 12″ x 24″ green grey tile you see in this room above, which also connects to my kitchen backsplash tile.
Living room layout ideas with a fireplace in the middle
Now that the dining room has been moved, the furniture arrangement in the living room can get a lot more interesting (below). So now, I’m scouring room designs with a centered fireplace.
Another option would be to install millwork but that’s a lot of cabinets and bookcases. And, I have the same size room upstairs that I can allocate to bookshelves.
I love this room and the coral tones too, which I plan to add to my living room colour palette this time around since I made the decision to move the lavender decor and art in my current living room over to our primary bedroom.
Our downstairs living room will not have a television. Anyone else out there have a living room without a TV?
A design plan is so important for furniture arrangement. Because once you have a plan in place you can confidently buy furniture in the right size and the right shape. Learn how to shop online for your decor here.
Here’s another large room with the fireplace in the centre. Notice again, there’s a sofa against the wall beside the fireplace:
I also like this arrangement on the right side of the fireplace.
This room above reminds me of the french doors in my living room:
Lots more updates coming to the blog once everything starts coming together!
This Thursday on Instagram live at 11:00 am PST Jan Romanuk and I will be talking about moulding (don’t worry I will be adding the video to my youtube channel as well for those of you not on that platform).
Anyway, we are adding panelling to this entire wall above the stairs (below) the openings from the entertainment room upstairs that you see here have already been drywalled over (and so they should, why disturb everyone who is downstairs with whatever is happening on TV upstairs?).
The panelling will be similar to what was already installed below the stairs and when you look at both walls, it makes no sense that they didn’t keep going with it on the upper wall and all we have is the strip of moulding that covers the expansion join on the second floor.
And we’ve already removed the grid moulding around the fireplace (you can see on the right above) because it didn’t relate to any other moulding on this floor.
Anyway, when the finishing carpenters were installing the panelling Jan sent me a photo.
And I freaked out!
I called her and said “I think I hate that Jan, that’s look wrong, hold on I’m driving over now”
But I don’t know anything about moulding, I just know if I like it when it’s done. So after she showed me what she did and we talked about what the only other alternative was, I realized something:
She was right, and I was right to trust her to begin with because this is her area of expertise. We can’t be experts at everything!
Stay tuned for that conversation on my Instagram live on Thursday!
And again, I will post it on youtube as well. The other two lives we’ve done are already posted, you can see them here.
Things are getting exciting, the only thing I’m missing out on is Christmas decorating, we will be moving in right before Christmas!
Our Spring dates for my virtual Specify Colour with Confidence workshops are up! Become a True Colour Expert, register here.
Related posts:
Our Next Chapter, We’re Moving!
Maria, I am thoroughly enjoying watching your reno, thank you for sharing it all!
Me, I have a living room with no TV (or fireplace), quite intentionally! In our whole-house remodel, my architect had originally designed the living room replacing a built-in bookcase with a gas fireplace insert + TV over the mantel (way too high, of course). It would be opposite the bank of windows that overlooks our backyard with a lovely wooded view, and the seating would have to be arranged to face the fireplace, with your backs to the great view. That made no sense to me, especially since we don’t really use either a fireplace or a TV. We brought our old TV and put it in the basement family room, but we haven’t even plugged it in during the first six months of living here.
NO T.V. in my living room. I wanted that to be an area for thoughtfuk CONVERSATION. Many problems of the world have been solved in that living room LOL 😆!
I don’t have a TV, either. Your photos of a sofa on the wall by a fireplace has given me ideas for new layouts to try. Thank you!! And I’m looking forward to your Instagram live!
Thanks for the update Maria!
Agree – no TV ever in living room. I do think you should be careful with multiple seating areas in a big room that it doesn’t end of looking like a hotel lobby. I feel like some of the rooms shown have a check in desk hiding somewhere!
Agree – no TV ever in living room. I do think you should be careful with multiple seating areas in a big room that it doesn’t end of looking like a hotel lobby. I feel like some of the rooms shown have a check in desk hiding somewhere!
I would love to not have a TV in my living room. Or recliners! I am choosing my battles. You definitely have more than one focal point with the fireplace and the great wall of French doors plus the gorgeous kitchen! I can’t wait to see what you do with this house!
No TV in the living room. It’s a space for relaxing, reading, and conversation.
After our daughter moved out of our small house (and after we expanded and turned our tiny den into a new living room), we turned her bedroom into a den and put the TV in there. In a larger house, the family room would be the logical place for the TV.
I actually like the idea of watching TV in a smaller cozy room.
Thank you for sharing with us your decision making process.
You are refining a lovely home. All of these details you are changing are going to be fabulous to see.
To me, those living room examples feel chaotic.
I’m excited to see what you do with everything!!!
I don’t have a TV in my living room either! I have one in my sitting room instead, which was meant to be another bedroom. I don’t watch it everyday. The furniture layout in my living room was more important to me.
Is your living room deep enough for two facing sofas? I love that symmetrical look, and you can still put a chaise by the fireplace.
If not, I also love facing armchairs by the fireplace like this from the World of Interiors.
https://pin.it/cyTAEdQ
I have one TV in my house in the main living room, but we have an “adult” living room that doesn’t with a record player, games, dry bar. It’s my favorite room in the house.
It’s not but I love that look too! xoxo
Thanks for the link to your youtube channel -I didn’t know that you had one!! I know what I will be doing on this rainy day!!
I absolutely love, love, love the house. Great idea in moving the dining room to the sunroom which will be wonderful. This is your house to decorate how you want it and it sounds like you are enjoying the process as you should be. But I really like the neutral look of the original house. I’m always drawn to neutral environments. I love to decorate seasonally so with my backgrounds being neutral, it is very easy for me to add seasonal color. That way my house has different looks with just adding a few things in seasonal colors like orange in the fall and mostly silver and gold for Christmas. Thanks for all your wonderful ideas. I especially love seeing how you transform the outside of different houses and make them look so much better.
I just love this new home. So many windows and high ceilings! Can’t wait to see each additional design you do with it. So much fun watching and seeing the results. A lot of house to keep clean but beautiful to enjoy!
It’s going to be an amazing house for parties.
Thank you for explaining why you are making the changes you are – it is so valuable to see your process.
Beautiful job so far! No TV in our smaller living room either. It’s right off the front door, perfect for welcoming guests into our home or escaping with a drink, and a good book, private phone calls or just conversation. It’s cosy rather than expansive but we use it and love it.
Our traditional home doesn’t have a family room space on the first floor. Which means we have a TV in our living room – there is way too much sports-watching happening in my house to banish that activity to our third floor game room. It’s not a focal point, though, sits in a corner and the furniture is arranged to enjoy the gas fireplace. Have many friends with formal living rooms at the front of the house, family rooms at the back, and they never go in the living room, so it’s completely dead and wasted space.
Love! Love! I cant wait to see all the new changes! We have a similar wall of doors in our living room. 🙂
No TV in our living room either, so peaceful, relaxing and people focused! And we use our living room! Like daily for quiet time, prayer time, reading, and talking. We just had a neighborhood Christmas Open House and seems we are the only ones who use our living room. I love ours! Partly thanks to you Maria!!!!!!
Love reading about the progress in your new home, all very exciting!
No TV in my LR, as I enjoy the space for quiet reading, listening to music or enjoying the discussions of my guests. I learned this lesson from my mother in the 60’s, and there were 7 in our family. Back in those days, she banished the TV to our den. (If you remember that old term) 😉
Maria – it’s really coming along .
Love the wood of beams and the warmth they bring .
Exciting !
Wow so much moral superiority about not having a TV in the living room lol. Most people have no other place to put it. The solution? Turn it off when you don’t want to hear it.
Amen to that Janice! I have a small, 1200 sq ft quaint stone front cottage built in 1935. I have no other place in my home to put a TV – no great room, family room or den. No spare bedroom to turn into a TV room.
Is there room up there on the pedestal with all the no living room TV folks? Asking because I only have one TV. Yup, that means no TV in the bedroom. The bedroom is sleeping and intimate time.
Sorry meant Janet not Janice! My bad.
I don’t think it’s moral superiority. It’s a personal preference.
Bunny Williams is one of the most revered designers. She believes in having a TV in the living room because she thinks the room will go unused otherwise.
I think everyone is different. I’m extremely sensitive to sound volume. It feels like torture to me if I can’t control sounds. If I live with people, it’s ideal for me not to have a TV in a living room.
Other people just love a TV in the living room and I recognize they have valid reasons and don’t experience the hell I experience.
I had a living room with no TV and loved it
It became the room for conversation or just looking out picture windows watching the world go by. Best design decision I ever made.
It’s so fun to go on this renovation journey with you! Thank you so much for sharing your thought process as well. Your home is lovely even before the changes you’re making, so I know it will be absolutely gorgeous when you’re done! I’m drawn to that Ashley Whittaker room; I love her work. Oh, and no TV in the living room for us :]
This is all so interesting and informative to watch, with the master (mistress?) at work. I have to join the chorus,NO TV IN THE LR!
Maria, the best examples of multiple seating areas in a living room are from designers who decorate stately houses.
I am Okay with a TV in the living room because I live in my living room. It is great to have the game on, munchies out and the bar open – yes we drink red wine and eat in the living room. Even my proper Southern mother had a TV in the formal living room and I watched many Alabama football games there as a child. I do not have a TV in the bedroom – that space is our retreat from the world.
We only have one tv and it is in the family room. Our living room does have a baby grand piano, so it is used for music and reading. I love using my living room!