Q: As our children have grown up, we have recently moved from a large old house to a much smaller open house
The living room, dining room, kitchen and family room are all included in the concept lift bungalow.
We have lived in our previous home for more than 30 years and have accumulated many things, most of which have recently been presented or sold.
But we found that the rooms in the past were very large and the new space seemed very crowded.
The biggest problem for us is the family room, which seems to have become a warehouse for anything that can\'t find home anywhere else.
Although this is the room we seem to use the most, it looks terrible.
We really don\'t want to give up more furniture and buy too much new furniture unless absolutely necessary.
We really want to make our family room more comfortable in reading, talking and watching TV occasionally.
Can you suggest a more comfortable, less crowded furniture arrangement?
A: Like hundreds of people every year, you join the ranks of empty nesters and face the problem of layoffs.
Typically, this means moving from a large space to a new home that doesn\'t have the same size or flexibility as an old house.
In analyzing the space you moved in and the furniture you wanted to use, I immediately realized that there was too much furniture.
It\'s not surprising that you find a fairly large room crowded.
When designing for your situation, the first thing I see is the various modes of transportation through the room.
This helps me determine the amount of real space available for use.
In your family room, there are two main traffic routes that must be respected and several minor ones.
The first is the pattern between the kitchen and the entrance.
This is relatively easy to handle because it actually divides a large area into two parts
Smaller dining room and larger living room.
The second mode of transportation is from the bedroom to the kitchen, from the bedroom to the front entrance.
Unless restricted, these occupy the entire central part of the living room.
As you can see from my plan, I have combined the two traffic routes into a clear route that leads directly from the bedroom to the front door, or the arch around the sofa and kitchen.
Now your living room can comfortably accommodate a sofa, a love seat and two wing-back chairs.
I try not to place any other furniture in the space other than the occasional table, which now provides comfortable seating for 7 people.
Open-question
Concept planning is to let us decide where the \"wall\" should be.
The way to create these walls is to place the furniture carefully to redirect the walking traffic so that it does not interfere with the seating plan or interfere with the basic functions of the room.
From the perspective of space planning, each area should be different.
The furniture should be close enough in your family room so that everyone sitting together can talk comfortably.
Seats should also be very close to the TV and there should be no traffic on the road in front of the TV.
To avoid trouble-
Podge look, which currently occupies your space, has no walls for furniture, and most of the seats need to be anchored.
A rug in the area will give you space.
While ideally the area carpet on hardwood floors looks the best, it can also be used effectively on the wallto-wall carpeting.
Since the entire space flows from one area to the next, each space-
Living room, family room and dining room-
There is a common theme throughout.
The way to do this is to have at least one or two common elements, such as the common color of the wall, the common wood tone throughout the process.
Or a palette that flows evenly from room to room.
David Ferguson is a regular contributor to radio CBC Ontario today.
Written to David in Ferguson @ creativespaceonline.
