the living room. oh, the living room. i have this issue with living rooms. i want every room in my house to be one.
i grew up in a home where there was a family room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. and the living room did not have much living done in it. it had the most uncomfortable sofas, the least amount of 'fun things' (in the eyes of a child), and was furthest from the kitchen. not ideal. i always promised myself that every room of my apartment or house would be fully lived in... and so a living room would be a gathering space.
a capture of books, comfortable things like blankets and pillows, and a museum of art and other loved things, a living room should be a centre point. and that's how i would organize mine to be.
shelving... the cornerstone of a living room. to avoid having 'things' all over, shelving provides spaces and galleries for goodies. making them somehow neat and organized (even if you've just thrown them on a shelf). even if art is temporarily stuck on the wall, in patterns with other recent finds... it all means something (AND gets it off the counter). next time, i'm building my own shelving... that perfectly suits my space, and me.
i grew up in a home where there was a family room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a living room. and the living room did not have much living done in it. it had the most uncomfortable sofas, the least amount of 'fun things' (in the eyes of a child), and was furthest from the kitchen. not ideal. i always promised myself that every room of my apartment or house would be fully lived in... and so a living room would be a gathering space.
a capture of books, comfortable things like blankets and pillows, and a museum of art and other loved things, a living room should be a centre point. and that's how i would organize mine to be.
keeping the mess to a minimum, in a room that's truly 'lived' in? that's the hard part.
mismatchy, filled with books, art and memories on the walls, and lots of comfortable things... my perfect living room. throw pillows that can serve as seats. chairs that people aren't afraid to sit in. blankets for cozy movie watching. mirrors and paintings; books and plants. everything about my daily life that can be captured in one place. shouldn't the room named for life, be the one that indicates how you do your living?
really, any way to display things that mean something to me, are perfect. i keep a lot of things - tickets from shows, postcards and letters from friends, and paintings or drawing i'm given. and i'm SO lucky to be surrounded by many many talented people. so i make a point of displaying everything i'm given. in frames, on the fridge, in easels... whatever it needs to be shown to every visitor in my home. bits and pieces pulled together in actual curated collections on the walls and shelves.