New This Week: Airy Modern Living Rooms That Seat 7
These seating options can handle a crowd without overcrowding the space
Those oversize living room furniture sets may look comfortable in a showroom or big-box store, but bring them home and you may find that they overstuff a room instead. These three modern living rooms show how mixing up options like low-slung benches, midcentury-style recliners, right-size sofas and streamlined chairs can boost your seating capacity without crowding.
2. Bright and Bold
Designer: Mary Anne Smiley of Mary Anne Smiley Interiors
Location: Dallas
Size: 238 square feet (22.1 square meters); 14 by 17 feet
Seating for seven: Small sofa, two Flight recliners, two Barcelona chairs, ottoman-coffee table
Homeowners’ requests: Comfortable seating for six to eight people; openness to kitchen and dining area; fireplace and TV focal points; properly scaled furniture
Special features: Abundant white paint, colored glass and shiny chrome accents reflect light for a feeling of spaciousness. The furniture, including bright blue leather Flight recliners and a cut-velvet ottoman-coffee table, has a clean, uncluttered look. A 2-inch wood slab mantel supports a resin painting and becomes a TV niche. It tops a white Thassos marble tile fireplace surround.
Splurges and savings: The homeowners saved by using antiques they already owned and inexpensive light fixtures. They splurged on a new sofa and white leather Barcelona chairs.
Also on the team: Parma Design (architect and contractor)
Sofa, pillows, ottoman and rug: custom; Barcelona chairs and floor lamp: Design Within Reach; painting: commissioned, Carolyn Joe
Designer: Mary Anne Smiley of Mary Anne Smiley Interiors
Location: Dallas
Size: 238 square feet (22.1 square meters); 14 by 17 feet
Seating for seven: Small sofa, two Flight recliners, two Barcelona chairs, ottoman-coffee table
Homeowners’ requests: Comfortable seating for six to eight people; openness to kitchen and dining area; fireplace and TV focal points; properly scaled furniture
Special features: Abundant white paint, colored glass and shiny chrome accents reflect light for a feeling of spaciousness. The furniture, including bright blue leather Flight recliners and a cut-velvet ottoman-coffee table, has a clean, uncluttered look. A 2-inch wood slab mantel supports a resin painting and becomes a TV niche. It tops a white Thassos marble tile fireplace surround.
Splurges and savings: The homeowners saved by using antiques they already owned and inexpensive light fixtures. They splurged on a new sofa and white leather Barcelona chairs.
Also on the team: Parma Design (architect and contractor)
Sofa, pillows, ottoman and rug: custom; Barcelona chairs and floor lamp: Design Within Reach; painting: commissioned, Carolyn Joe
3. Warm and Wonderful
Architect: Chuck Sullivan of sullivan + associates architects
Location: Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
Size: 406 square feet (38.7 square meters); 14 by 29 feet
Seating for seven: Two chairs, sofa, love seat
Homeowners’ requests: Maximize square footage; make every inch functional
Special features: Space-saving armless love seat; watery blue accents; interior wood walls and ceiling that give casual feeling of living on a boat; curtain-wall door opening to new screened porch; dining area with custom bench
“Uh-oh” moment: During construction, it became clear that the existing roof frame wouldn’t support a new dormer. The design team added wooden trusses for additional support, to help visually break up the large expanse of ceiling, and to give the room scale and dimension.
Also on the team: Mary Rentschler, Rentschler & Company Interiors (interior designer); Harold Chapdelaine, Stonebridge Building & Design (contractor); Dan Cutrona (photographer)
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Architect: Chuck Sullivan of sullivan + associates architects
Location: Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
Size: 406 square feet (38.7 square meters); 14 by 29 feet
Seating for seven: Two chairs, sofa, love seat
Homeowners’ requests: Maximize square footage; make every inch functional
Special features: Space-saving armless love seat; watery blue accents; interior wood walls and ceiling that give casual feeling of living on a boat; curtain-wall door opening to new screened porch; dining area with custom bench
“Uh-oh” moment: During construction, it became clear that the existing roof frame wouldn’t support a new dormer. The design team added wooden trusses for additional support, to help visually break up the large expanse of ceiling, and to give the room scale and dimension.
Also on the team: Mary Rentschler, Rentschler & Company Interiors (interior designer); Harold Chapdelaine, Stonebridge Building & Design (contractor); Dan Cutrona (photographer)
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More
How to Make Your Living Room More Inviting
Things You Need to Know About Buying a Sofa
Designer: Kara Smith and Jamie Hallows of Smith Firestone Associates
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Size: 414 square feet (38.5 square meters); 18 by 23 feet
Seating for seven: Bench, sofa and two chairs
Homeowners’ requests: Turn traditional Mediterranean home into modern beach house; replace cast-stone fireplace surround with simple but stunning marble face and mantel
Special features: French doors with ocean views; marble fireplace surround and mantel; sheer curtains
Why the design works: The clean and sophisticated design retains a casual, beachy feel, while sheer curtains diffuse soft, natural light.
Designer secret: Chunky furniture in a smaller scale creates a visual statement in the relatively narrow room.
Also on the team: EPM (contractor)
Bench and chairs: Marcali Designs; chair fabric: Janet Yonaty; chair pillows: Upstairs at Pierre Lafond; side tables: Palecek; rug: Stark; coffee table: Reagan Hayes; table vase: Mira Mara; chain on table: The Future Perfect; leaf dish on table: Cabana Home; throw blanket: Anthropologie; sofa: Dmitriy & Co.; sofa fabric: Coraggio; fireplace candlesticks: Lawson-Fenning; window treatments: Coraggio fabric, Santa Cruz Designs
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