Defining Space in Combined Living/Dining Room- Decor Help Needed

aecobb

We just got married almost 2 years and we just bought our first house. I have been having the time of my life trying to decorate. We decided to take it room by room, and we decided to take on the bottom floor first. We can't paint the walls just yet because the previous owners painted them with semi-gloss and the drywall is textured. The living room furniture we have is from my husband's bachelor pad, so that's all going.
I just need help figuring out how to handle defining the space in this one room that we want to be a formal living room and formal dining room. The walls are all connected, so it's almost difficult to not paint them all one color because each wall leads into the next room. The light fixtures are all different colors and styles so that's another issue in of itself.
The pictures are of our living room/dining room space. I dislike how once you walk in the house you're immediately in the house.
I just need severe decorating help. I feel like our living room furniture is too large for our space. Any suggestions on how to make such a long room defined and ways we can make upgraded changes would be greatly appreciated.

BlueBirdMB

I can't see the pictures.

musictchr25

aecobb said:

We just got married almost 2 years and we just bought our first house. I have been having the time of my life trying to decorate. We decided to take it room by room, and we decided to take on the bottom floor first. We can't paint the walls just yet because the previous owners painted them with semi-gloss and the drywall is textured. The living room furniture we have is from my husband's bachelor pad, so that's all going. I just need help figuring out how to handle defining the space in this one room that we want to be a formal living room and formal dining room. The walls are all connected, so it's almost difficult to not paint them all one color because each wall leads into the next room. The light fixtures are all different colors and styles so that's another issue in of itself. The pictures are of our living room/dining room space. I dislike how once you walk in the house you're immediately in the house. I just need severe decorating help. I feel like our living room furniture is too large for our space. Any suggestions on how to make such a long room defined and ways we can make upgraded changes would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there. A few things for you. I don't really understand the statement that I bolded above. Why does the fact that the walls are textured and painted with a semi-gloss matter in terms of painting? As long as you use a good coverage primer over the semi-gloss, like Zinsser 1-2-3, you shouldn't have any issues painting over what's currently on the walls. Unless you just left out that you're going to have the walls refinished so that they are no longer textured, in which case, painting now would be silly.

The next thing is that I think you're trying to make the space be too many things. I see in one of your pictures that you have a small dining table (the black set on the left side of the picture) off to the side, which I am assuming opens up to your kitchen. Having a second dining set right next to the smaller one is redundant and not functional. If you get rid of one of the dining sets, it will open your space up so your entire living area spans to all of the space with the hardwood floors. 

I think you should position the couch on the wall opposite that it is currently on, and then place the chair by the front door closer to the sliders, like where the hutch currently is. I'm assuming that your television, if you have one, is currently across from the couch. I would find a low-lying entertainment table to place the television on, and place it against the wall where the couch is in these pictures. Just make sure that it's low enough that you're not blocking the pass through with the top of the television. I also think that when you are buying new furniture, you should keep it so that you end up with a couch and an oversized chair, and that's it for big furniture. You don't want to overcrowd the room, which I think you have actually done now by having the couch and two large chairs. Remember that you can accessorize with an ottoman which can act as extra seating when needed, and even a coffee table that has little stools that are stored underneath it. 

This will really open up your space, and make it easier to walk into the house and make it not feel so cluttered. 

Erikan73

Consider getting an area rug for under your dining room table. As you remodel that floor get light fixtures of the same color family, be it brushed nickel, dark, black, etc. They don't have to be the same but if they are in the same color family and maybe from the same design you can make different looks but match. By different designs I mean that many places like at lowes you can go and see a variety of lights from the same designer but because it's the same designer they all match.

Also getting a color coordinating area rug for the living room could then help pull the living room pieces together but seperate it from the dining room area

I agree with other pp that if you do in fact have a table in the kitchen and then one in the dining room I would consider getting rid of the one in the kitchen area. If you want something for extra counter space, maybe get a rolling island that you can push off to the side when you don't need it and pull it out when you are working on something big.