We felt that our client’s unused formal living room was more of an opportunity than a problem. The room had become a storage location for any furniture that they did not currently have a plan to use since they lived primarily in their family room. On touring the home, I noticed that they were currently using the sitting room off the master bedroom as their home office and their 4 teenage kids took up most of the kitchen and dining room table space. From there an idea was born.
As a rule, I am not an advocate of combining your work and sleep spaces. You need to detach from work at some point in your day and if you are going to sleep and waking up to it, that can never happen. Also, who needs to fight to find an eating area amongst piles of kid’s notebooks and projects? I proposed that we take all that activity and use their formal living room for it. The clients loved the idea!
We began by adding French doors to the entry of the room to cut down on noise from the adjacent foyer. Then we changed the windows facing the back of the home to exterior French doors and added a patio lounge area extending the livability of the space. We used a couple of pieces they already owned like a desk and bookshelves, but everything else was selected or made custom for their new study.
For the layout, we positioned the parent’s desks at the far end of the room for the most privacy during calls and virtual meetings. A long table was then added in the center of the room for the kids to spread out with larger projects. We tried to think of everything including a new floor outlet under the table with access coming through the custom area rug for the kids to charge their phones and laptops. At the other end of the room sits 2 lounge chairs with ottomans for reading and relaxing.
Aesthetically, the clients wanted an old-world study look with warm tones and a traditional details which we delivered from the luxurious wool area rug pattern to the custom window treatments as well as the furniture pieces and accessories. A once never-used room is now one of the most loved pieces of real estate in this home.
Photo credit goes to Paul S Bartholomew Photography
