I was SO excited to start renovating our home, including opening up our enclosed, large living room, measuring roughly 19 x 25 ft. I had so many ideas about furnishing this room! With such a big size, I knew having a larger space would present challenges too.
It’s been a year since we completed the reno, and our living room is still coming together. Good design naturally evolves and develops over time! So today, instead of looking forward, I am sharing the progress we’ve made in the living room.
Table of Contents
Progress On A Large Living Room
We refinished floors, arched doorframes, replaced lighting, fireplace surround and built-ins, knocked down a wall, added box molding and paint.
Paint Color
Initially we tried BM Simply White, but it’s a dark room and the walls looked so yellow! We repainted in SW Pure White, a much cleaner white. The yellow is gone! However, Pure White is highly reflective white paint. With all the leaves outside, it gives off pale green during some parts of the day. I had to give myself permission to worry about that later…
So I will likely repaint (HUGE SIGH), just not yet!
Wondering where I bought something? Some sources are linked throughout this post, and everything is linked at the bottom of the post!
Living Room Layout
Those cute cube are from Target; they’re great with the kids! See them here
While a large living room can be ideal, it can leave awkward spaces, and furniture dilemmas! I initially bought two identical sofas with the intention to place the sofas back to back, splitting the room in half creating two sitting areas.
It was quickly obvious that two small seating areas (instead of one large gathering space) wasn’t making sense for daily life. Our 4 kids have the basement den for their hang out spot, but this is where we all gather daily. The living room room needs to work for our family of 6 when we are all together
You can see the layout best from this angle.
We brought the furniture out from the walls and made one large sitting area here; a good idea in large living rooms. In a large living space, make sure your sofas float, with space between them and the wall. But speaking of walls…
Knocking Down The Wall
We can hardly believe the before photos now!
A load bearing wall cannot be removed without installing alternate support systems. Original plans of your home can guide you! We unfortunately didn’t have the architectural drawings of our 2005 house to confirm.
After hiring a structural engineer, that wall came down, as well as everything inside it – electrical wires, plumbing, etc. A steel beam went up in its place. Open concept wasn’t my goal; just combining my living room and kitchen! As an added bonus, our dark kitchen gets so much more light now!
See our kitchen renovation reveal here – we are thrilled!
What’s The Furniture?
We chose the Cutler Sofas in performance fabric “Chalk”, because it’s made in the USA and has a solid hardwood frame. Yes it cost a small fortune. The fabric has been great. We will have it professionally cleaned once a year to keep it looking its best. My initial thoughts and a Cutler Sofa Review are here.
The Miramar (in performance fabric “Fog”) is less of a lounge chair but comfortable; the best looking chair in our house! You can read my Miramar Chair Review here. I threw my favorite Sferra blanket from Amazon over it.
We recently added the Mattituck chairs to bring in some warmth and tie in rattan. Of course they’re beautiful, but I was surprised to find them (actually) comfortable to watch TV in. They sit back deep and the cushion zips off to clean.
Love rattan? I rounded up 13 Rattan Chairs for your living room here!
Large Living Room Rug: Choosing the Right One
We added a 12×18 rug from Pottery Barn in “Steel Blue”, and centered it in the room. For a rug this size, it’s actually not a bad price! It’s cleans up, doesn’t shed, thick and soft underfoot. Many rugs in outdoor materials are thin with a hard texture. This rug is the opposite! I did use a rug pad.
Here are 9 rugs that come in jumbo sizes for large rooms:
When choosing a large living room rug:
- Size Matters: Ensure the rug is large enough! At minimum, keep all furniture front legs on the rug. Bigger is usually better! Don’t use a rug that only fits your coffee table, while the furniture doesn’t touch. And as far as too big – leave at least 18 inches of floor space between the rug and walls.
- Material and Texture: Consider the material based on your lifestyle. For example, a wool rug offers warmth and durability, while a natural fiber rug (jute or sisal) adds a coastal, casual feel.
Our Large Coffee Table
Wide sofas in a large living room needs something bigger than your standard coffee table to balance it out.
The is two of the Parker Coffee Tables from McGee, with a marble table top. The black iron is a nice contrast in the room.
I styled it with our scalloped woven tray and some of our favorite coffee table books.
Our Large Living Room Drapes
The drapes are 160″ wide pinch pleat drapes with a liner from Two Pages – buy on Amazon or their website here. These are the “beige white”. I have these drapes all over my house, see my blog post with FAQ about these pinch pleat drapes here!
Faux Tree
This is a dark north facing corner, and the window looks out to our covered back deck. A faux willow tree is all that will grow here. 😉 My kids named him Larry.
The 7 foot tall faux willow tree sits inside this gorgeous woven planter. This tree sits on top of a box inside the planter to give it extra height, making it a good balance with our 10 foot ceilings.
The greenery on the tree is so thick – this tree could provide great privacy from neighbors, like on a deck.
I was so excited to find this Estelle Handwoven Planter because it has a drainage hole for real plants! It looks woven but has a hard outdoor shell.
Shop The Living Room
Thats a 75″ Frame TV (read my Frame TV Review here) over the limestone fireplace Francois & Co installed. Everything else is below!
Beautiful! Where is the sofa table from? I see it behind one of the sofas. Please let me know!