A Traditional Living Room Refresh

A client in Lexington was ready to update her living room after it had been in a holding pattern while her two children were young, since the room had always functioned as both living room and play room. The furniture had been carried over from her first apartment with her husband — it had worked during the toddler and preschool years, but was dated and overstuffed, and didn’t work well with the Colonial-style home. The room was long, with a fireplace in the center; the sofa had always been placed along the wall opposite, which created too large and awkward a space to enjoy the fire or sit and converse with guests. The family was ready to relegate toys to just a few bins, and create a space that was comfortable and welcoming; ready for gathering with books in front of the fire, or watching a family movie.

Traditional Living Room: BEFORE

Traditional Living Room: AFTER

Since the room is twice as long as it is wide, we divided the space into three subsections: a music area, a seating area, and a book/toy area. The baby grand piano defined the music space on its own — all other items were removed. We then used rugs and furnishings to define the rest of the space. A central seating area allows for both relaxing by the fire and watching movies (a TV is mounted on the wall opposite the fireplace), and the deep leather swivel chairs can turn for easy movie-viewing, or for facing the toy area when friends with toddlers are visiting. A trio of baskets holds the toys available to small guests, and a soft wool shag rug encourages floor reading or playing.

Window treatments were updated with a layered look, adding softness while maintaining a peaceful neutral palette. Art was edited, with pieces pulled from the collection passed down from the client’s parents, to create a cohesive mix of paintings recalling a family history.