Loft Redesign

DEAR CHERYL:  We want to completely redecorate our family room and move the current furniture up into our loft.  We’ve been in our house a couple years and have never liked how the family room has looked, even though we like the furniture.  We don’t want to make any expensive mistakes with buying new, so what should we do first?  Cheryl & Robert

DEAR CHERYL & ROBERT:  The first thing that you need to do is set aside a day, put on some comfy clothes, your sneakers and get ready for a little work out.  Before buying anything new, you need to get happy with your room’s furniture arrangement.  Otherwise, you won’t know what to buy, where it is going to go and be at the same place you are now, liking your furniture but not the room.

You may be thinking why would I spend the time to rearrange the room since I’m moving all of the items to the loft?  Well, I’m suggesting that you do this with your current items as it is so much easier to actually see the room versus doing a layout on paper, especially if you’re not comfortable with trying to visualize what it will look like.  So why not make it easier on yourself and do it with your current furniture.  It may take a little work, but it will make your new shopping experience much easier and less stressful because when you’re done you’re going to have a shopping list of the items that you need along with the exact sizes of all the items that you’ll be buying. Therefore, no over shopping or questioning if it will fit and how it will look in the room.

When rearranging a room, you need to completely empty it; that includes all your accessories, artwork, plants, lamps and furniture.  This lets you have a clear view or a blank palette to work with to give your room a new look.  Your next step is to look at your room and determine what you want your focal point to be.  In your family room the most obvious focal point is your television.  But do you also have a fireplace or a great view out into your backyard?  Now place your sofa so that it is addressing the focal points that you want to see.  What I mean by addressing is that when you are sitting on the sofa, the focal points are in your line of view.  The sofa does not have to be directly across from the focal point, it could be on an angle to it, but it shouldn’t be at a right angle to it.  If it is at a right angle that means to see the focal point you would have to turn your head completely to the side to watch television, which isn’t comfortable.  Was your sofa at a right angle in the room before?  Maybe that was one of the reasons your room was uncomfortable?  Don’t be afraid to angle your sofa, although I know most people are.  Angling opens up a room and gives it more interest.

Next place your loveseat or chair at a right angle to the sofa.  Then if you have a third chair, place it on a diagonal across from this grouping to balance your furniture arrangement in the room.  If you don’t have a chair to use, borrow one from the nook or dining room. You want to borrow items from other rooms because you’re looking to complete the arrangement in this room to give you a good visual on what your new furniture arrangement will look like.  Again, this way you’ll have a complete shopping list for the new items that you’ll be buying.

With all your seating placed, you’ll now bring in your tables and accents pieces. Make sure that each seating arrangement has a table for a drink as well as a lamp.  So now place your lamps and plants.  After that, yes re-hang your artwork to determine if the pieces you have still work with the new arrangement or will you be buying new.  Before you might have had a large blank wall over the sofa, but now that you’ve angled the sofa and have a lamp on a console table behind it, you may only have room for a smaller grouping.   After the artwork is hung, place only those accessories that you really want to use in the room.  Now sit down, relax, make your shopping list and who knows maybe you’ll like the room so much you’ll want to buy new furniture for the loft.