One of the most important rooms in a house is the living room, so when you’re considering your custom design for your new home, it’s very important to spend some time getting the living room right. Remember that the living room is going to be a major gathering area for both family and guests, so consideration should be made for the living room to be inviting and comfortable, as well as to foster conversation and community. Here are a few things to consider:
Focal Point
A focal point is something that holds a room together and brings people into it. One of the classic living room focal points is a fireplace, the modern version of the campfire and hearth. As you can see in the photo above, this home features a small and modern fireplace on the feature wall making it the focal point of this living room. People have been gathering around the fire for conversation and community for thousands of years, so it makes a lot of sense to have something in your living room that will bring people together. Other options are a big window with a really nice view of the landscape or yard, or the common contemporary choice of a media center. The custom home pictured above also features 10 x 32 feet sliding glass doors to see the outdoor landscape and lanai area. A nice cabinet with a TV or other media gives the room focus and draws people in. However, it’s important to consider the needs of technology when designing the space: consider that the commonplace of big, flat-screen televisions didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago, and that the desktop computer is becoming more and more integrated with the television. Give your living room a focus that can accommodate changing technology.
Public Space
Contrasted with the bedrooms, the living room is the public center of the home. This is where guests will gather, where you will invite people to sit. For this reason, the living room should offer the most welcoming space in the home. Often living rooms are the most finished space in the home, with decorative trim, finished walls and ceilings, and architectural detail. These small details work together to give the living room an aesthetic appeal and style the expresses something about the home and about you. So it’s important to consider these details in your design.
Conversation
Because of the communal, gathering-place nature of the living room, the design should help foster conversation. Often this is done through the arrangement of furniture, but it’s important to consider the kind of furniture and arrangement the living room can accommodate as you design the space itself. Make sure that the design doesn’t hamper furniture arrangements that are conducive to conversation. Develop a space around the focal point in which people can gather, and remember the community of the campfire. The large sliding glass doors in the photo shown above also create a nice flow to keep the conversation both inside and outside at the same time.
Lighting
Lighting in the living room should be inviting. This often means low lighting that highlights the furniture, rather than high lighting that highlights the walls. Think about the way a campfire draws people to sit in a circle around it: if the light highlights the sofa, then people are more likely to sit, while if the lighting highlights the walls, they may be more likely to stand. Distribute light sources so that the lighting is even and there are no lurking shadows.
As the communal heart of the home, the living room is a very important space to make friendly and welcoming. It can represent your home to guests and can be the central gathering area for your family. When you’re designing your own custom home, be sure to spend enough time to get the living room just right. It may wind up being the most-used space in your new house. As you work toward your new custom home, be sure to contact Harden Custom Homes– we have years of experience constructing custom homes. Call today at (239) 205.5075.