phone a friend: ideas for designing a cohesive living room

When my friends are considering new furniture or contemplating a new design for a room in their homes, they often reach out and ask me for my thoughts. And I love it! It’s such an honor to be able to help people I love create spaces that make them happy.

I’m starting a new series here on the blog publishing those questions and my responses. And it would make the process even better if you chime in to give your thoughts, too! We’d love to crowdsource these ideas.

The first submission comes from a friend who is stuck on designing a living room. Her front door opens into this room, so it’s the first thing visitors see. She wants to make it more cohesive with the rest of her house, which is decorated in a clean-but-cozy Pottery Barn style with some farmhouse touches. Her other rooms have a lot of navy and white — think soft, white couches, navy rugs, dark wood tables, and a black iron chandelier.

In this front room, she wants to have space to read, a place for the kids to practice their musical instruments, and a place to play chess and checkers. She’d love a sectional couch with a chaise so the kids can sprawl out. And she puts her Christmas tree in front of the big window every year, so that spot needs to be kept relatively clear.

The wall color throughout the house is Revere Pewter, which reads more gray than green in her space.

The floors and the window are gorgeous, right?? She has such a lovely home.

She’d love to do something kind of fun and different in this room. We talked about perhaps adding a velvet couch, and she loves this dark green one from Article. But we need to add some navy to make this room flow with the others in her home.

I came up with two pretty different room ideas for her to consider. First is a fun, lively room that continues the navy-and-white color scheme. What do you think of the wallpaper? And check out the table with a built-in board for chess and checkers — she’s gonna love that!

wallpaper (this one in navy would also look nice)
couch (tan leather would work well, too)
rug
reading lamp
blue chair
pouf
chess/checkers table
coffee table (I recommend one with black legs to tie in the black iron chandelier in the adjoining dining room)
lake photo (plus it would be cool to add black-and-white photos of her family and a charcoal drawing of the front of their house)

The second idea is more elegant and understated. It’s more expensive, largely due to that gorgeous coffee table, but we could probably find something similar at a lower price point. For this option, we’d forego the wallpaper, select a green couch, and add in some touches of navy and black to complement the other rooms in the house. If she chose this option, I’d add more plants, too — perhaps a tall fiddle leaf fig?