[TopsyTurvy]

I am after any inspired suggestions please.

We moved into this house 6 months ago and are yet to furnish the formal lounge and dining rooms as they seem superfluous to our needs.

They are very open plan and you walk past them to get to the kitchen and living dining areas.

Sure we could buy another lounge suite and dining setting but to me that's wasted space. I really would like them to be functional but also look nice as well. They are not huge rooms and and formal lounge has a gas log fireplace, plus one wall is all white plantation shuttered windows.

We already have a playroom for DS which was a home theater room.

So far I have thought about putting some Billy Bookcases with doors along one wall in the dining room, and maybe a nice rug and a chaise or something to create a nice library effect, but DH won't commit to that.

Ok I will also add some photos to help you see the rooms!

Dining by Leapyleigh, on Flickr


Lounge by Leapyleigh, on Flickr

Thanks for any ideas

Edit to add that the rooms face each other if that makes any difference

This post has been edited by TopsyTurvy: 08/11/2012, 01:12 PM

[niggles]

Cosy chairs, many shelves. Library one. Library two. Easy.

ETA since they face each other I'd make that library and reading room. I guess DH could have a corner for his guitars in the reading room too.

This post has been edited by niggles: 08/11/2012, 01:13 PM

[haras1972]

piano/music room for me

[Tigerdog]

Just last weekend I moved my dining table out of the dining room and made it into a playroom (it sits between the kitchen and the lounge). I'm lucky enough to have a huge kitchen area so I moved the table in there, which means we're more likely to eat in the kitchen now and the toys will be out of my loungeroom (here's hoping!).

This post has been edited by Tigerdog: 08/11/2012, 01:18 PM

[icekool]

Meditation room?
Do you have a TV room or not interested in a cinema room?

[dogged]

When you say that you want them to be functional, I think you need to decide what function you'd like them to fulfil. If you want them to look nice then to me that implies more formal decoration and yes probably at least a second sofa/lounge chair setting.

So if you aren't the dinner party or formal lounge types then you need to look at how you DO spend your time and then allot functions to the rooms accordingly. So, library as a PP suggested, if you like reading. Or perhaps a craft or sewing space?

If you are likely to be in this home for a while then it might be worth investing in a second lounge suite so that there can be a kids' space and adults' space (depending on age of your DS).

Or if you are not TV in front of dinner types, do as another PP suggests and make one part a TV room and banish TV from your mealtimes! (a big fan of this personally but that's just me).

[belnryan]

Very similar to my layout, we have a similar open plan formal lounge, directly accross from it is a study and next to the study is (was) an open plan formal dining. You walk past those rooms to get to the kitchen, family and rumpus.


We have a lounge in our formal lounge but as we have a 2x rumpus and family room with tv's i have refused a tv in the formal lounge. It is just a room used to read and have time out. Our formal lounge room is as you walk in the front door so i do like having a lounge area.

The formal dining we put a wall up and made it a 5th bedroom (we have 4 children). DD who is almost 17 has it as her room and we have discussed uses for it in the future. As it's closed we have thought maybe a library but our study doubles as a library. Or a gym room. Dh thinks he'd like a man room, lol.

[Cancerian Moon]

Both rooms scream 'Library' to me.

[The Old Bag]

Our dining room gets used for a sit down family dinner every night. The table off the kitchen is always covered in homework and mail and laptops and I love not having to sweep it all off every night just to eat!

Our main living room is actually the more formal of the two where people gather for a chat, and the second one is where we retreat to 'do stuff'. It has the kids' toys, lego tables and desks, plus the big telly/wii/home cinema, a wall of bookshelves, and our comfiest couch.

[Bacongirl]

We have a very open plan downstairs. Our 2 lounges are connected by a long dining area. Like a straightened out Z.

The top left hand side is kids lounge, with their own tv, computer that I can see from the adult lounge and video games, lego area etc.

At the top of the middle 'stick' of the Z we have our old 20 year old dining table (seats 4). Kids do homework and projects here. We also use it for extra seating or seperate kids table when we entertain (stretches out to seat 6-8 kids). The kitchen is opposite the lounge above with a breakfast bar between it and the table.

At the bottom of the stick we have a long 8-10 seater table for entertaining and family meals (when we actually all are home at the same time!)

The bottom right hand side is our 'adults' only area, nice leather lounges and comfy chairs, tv mounted on wall, very clean and uncluttered. We do watch family movies here together, but mainly it is DH and my area.

Our kids will be 9 & 12 within 3 mths, so this works well for us.