Living Life & Living Space!
Create your up-to-date living room

Your living room might be the space that’ll have to change the most over the years, in order to follow along with the changes in your life.

Someone single in their 20’s most likely have a different purpose with their living room than that of a family with kids, or for someone elderly.

And if you live in a studio apartment you’ll have to think a bit differently than if you find yourself in a big place with many rooms and a lot of space.

Not to mention all the interests that come and go over the years – maybe you’ve dropped out of the philatelist collective and now practice tai chi daily, who knows??

The point is to fulfill your needs and wishes as much as possible, as they are right now.

Let’s see how we can tackle that!

As your life change –
so will your living room

Consider your living room to be a living space, by all means – a space that change over time, and reflects your current life situation with your wishes and needs for now.

And also a space where a lot of the daily life happens.

The challenge is to create space for all of it (or at least most of it!), so you can live the life you want, but without having a super crammed space.

So the trick is to;

Find space within the space!

 

Depending on how big space you live in, you might need to use a part of the living room for something that otherwise more likely would have a separate space, like a home office, work out area, art studio or – something else.

It could also be the opposite, that something you use your living room for today, actually have played out its role in your life, or could be moved to another area of your home.

To help you arrange your living room in the best way possible, I have listed some questions for you to ponder – this, so you can get really clear on your needs, wishes, and priorities.

Maybe you realize that something got to go, in favor of something else. Or, that you actually can find solutions to fit it all in – wouldn’t that be great?!??

So, let’s get going!

Create a living room for todays YOU

Write down your answers as you go, so you can come back to your list, and make adjustments when you come up with new ideas or realize more needs or wishes.

What’s your current family situation?

• Do you live alone, do you have a partner, do you have kids, do you have pets, do you have regular visiting friends, family, grandchildren?
• What needs come with your situation? Safety first? Lots of storage? Extra bed?

How do you want to use your living room – for what kind of activities?

• Do you want to:
  – throw big dinner parties (just let me know and I’ll be right there!?)?
  – do your yoga or meditation?
  – build giant block towers with your kids?
  – train agility with your dog?
  – have massive dance parties (that’ll be fun!??)?
  – lay on the sofa and watch movies?
  – work on that big genealogical research?
  – read the classic novels?
• List all the activities you want to fit into your living room. Never mind at this moment if it’s realistic or not, or if you can’t think of HOW to fit them – for now, just list them.
• What needs come with these activities? Do you need a:
  – storage for kids or pets toys?
  – space for your yoga mat –both when you use it and not?
  – table by the sofa for yummy stuff while watching those great movies?
  – dinner table for your fab get-togethers?
  – desk and an ergonomic chair for hours of your research work?
  – super comfy chair with great lighting beside for all those good books you can’t wait to read?

What kind of feeling do you want to evoke – how do you want to feel when you enter your living room?

• Like “YAY!!!” or more like “ahhh…” with a big relaxing exhale? Like you’re entering a cozy cave or a spacious dance hall?
• Think of attributes and arrangements that would help create the setting you want.

What times during the day will you use the room?

• Is it only evenings or even just weekends? Or are you a home a lot and use it more or less all day long?
• Think through how, and if, this affects your needs or the atmosphere you want to create.

Well done!

Now you have created your own little checklist – great job!??

When you’ve answered your questions, and got more clear on what your needs and wishes really are, you can start to look for inspiration and solutions that’ll support and help you create the space you want.

With the clarity of your needs, it’s much easier to navigate towards something that’ll actually work for you, and avoiding falling in love with some piece of furniture or arrangement that isn’t going to bring you closer to what you want.

Also, if you have trouble finding space for all you want – see if you can combine some of it. You can sometimes come a long way with simple things like a sofa bed if you need an extra bed for visiting friends and family, or a coffee table with smart storage.

Go get creative and look around for clever solutions!

Over to you!

Tell me in the comments:

• What’s your biggest challenge with your living room?
• Have you found some great solutions that you want to share with the rest of us?
• Do you have any other questions, thoughts or concerns about this?

Can’t wait to see your questions and thoughts in the comments – I’m curious to see what you’ll come up with!

Thanks for reading!
And thanks for leaving your comment and thoughts in English
– doing that will allow more of us to be able to read it.
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Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash