I love it best when a room expresses the tastes and interests of who lives there -- as if inviting a new friend home is the most wonderful way for them to start getting to know you.
1. Measure the space, including all windows, doors, indents, projections, fireplace, hearth, height of the ceiling, and positions of light switches and electric wall sockets.
2. On graph paper, make a plan to scale, and elevation drawings for each wall.
3. Inventory what furniture and other items that you already have and would love to live with. Do you already have a few favorite decorative items? Maybe photos of people, pets, places, events or things you love or which reflect your interests or hobbies? What colors & textures are they? where might they fit best (proportions & positioning within the space)? Waste bin? Cushions?
4. Make three lists in order of a) needs, b). wants and c). desires: a) Needs are essential to a healthy life, e.g. space to exercise (dance, yoga, exercise machine) and to move around and through furnishings; security (locks on windows); privacy; good ventilation, prevention of mold, (easy access to window, aircon, fan); no off-gassing of carcinogenic chemicals from new synthetics, some types of paint; keeping cool enough in summer, warm enough in winter; office desk if you work from home, etc. b) Wants make life easier, more comfortable, e.g. comfy couch that might convert into guest bed, armchairs for guests, dining table that doubles for crafts, entertaining guests, etc. c) Desires are totally unnecessary -- but they can bring great joy, e.g. pot plants, exquisitely crafted wooden bowl, ceramic vase, Tiffany lamp, fish tank, Persian carpet, books, etc. What colors for walls would bring you the most joy? What colors, textures and themes? If you're not sure, grab a whole bunch of color patches from a paint shop, bring them home and test them in the lightest, shadiest and middling places at different times of day and night. Consider how the color of the lighting will change the apparent colors (you can get warm yellow LEDs which are much cheaper to run and better for approaching sleep in the evening. The usual blue-white light LEDs stimulate alertness, good for conversations and work.
5. Consider your habits and lifestyle - bearing in mind how many friends you might invite for a gathering and the kind of hospitality you might offer, e.g. casual, formal, barely-at-home, eating upright on chairs around dining table; eating on armchairs/couch around coffee table; all on cushions and carpet/mats on floor (mid to far Eastern style), etc. Lighting: fade up or down ceiling light, low mood lights, reading lamps near favorite spots, timer controls for security when out. Temperature control: positions for ceiling or floor fans, heating, air-con, ease of opening window. Privacy: vertical or horizontal blinds, light & heavy curtains, whether curtains act as insulation. Do you need shelves for storage? Do you need bedding or furniture for a pet?
6. What's your budget? If limited, what can you get second hand or from charity shops? What needs to be done first and what can wait till you've saved a bit? Do you have friends who might like to help with the work in return for lunch or dinner?
7. Nesting is fun - so it doesn't have to be done all at once. It can be a slowly evolving thing that creates memories. And its memories that most help to make a place feel like home.
Put the sofa where the TV is at and put the TV over the fireplace. Sofa should be black or white.
Put the sofa on top of a white greek patterned carpet.
Put some framed art on the walls that are pictures of things you like in shades of brown to match the floors. You can achieve this by downloading GIMP. Downloading photos you like and changing the color balance in the images.
Print those pictures out at their highest resolution at a CVS pharmacy. Frame them. Hang them up.
Put two houseplants next to the windows. Galaxy palms would do nicely.
@MrsMotherlyLove You use brown power strip covers to route it on the floor. Then it goes under the greek rug you bought and over to the other side of the room.
Tricky space to work with. Using the fireplace as the central focus of the room, I'd have chairs and sofas somewhat close together making it a cozy area
I never liked that sort of thing. I once had an apartment like that, but it was less protruding.
I would want to put the TV on the far wall, not the right wall. But that window would be blocked.
Of course, the TV could be in front facing back, but then you have to see the back of that TV furniture and all the cords. And if you also put furniture on the far wall to sit on, it blocks the window.
Maybe you could drill a TV into the wall above the fireplace, and never use the fireplace. 😁
I hope someday I can find an apartment with no fireplace. Mine is fortunately in the corner, but still in the way. I turned off the gas to it years ago since I never use it and the pilot light creeped me out at night.
Hard to see how much room you have. Yet if enough room I might do two L Shaped couches facing in opposite directions on either side of the room. Sort of like the line placement in the following screen shot.
Your end table at the far end of the TV stand would have to go. No room for it.
A large throw rug could go in the middle between everything.
Dimmable ceiling lights recommended in the center of the room would be better than that floor lamp. Yet that requires an electrician and would defeat not moving the TV over the fireplace.
You have an outlet problem no matter what. I don't see outlets anywhere. And assume there's only one behind the TV.
I have more outlets than you in my tiny living room. There's three on three of four walls.
Needs alot of color. Hang a few pictures up. Get some fake flowers and trees. Get a nice center rug. Paint the walls a sand or tan color. Maybe even paint the wall where the window is a brilliant red. Get some colorful window coverings.
There’s got to be a way to mount that TV over the fireplace. Might need an electrician to do it. Otherwise it would be very hard to configure the room in a way that makes sense.
@MrsMotherlyLove A gold stripe horizontally around the room, maybe 1.5" wide, about shoulder height when sitting, with a purple one below it (2" wide?) and a blue one above it (either same width as lower one or a narrower one if bright).
Then you can have your gold tastefully there, but pick up on your purple or blue anywhere else. Black ALWAYS looks great/works...but you know that, don't you? 😊
It seems you have two focal points competing with each other.
Is it a solid wall behind the camera? If it is, I would move the TV etc against it and have a simple sofa to watch the TV and one in front of the fire place.
I wound mount the tv on the wall above the fireplace and a nice cozy couch in front of it , maybe 3 inches from the wall where the tv is now. A nice rug and side tables
