Please help me design, decorate and layout this room.

[JennyTaylior]

How would you decorate and layout this room? It's not an easy set up. I have picture taken from the agent's website so not great and much missing.

Living room + dining room/office. I'd like fresh, clean, modern, yet still warm and welcoming, light, happy, peaceful. And it has the most awkward layout ever. There's a kind of arch between the two areas which merges onto a whole wall that ends under the stairs.
There's quite a substantial space under the stairs. What could I use that for?

And that fireplace 😱 Would it be easy to get rid altogether? There's no flue, so can't put anything in there, unless you know otherwise?

I have pictures. And a sketch!

Please suggest flooring, (Deluxe) paint colours, sofas etc. I don't do grey except perhaps the sofa(s) or brown or shades of brown. No beige!
TIA 😊

Dulux paint, not Deluxe. 🙄

Firstly I'd get rid of all of the dark wood. Is it possible to put office stuff in the under stair space?
The fireplace could be removed, or painted to blend in. It's nice to have a focal in a room, there some very realistic modern style electric fires on the market.
As for colours shades of pale blue or plum/ lilac? It would depend on the aspect of the rooms. Do they face south and how much sun do they get?
As the room is a through way to other rooms, a carpet will begin to show wear where it is frequently walked on, so I would suggest engineered wood with two large rugs on top.

Thank you! I agree, the dark wood is hideous. And I wouldn't fit under the stairs. I could use a bedroom as an office - and have done, but would actually prefer to be downstairs. Not important for now though!

Trying to work out how to set out the living room area. It's all just like a giant corridor. There isn't enough room for a sofa on the same wall as the fireplace, which is why I'd like to get rid. TV would probably go in the under stairs bit.

Aspect - front faces south. North-facing garden. Oh joy. Not much light at all.

Would it be better all painted one colour and ignore the semi-separating archway affair?

My sister in law has a very similar layout. She has removed fireplace and put the tv under the stairs. Do you need lots of storage? You could look at getting built in under stair storage.

I need loads of storage 🙄 But I'm trying to get better. I really do like the idea of making storage there. But the oversized tv needs to go somewhere.

You could put the TV under the stairs and have two sofas either side of the existing fire. Depends on how many of you are in the household whether you would see the TV! If you put the sofa on the wall where the fire is, then you create more of a linear corridor effect. By arranging furniture at right angles to the walk route, you break it up.
Sitting in front of the bay window will give you nice daylight to read etc.
I have a North facing dining room and have pale cream paint on two walls and duck egg blue wall paper, John Lewis Cow Parsley on the other. The end wall is all glass and the floor to length curtains are cream. This might work for you. As its open plan using the paper in both rooms will unify them. 20th century modern style would look very good in your style of room.

Can you replace the floor? It's difficult to tell what it's like but I'd go for the best quality wooden floorboards you can afford. I would dress the bay windows with some lovely, large curtains (in a plain colour like white, but high quality material) and consider having a curtain by the arch as week, which you could keep out of the way most of the time but could close in the evening for privacy/ coziness.

Get rid of the firs place and put a corner sofa in with one end on that wall and the other end parallel with the bay window (but facing the other way). TV on a swivel stand under the stairs with built in storage around.

A separate arm chair and coffee table for reading, by the bay window.

Paint the woodwork white including bannister

get rid of the art on the ceiling and have smooth plaster

get decent lighting , lamps on tables and floor lamps

raise the curtain rod the almost the ceiling

need to think about the rest

have you tried posting on houzz site

loads of professional designers and keen amateurs post great advice when you post pictures

art= artex

Ooh thank you! Loads of great ideas. I'll have a look at Houzz. I hadn't even thought about wallpaper, what a great idea.

The floor is lino. Really!

And thank you for the curtain ideas - it's quite a deep bay which is hard to see in the photo. Deep enough to sit on (used to love window seats as a kid). Curtains right to the ground?

I've also realised I'm hopeless about lighting too. The ceilings are low and DH and I are tall, so not keen on dangling things for fear of concussion.

Corner sofa also a great idea. I've always wanted one of them.

Yes, I would go with floor lengyh curtains. A window seat would be brilliant! Sound it work with the radiator there? (Or could you move the rad?) could have storage underneath as well

Got a bit over excited and drew a diagram! Obviously it may not work as I don't know the actual measurements but it's what I would do in an ideal world.

Under the stairs I would build in a basic desk (basically just a large shelf to fit) so a computer screen or laptop fits and have a small chair that tucks right under (and when being used you would not be under the stairs). Nice filing drawers to go underneath.

Also I think the direction of the 'wood' looks funny... if you do wood or laminate I would lay it the other way personally. So running lengthways from the front door to the back of the house.

ilikedogs That's brilliant, thank you! I couldn't visualise it, so I've saved your wonderful sketch 😊 And I completely agree about the direction of the 'wood'.
Unfortunately, I have a lot of desk/computer so wouldn't fit under the stairs.

And DH is refusing to wallpaper that room. No worries, I've been exploring fabulous wallpaper for another room 😉

I've also been looking at what kind of fire we could have and think something called balanced flue gas fires might work.

You've given me loads to think about and look at and i feel a lot less daunted now.

I have a gas log burning stove that works with a balanced flue - beat investment we have ever made! Kicks out loads of heat and looks lush. The layout that likedogs posted is exactly what I had in mind too

If it was mine I would brick up the arch and knock the dining room into the kitchen to make a kitchen diner with separate living room!

I've been looking at balanced flue fires (easier to write than to say!) - great advice, thank you. Will definitely be going with one of those.

The kitchen is huge, and the living room 'diner' is smaller, so no bricking up. Even though I hate open plan, we can't afford to spend much on it as we have to buy all furniture and fixtures too. I do like the idea of some sort of curtain or other divider though.

This thread has been great as I've been able to 'put DH right' on some of his plans which he hadn't shared with me. E.g., I discovered he thought it would be nice to put my office in the garage... Erm, nope! And to get a huge tub of magnolia for the whole house.