Design/ style help for dated living room - pics included

[livingroom]

NC as it is so clearly my house to anyone who knows me!!

I really don't know what to do to improve our living room. I am very bad at picking out style etc.

The stone wall cannot be changed. Neither for now can the glass unfortunately - I could possibly change it to something else. Behind it is the hall with the front door.

I think around the TV/ window looks very bare though. Maybe cornice could help? I was thinking of maybe getting large pictures and nicer frames.

I think that you will struggle to 'make it less dated' without:
A. Getting rid of the textured glass doors/windows
B. Plastering over the brick chimney breast
C. Dare I say it - Getting rid of the sofa - I know you said it's new but it looks incredibly old fashioned and with the doors it's just too big for the room
These things will make a big difference, without doing them I think your living room will continue to look dated.

My initial thoughts are:

Move the sofa so that you benefit from the view.

Paint woodwork in a dark grey like the sofa and the walls a neutral shade to match

Put curtains up to add warmth and a matching rug.

As others have suggested add storage that hides the clutter. Possibly a long low unit.

Cover the glass wall up with sheets of MDF and paint it.

I'd turn your glass wall into a wall of plants on open shelves

New or not the sofa would have to go. It completely overwhelms the room and the room doesn’t suit a corner sofa. I’d rather buy a second hand one if I couldn’t afford new. Paint the windows white and the wall in a neutral stone colour. That will draw together the different textures and colours. A sofa away from the glass wall and and an armchair/snuggler at right angles would open the room up. Don’t put them against walls-make your seating intimate. A rug to define your seating space. Pictures need nicer frames and hanging at eye level. Some nice curtains to frame the view-floor length-you don’t have to draw them if not overlooked. Storage for the toys. It could be a lovely room with that view and the stone will look fine.

Paint it all white including the wall, and buy a patterned window film for the glass. There are some very nice elegant ones available. Once it is lighter and brighter, the couch won't be so dominant, but you do need a decent - large and not modern - coffee table to take the focus off it.

Mid-century shapes would be your friend in that room IMHO, but only if the stone was painted.

Change the sofa if at all possible for maybe 2
in a neutral colour.

Plaster skim over that brick effect. Paint the walls a better colour.

Add a slim console table behind the sofas to put lamps on. Lose the ceiling light.

Why are your pictures so high up? Get rid. Collage pics are always terrible. Add some picture shelves and prop photos in similar coloured frames.

I’d do whatever it took to get rid of the awful glazed wall. Sorry to be blunt.

Not what you asked but I doubt that glass is safety glass and you clearly have children.

If you can't afford to replace it then you can get special film you put over it which holds it together should it get broken. I would do that as a priority, although I think it would be much improved by new glazing.

There was an episode of Your Home Made Perfect where they put shelves in front of it with lights which looked brilliant.

@TheYadaYada not blunt I absolutely hate it!! I would actually have re-designed the whole living area lay out if possible. But getting rid of it is a no go. I might try to convince DH for a plaster board or what ever they are called again.

ZERO chance of being able to do anything to the stone wall.

I like the idea of curtains over it but I have always thought curtains there might make it closed in feeling?

We have one of those ottoman boxes in another room I will bring that up.

The photo frames were put there because there were hooks there. All the hooks are coming down and being covered over before re-painting.

I agree they are too small and I won't be going for the collages again. The frames look cheap because they were cheap. I think they will be getting re-purposed as something else.

I'm going to see about shortening the couch. If we move it over by the door to the kitchen a big draft comes in. We never used the glass door, ever, so decided to block it off.

I'm going to go look for cushions/ throws.

Is that wall colour not neutral? When we do move to a house that I can choose things properly I think I will hire someone to do it all for me!! Not that I can afford that

We did used to have curtain up. But I can't remember why we got rid of them.

I will say one thing, the couch is very comfy and you should see the horror show that we inherited and had for years. Yellow 90s thing. Our sitting room is used for chilling the TV is actually the perfect hight for when we sit down

Curtains would make it less austere. The TV hanging on the wall isn’t very nice and would do better on a sideboard. The toys need a toy box or similar. A rug would be good and cushions / throws.

The sofa is literally the biggest problem. If it could go then it would be nicer.

Really interesting to read all the suggestions above. I would add paint the radiator in whatever colour you choose for the wall - done a couple in ours and am a bit addicted to doing it now. Scuff with sandpaper, foam roller with some metal primer then foam roller over the top with your wall paint 👌

I'm trying to google, what sort of wallpaper goes over glass?

DH has said I'll have to get rid of him before I get rid of the couch 😂

If the sofa has to stay, can you separate it into two chunks and lose the corner part? It’s far too big for the room.

I don’t mind the stone fireplace surround. It’s really not the problem in this room!

I would hang sheer curtains/voiles from a discreet ceiling track to disguise the glass wall and soften that side. H&M and Ikea do cheap extra long curtains. Then curtains hung high and wide over the window - so if that’s a 6’ window then the pole should be 7-8’ long. Make sure they’re pleated and not with eyelets.

I would use the tv wall for wall to wall storage to hide the toys. IKEA has plenty of options for cupboard/shelf storage with space for a tv - try Hemnes, Besta and Havsta ranges.

Can the sofa go the other way(like otch it to the left) so it's not hiding that lovely door:glass wall?

You need a feature around the tv. You have a fireplace which I think is lovely but the rest needs dressing up. What about the wooden / mdf frames and storage people do?

I know you say the sofa is staying but it really is awful and the room will always be dominated by it, regardless of what you do.

Tv mounted on wall looks naff. Stand it on a nice low tv unit that's modern - ideally one that runs along the whole wall low down and then you could have modern cubby type storage. Tbh I've seen loads of ikea hacks for this type of thing using their kallax cubes and it usually turns out great. It would then hide the kids toys too.

Paint the woodwork and window frames - either white or black. Dress the windows. Shutters might look nice.

I love things like this @livingroom

of you want to modernise but not spend lots I would:

• move sofa to where tv is and make it a bit smaller
• paint window frame and window sill plus door and door saddle white to match glass door frame
• paint the room light grey to match in with the couch
• buy a nice unit for tv that will fit beside the glass door but is the length of the remaining glass so that’ll block off most of that glass - I’d recommend ikea Hauga. You can buy different knobs for it to smarten it up as I think the black ones look cheap. Toys can go in the drawers there for easy access
• Hauga cabinet between window and glass door in that corner - more toy storage and some nice bits higher up. No clutter!
• Nice rug (not fluffy) in the middle then between window and fireplace as a lovely play area
• one or two big frames with pics or art pieces on the other side of the window
• get rid of horrible white fire guard you can get smart black ones and remove the other fire guard over the fireplace - stack a few nice logs in fireplace for show when not in use and a nice wicker log basket to go in behind the fire guard.
• some nice cushions - don’t go too vibrant with one primary colour as it’ll be an eyesore (e.g. orange or red)

All of this and rugs on the floor.

If you are keeping your gross couch you need throws x 1000000000 or get it recovered the colour is awful.

Accent colours either brown earth tones, moss or verte de terre type greens or burnt orange

some pics of what I think would be nice and thinking maybe yellow/gold with grey for rug and cushions as it could tie into the yellow ish wall.

I would experiment with moving the sofa around. Try it on the stone wall and against the glass. Facing that beautiful view!

Or try part of it on the wall under the tv.

Seating should be positioned so that two people can to face one another and have a conversation.

I love the stone wall.

Covering up the door is bad feng shui, even if you don’t use it. I would consider putting the tv on a cart, angled in front of the door, though. makes the tv less of the focus of the room but still easy to watch.

@MonkeyMonkin wow thank you, I'm going to need to read that a few times. No point in replacing the fireguard IDK hopefully we won't need it after this winter. I like the look of the pictures you put up.

@MyAnacondaMight a sheer curtain might work. I have been looking up plasterboard I'm not sure on my plastering skills, most sites seem to say that you need to at least skim it to give it a nice finish.

I would switch the sofa to the wall where the tv currently is, and remove some of the sections so it’s not as massive.

Then get a wide wall unit that the TV can sit in, with storage around it up against the glass doors - this kind of thing.

Put some curtains up, and a rug down.

@livingroom I wouldn’t plan for this as you would need to attach to the wall with a young child and I don’t see how you could attach to glass safely. That’s why I suggested tv unit plus tv to block and keeping door clear - even if you don’t use the door it automatically makes a room look cluttered if a door is covered in my opinion.

@MonkeyMonkin agreed, the positioning of the couch against the window and the obvious door being blocked are making the room look cramped and uncomfortable

I'd add a mantelpiece over the fireplace - a decent piece of oak - like a floating shelf. Then I'd buy a mirror to hang above it. A BIG mirror, almost as wide as the mantelpiece and almost up to the ceiling.

I'd also look in Ikea for storage units for the TV wall, like Changingplace has shown. They have lots of stylish solutions.