Family Room Furniture Plan

One of the most frequently asked questions from our friends and family is if we plan to put the TV in front of the bamboo wall? That’s a big fat NO!

I totally understand based on the orientation of the room and the focal wall nature, that it might seem like our ideal spot for a TV, but it’s not. First, this room has the same foot print as our living room on the main level. But, we wanted to mix it up a bit and have a different layout in the same foot print, which meant putting the TV on a different wall. Secondly, I don’t want a big hunk of blackness in front of my beautiful bamboo wall. We had the contractor put the cable hookup (see the black spot on the left below) on the smaller (still 100″+ wall) to the left of the feature wall.

In our main level living room, our furniture layout is constrained by several features.  The large fireplace has built-ins on each side.  The cable hookup is in the one on the right near the windows.  We have always tried to avoid large furniture in front of the windows which almost extend to the floor.  These limitations leave us with one useable layout option.

Although, for a while we tried a funky angled layout, too, with the yellow chairs that proved too bulky in front of the windows.

In the basement, although the room is in the same foot print, it does not share the same constraints.  There is no fireplace or built-ins on the longest wall (now adorned with bamboo).  The window in the family room is smaller and does not extend to the floor, allowing us to place furniture on that side of the room.

When discussing the placement of outlets and cable hookup with our contractor, we took our ideal furniture layout into consideration.  We had the cable outlet located on the small wall to the left of the bamboo wall directly across from the window wall.  It is over 100″, so there is enough room for a media center.  On the backside of that wall is the utility room, so it is an ideal spot to hide electronics right on the other side of the wall.

On the bamboo wall, we knew we eventually wanted to add a freestanding ethanol fireplace in front of it.  We prefer to center the fireplace along that wall.  The contractor’s original plan called for an outlet right in the center of that wall.  We paid extra and asked the contractor to place two outlets along that wall off to the sides.

We already own the yellow chairs and large sectional shown in the family room mood board.  The yellow chairs were hanging out in the office upstairs.  We stored the sectional in our garage for over a year, since we got our new living room furniture.  It was nice to have our main furniture pieces decided when we were discussing the room layout with our contractor.

From the beginning, this is the layout we envisioned.  The two yellow chairs flanking the fireplace in front of the bamboo wall.  The large sectional centered under the window.  We managed to get the furniture moved in this past weekend.  It is wonderful to see this room starting to come together.

The furniture needs a good cleaning, and the sectional needs recovering.  We are not in love with the tan, basket weave fabric on it now.  This was our main sofa when we had both our babies.  It looks nice in these pictures, but up close so it is showing its age.

Despite the wrong fabrics and the lack of accent furniture like an ottoman and end tables (the faux bamboo table one is just waiting for a permanent home), I feel like this space is finally coming together!