Your advice sought on how to re-do living room

amother

Fri, Jul 18 2014, 1:21 pm

I feel silly thinking about something trivial right now. However, since I can’t say Tehilim ALL day, and my couch is really falling apart, I need help deciding (or convincing DH) regarding the following.

I have an L-shaped room. You walk in the front door and the L is to your left. The bottom of the L is the living room, and the upright part is the dining room.

The bottom of the L is then facing the front of the house, with three large picture windows taking up almost the whole area. Currently I have a long sectional under/in front of the windows that officially seats 4, though more can squeeze in. The last seat from you as you walk in, meaning at the corner of the L, is a chaise lounge - meaning, it protrudes from the sectional. There’s also an armchair and end table across from the couch. (Not sure if you can follow this, but there is the opening to the dining room on the far left, and next to it, closer to you as you walk in, is a wall which is the top edge of the bottom bar of the L.

So, here is my dilemma. In my experience, everybody wants to sit on the end – to have an armrest etc. Nobody wants to sit in the middle. So, I think, why shouldn’t I buy four loveseats? (Two in place of the current couch, with a table between. One in place of the current armchair. And one could fit on the wall perpendicular to where the couch is now, in place of the end of the chaise lounge.)

I think this makes a lot of sense. Now there are 8 ends! Also, if fewer people are here, four people can put their feet up on the other seat. I could get a rolling ottoman as well, but in my experience the kids think it’s a riding toy, so maybe not. I might just get a regular ottoman. I am not so into reclining seats, because they break and can be a danger for small children.

DH thinks it will look silly. I think it will be creative, interesting, and very practical.

I’d love to hear your opinions.

(I am anon because my description of my living room is going to out me for sure if you know me!)

mummiedearest

Fri, Jul 18 2014, 1:40 pm

I think it's an interesting idea, but what if there are more than four people who want to sit? with a couch, you can seat more than intended without awkwardness. with recliners, not so much. also, kids tend to climb on the raised footrest and topple the recliners. not good for the chairs or the floor. or the kids Smile

you may want to consider a couch that has built-in recliner-like footrests. also, get a few throw pillows. the people in the middle of the couch can use these as armrests.

amother

Fri, Jul 18 2014, 1:44 pm

We can seat 8 with four loveseats. Also, one can always pull over a dining room chair.
No, I don't want recliners, for the reasons you mentioned.

Another advantage of these four identical loveseats is that we can potentially rotate them (like mattresses!) so no one seat wears out faster. (Right now there are just two or three places on the sectional that are worn out and patched because of getting the most use.)

amother

Fri, Jul 18 2014, 3:24 pm

Quote:

Hard to lay down on a live seat for when u want to stretch out legs

Maskim, but I hold if you really want to lie down, go to your bed!

A couch etc is to relax, read, shmuez, with your feet up if you want. Also my Dh has a bad habit of going to sleep on couch, and only wakes up hours later. So I am happy to discourage that. Hey, maybe that's why he's resisting!

amother

Sat, Jul 19 2014, 11:22 pm

I guess a bigger question (should I make a poll?) would be - if you were convinced it would look good/okay/you really wanted to do it, and your DH didn't, would you:
be manipulative
be submissive
be assertive
try to convince him
tell him - Honey, you're in charge of ruchnius, I'm in charge of gashmius, so I get to decide
be passive-aggressive and just keep on not looking for a couch until he came around to your POV/got fed up and said - "Fine, do what you want" (which is what I did with another decorating issue...)

nyer1

Sun, Jul 20 2014, 12:13 am

amother wrote:

Quote:

Hard to lay down on a live seat for when u want to stretch out legs

yes. with your feet up. you can't really put your feet up so well on a love seat.

Notsobusy

Sun, Jul 20 2014, 1:41 am

I would like to have at least one couch. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I end up laying on the couch. If I'm sick or really tired, but need to be around for my kids, I will lay on the couch instead of upstairs in bed. I also like it when the kids are sick but don't want to be in bed all day, they can have their pillow and blanket on the couch and still be part of the family.

Besides, your husband may not be too happy with you if he really likes to go to sleep on the couch for whatever reason. Why would you do that to him?