I need some ideas.

We're moving to a new house this weekend, and among other things, we're trying to figure out what the hell to do with our formal living room. What we definitely don't want to do is put formal living room furniture in it and make it a "pretty" room that serves no purpose other than to look nice. Plus, there are three other sitting areas in the house, so using the formal living room as a living room is retarded.

The room is 14'x13' which i think is just a little too small for a pool table. And that really sucks, because I got my wife to buy in on the idea.

I don't have a good picture of the room, by itself but it's the one that's on the far right here -- so it's a very open room.


(ignore that light fixture, the builder put the wrong one in, and that abortion of a fixture is coming out)

So, what would you do with the room?

6/17/2008 11:42:25 AM

pm response from Mindstorm

Quote :

"I'd make it an office. A household office. Throw in the necessary furniture to manage your taxes and household finances and budgeting, add in a spot for a desktop computer somewhere that guests could use, and I'd consider adding seating by that bay window so it could also be a reading room. And you know, that is another possibility, if you like reading. Add french doors to that doorway and turn that room into a library. Add built-in's and have a nice, expensive place to read books, haha. I'd post in the thread but i'm not old school enough. "

I definitely like the idea, but we're basically doing all of the above in another room in the house -- I probably should have mentioned that.

6/17/2008 12:58:37 PM

Yeah, I was going to suggest a good library or a "wine and spirits" room. Build a small bar, install some audio equipment-- could be a good place for entertaining casually. So that people don't have to hang around the kitchen when you have guests over. People tend to either congregate towards a TV which can kill conversation or to a dining room where it's "stuffy."

Although, basically anything we suggest will already be accomplished in another room, I'm betting.

So just choose something you do a lot and make this a convenient and attractive extension of the other room already serving that purpose.

6/17/2008 1:16:17 PM

hmm.. i'm digging the bar idea.

that we do not have already.

6/17/2008 1:17:23 PM

I guess you've already got a playroom for the kids? It's also not something people usually throw right next to the entryway, so that might not be a popular idea.

I don't suppose an indoor gym would be out of the question, again using the french doors idea. That's a decent sized room. Again, it would be odd to have that right inside the door I suppose.

Well, if you're really baller, make it a bar with a wine rack of sorts. Probably a horrible idea since you will have kids growing up in that house, but...

Really I think a "kid's growing up" room wouldn't be a bad idea. Throw in a low-key toy chest or two for the stuff they'll have, throw down a rug to protect those nice hardwoods, add a couple chairs and a magazine table between them by the window, add floor lamps in the room's extremities, hang up a "growing up" thing on the wall to measure your kid's (or kids') height on as they grow up, and have a couple other things in the room to capture their attention like one of those neat looking free-standing floor globes (or if your walls are really bare, a nice framed picture of a world map would be neat). Adding a small cabinet into the room to store a first aid kit and some other stuff in could finish out one of the corners so it doesn't look too bare. As for that cabinet, hell, take an alcohol cabinet, put nice liquor and stuff up in the top for display purposes (and occasionally celebration/mourning purposes) and put the medkit, flashlights, emergency blankets, and a fire extinguisher or two in the bottom part behind the cabinet doors.

That's just me though. Holy crap I went into uncle mode for a second there.

Don't forget the window treatments either. While what I mentioned won't fill out the room, it will make it look lived in enough that the room will have a good theme. I think... Some other real grown-ups need to get in here to throw in their commentary.

[Edited on June 17, 2008 at 1:21 PM. Reason : Hey it DOES work, thanks for getting me in.]

6/17/2008 1:21:07 PM

Rip out the bay window and put in the pool table.

6/17/2008 1:24:38 PM

I really like the bar idea as well.

You could do a valance and some vertical panels to highlight the bay window, with a couple of leather armchairs in front and a side table between them.

Across from the chairs, a matching leather sofa would look nice.

I would paint the walls a "barn red" or a dark chocolate milk color to give the room a more comfortable feel.

Along the wall on the left you could do a buffet/liquor "cabnit" with a lamp or two and a decanter or something of the like...maybe a humidor if you're into that kind of thing.

Of course you would want a rug to tie the room together.

I envision a parlor/sitting room/bar feel.

6/17/2008 5:53:31 PM

Cigar humidor

6/17/2008 9:53:00 PM

Don't put a TV in it and use it as space for entertaining guests.

A bar isn't a bad idea at all.

6/18/2008 12:43:12 AM

alright, i think we're going with the bar idea.

My wife was, strangely enough, all about it.

I thought it would be a hard sell.

but as luck would have it, she was thumbing through a pottery barn catalog when i mentioned it to her.

but now she wants this $1300 alcohol cabnit, so i don't know if i should be happy or sad.

6/18/2008 8:59:26 AM

awesome. i'll take credit for that.

you should be happy

if you're gonna do it, do it right-- ya know?

6/18/2008 9:16:32 AM

damn shame about the pool table. you're just a couple feet short

http://www.ahpooltables.com/pool-table-size.htm

Quote :

"And that really sucks, because I got my wife to buy in on the idea"

gg on that

6/18/2008 10:08:42 AM

You going to have room for one in your place Al?

6/18/2008 10:15:06 AM

Do you golf? I always liked the indoor putting greens that you can find


http://www.golfsmith.com/products/243786

6/18/2008 10:20:49 AM

that's the tackiest thing i can think of to put in a front living room

oh no wait, a portrait of dogs playing poker would have to accompany it

6/18/2008 11:30:30 AM

Quote :

"You going to have room for one in your place Al?"

well i had always planned on it since my dad was going to give me his...but I ended up buying a smaller house which doesn't have room for it.

6/18/2008 1:59:08 PM

Do the bar thing. Not a stand behind type rig though.

I'd also put some shelves up so that it doubles as a library. That way when you give the tour you won't be saying I DRINK IN THIS ONE.

6/18/2008 8:49:55 PM

If you're going to make it a bar type room, get rid of any hanging lights completely and go with recessed lighting.


You don't want an inebreated uncle knocking his head on anything.

6/19/2008 12:30:49 AM

I saw something like this in that space:



But the bar works, too--and I don't know if anyone in your family plays.

6/19/2008 7:37:38 AM

^ actually it would be the perfect room for a piano, but neither my wife nor I play. We'll probably get our daughter playing when she's a little older, but I don't want to buy one unless she really gets into it, or it will be really pretentious having a piano in a room just for decoration

6/19/2008 8:46:56 AM

If I had a billion dollars (YEAHHHHHHHHHH)
I'd spend all in a day, show these niggas how to play (play)
Top floor penthouse I'll show 'em where I stay (stay)
Grand piano, might learn to play (HA HAAAAAAAAA)
Paid a hundred grand just to past it everyday
You know i like them white keys on it
Duct tape when we wrap 'em
Call me prejudice, cuz i never touch the black ones(keys that is, Ha Ha!)


[Edited on June 19, 2008 at 10:44 AM. Reason : HA HAAAAA]

6/19/2008 10:43:59 AM

(HA HAAAAAAAAA)

6/19/2008 11:02:17 AM

congrats on the new house! it looks gorgeous (even from just 1 pic!!)

6/19/2008 11:19:45 AM

Quote :

"that abortion of a fixture is coming out"

aberration

is that room enclosed or connected to another? whichever it is, it looks like a christmas tree room to make sure whatever you put in it is moveable

[Edited on June 22, 2008 at 9:18 AM. Reason : ]

6/22/2008 9:17:08 AM

I like abortion better.

6/22/2008 1:03:23 PM

Where's the house?

6/22/2008 3:25:35 PM

^^^ nah, i definitely meant abortion. that thing was hideous.

^ SW durham, right off herndon road near southpoint.

6/22/2008 10:13:21 PM

Nice. What builder/community?

6/22/2008 10:19:46 PM

Southampton is the community.

the builder is Parker and Orleans.

We just closed friday and spent all day moving.

BTW, hiring movers was the best grand i ever spent. they sent us 3 mexicans and a truck, and they moved all of our heavy shit and had it all set up in the new place in 7 hours, which involved taking a lot of the furniture apart to move it.

6/22/2008 10:36:18 PM

I defiantly agree with that last part.

6/22/2008 10:37:03 PM

hahaha

defiantly, huh?

6/22/2008 10:56:14 PM

God damn you firefox spell check.

6/22/2008 11:13:07 PM

Man, I missed this thread.

At first I was going to say pool table, but then I saw the room size and your comment.
Then I was going to say "get rid of that ugly ass light fixture", then I saw your comment.


Do you guys play cards? You could put a nice big poker table in there with the bar. Something like this:



Obviously you can get less expensive setups, but it would look nice.

6/23/2008 12:29:11 AM

That would look nice. If you could get a setup like that with a nice wooden cover for the table it would be nice like a pub, too. Add in the appropriate decor and you've got a "friends helping friends get drunk" room. If you're going to turn it into a bar, are you going to make it all nice and dark like a proper pub? Any ideas on seating that you're going to do? Though I think that table isn't a bad idea, it would be a bad idea if you aren't a cards kind of guy, you could save the $ and just get a regular dark brown table.

6/23/2008 12:52:56 AM

bump

5/1/2009 11:40:15 PM

Ok 10 months later and I'm finally working on the bar.

Here's the bar I purchased. We're definitely going for the "old smoky irish pub without the smoke" theme. There's a matching server and barstools as well, and we have a deep brown leather loveseat, so the furniture will all be pretty dark.




This is from way back before i got the painting finished, but a 42" LCD will go on this wall, and the bar itself will be in front of it:



And my original plan was to paint the room a deep red, add beadboard wainscoting, and stain it a dark cherry-ish color. Paint is up, and i spent most of today getting the wainscoting up.

Now that I have some of it up, i'm not so sure about the stain color. I'm thinking it's too close in shade to the paint, but I can't go too light, or I feel like it will clash with the bar.



Thoughts?

5/1/2009 11:53:15 PM

I'm assuming you're wanting to change the paint, as opposed to the stain?



I'd go with a rich, darker green. Not super dark, almost black, but something in between kelly and hunter green. (Like maybe Behr's Chlorophyll green - 460B-6)


But without seeing the room and bar in person it's a bit hard.

5/2/2009 8:27:39 AM

oh hell no.

i already spent too much time painting that damn room, since i haven't stained the wainscoting yet, that's where i would consider a change. What i had already picked was minwax red mahogany.

i don't know if i should go a little lighter with the stain, or maybe go with a darker stain that has no red in it to get a better contrast.

i guess one thing that didn't occur to me last night is that i could try different stains with some of the reject boards and see how it looks against the paint

5/2/2009 9:04:01 AM

i'd try a few but you won't really be able to tell until an entire wall is done at least - i'd still go darker - google search and you'll find some examples or dark stain with red paint i'm sure

5/2/2009 9:18:50 AM

A walnut stain would be attractive but your leather loveseat may fade into the background.

5/2/2009 10:37:23 AM

Hey, there's an idea. Why not try staining the wainscoting a black color or a really dark earth-tone color while trying to shy away from the red. Your floor has a lot of red color to it already, and with red walls you really should consider avoiding adding any more red to that room. A dark brown or green stain might work, I dunno.

TBH I'd just walk into the Hibernian, take some pics, and then do your best to steal their colors.

That looks really nice though. Do you have pictures of the furniture you're going to put in there? My color suggestions might clash like hell with what you have.

5/2/2009 2:24:50 PM

i say go with more red, then paint the other room black and have a masque of the red death party.

5/2/2009 3:52:34 PM

i would go with an ebony stain

5/4/2009 4:12:19 PM

ok, definitely going darker.

will look into walnut and ebony... thxu!

5/4/2009 4:46:45 PM

i would do a stain that is really dark green to compliment the bar, but not anything opaque. you went to the trouble of wainscoting, so the grain needs to show at least a little

5/4/2009 9:11:06 PM

Minwax has a "chocolate" stain that looks really good. Either that or one of their dark walnut stains would do it. Since it's pine it's not going to get as dark as you might expect. Definitely go with something more on the brown/black side. I've never liked red tinted stains on pine. It just looks wonky.

[Edited on May 5, 2009 at 3:22 PM. Reason : l]

5/5/2009 3:22:02 PM

finally got some of the staining done.



still need to add quarter round on the bottom, that's why it still has that 'incomplete' look.



This is how far i got on the first day. Finished the rest of that wall on sunday. The rest of the room should go quicker, as I don't have to deal with any bordering trimwork.

6/9/2009 10:50:46 AM

It's too late now, but in case anyone else tries this you can use a prestain conditioner to prevent the really dark blotchy spots that you see in the pic. Pine is really bad about doing that. I learned this after doing new stair treads in my house.

[Edited on June 9, 2009 at 11:28 AM. Reason : s]

6/9/2009 11:27:43 AM

i did use prestain conditioner.

Most of what looks like blotching are knots and variations in the texture.

Even so, some boards did have a little blotching, but that's just how it goes with pine.

6/9/2009 11:47:24 AM

That's cool. Yeah, pine is like that. Still looks good when done.

6/9/2009 1:48:08 PM