Shopping the House for the Living Room

We came to terms with something about our new house this weekend: we just don't have enough stuff to furnish the whole thing right now.  Our new house is 1000 more square feet than our last house (which was 1000 more square feet than our apartment before that).  When we moved our stuff into this house, we put things where we logically thought they would go. Our Lily sofa was in the living room in our last house, so we put in the living room here.  Our big Lounge ended up downstairs where we deemed the family room.  Of course it was dwarfed in that huge room, but we also hung our television and for the last few weeks, we lived with that arrangement--knowing down the road both of these rooms would be renovated and over time, they would eventually be more furnished.

The problem was the living room was in major need of a focal point and some spacial separation from the dining room and kitchen.  Down the road, we planned to add a fireplace to the far wall and have the couch face that, but that was at least a year away.  And this weekend, we thought, you know we may not have enough furnishings right now for all of these living spaces, so we should tend to the areas where we hang out the most--right now, this was the great room. We cook here, we eat here, we sit and chat here and then some nights, we walk downstairs to another bare room, and watch a little television. So, with our good friends in town to visit (aka muscles), they helped us move some furniture around as we shopped our house.  Here's what we came up with for the living room:

We moved the Lounge upstairs, where it doesn't feel so small and creates a great natural divide for the dining room.

We hung our fauxdenza on the far wall for now where we envision a fireplace one day and moved our television up here, too.  The Lounge and tv are a natural pairing. ;) We also found another floor lamp that we used to have in the family room of our last house and put it next to the "his chair."

We still are feeling like we need another chair. In fact, this weekend we used an office chair for extra seating in here--so we definitely need another armchair.  And a larger coffee table.  And maybe a punchy rug, and of course some art.  But, but! We're happy with this free makeover in a space that we spend so much time in.

As for the downstairs, we'll call that Greta's rec room until we get around to it.  Maybe buy a large sectional one day.  But she's enjoying the empty space for now.  We moved the Lily into the front "reading room" as we're calling it. I owe you an updated picture of that, besides what I previewed on Friday.  To be honest, I have been worried up until this weekend.  Things didn't feel like they were coming together.  It felt like we were going to have to start alllllll over.  I learned sometimes it just takes time to tweak and readjust. And stand back, and adjust again before it really starts feeling like your home.  We have a long way to go, but for the first time, I feel confident that we'll get there.