living room semi-redo

I've always had a thing for rearranging furniture. I'm pretty sure I get it from my mom. We would come home from school on frequent occasions to find the den completely rearranged. I always thought it was fun - it kind of freshens up a room, ya know?


When we built our current house, part of the draw to the floor plan was the openness. The living room is open to the kitchen & breakfast room. We love the high ceilings & the airy feel. The one drawback is that an open floor plan limits furniture placement. Especially when you own an 8' couch that may or may not have been purchased solely for the fact that the 6'4" husband can stretch out on it. So, by default, we've had our couch on the same wall since we moved in: the one wall that wasn't (a) 6' long (too short) or (b) consumed by 2 windows & a fireplace.


I recently got the itch to move that crazy couch. I considered "floating" it in the open space, with the back of it to the opening of the breakfast room/kitchen. Well, that got the buzzer when I measured out how far it would stick out, almost completely blocking the entrance to the room. The only other option was to put it in front of the fireplace, which is just weird. Right? Is it weird? At first the consideration was just a joke, but then I started thinking, we don't ever use the fireplace anyway. We've lived here for 5 years & haven't once used it. It's a gas fireplace, but we don't have gas logs in it. We bought gas logs but then found out we'd have to have someone cap the gas line in order to get the existing grate out, yadda yadda yadda...pretty sure all that will never happen. {Side note: anyone want to buy some gas logs?? Never used!}


Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I did it. I put the couch in front of the fireplace. I don't like that it's blocking the fireplace, of course, because that just seems weird. But I do LOVE the placement of it in the room. It's actually facing the TV now instead of to the side of it, and it makes the open room seem more cozy. {Do any of you have an open floor plan & sometimes feel like it's TOO open??} We've still got to work on the wall that the couch used to be on; I plan to get another accent chair to go with the one we have, and put a small table between the two. But for now, it works.


Here are some pics of the new placement:

view from the hallway

{yes I still have my summer mantel up! I'll work on it.}

view from the entry

view from the breakfast room

Natalie approves :)

How do you feel about blocking the fireplace?

Do you have furniture placement in your house that is "against the rules"?