Shouldn't all rooms be living?

By Connie Brittell
Special to the Coastal Point

What has happened while I slept? Did the living room — like its predecessor the parlor, and its predecessor the drawing room — fall so deeply into disuse and disfavor as to be eliminated from traditional residential design?

I must admit that as an interior designer I have noted that living rooms have very purposely been omitted from architectural plans in more than a few of my latest projects.

Really, now, what has become of our “Sense and Sensibility”? Have we become so terribly informal in our busy lives that, as a society, we have dismissed the notion of living in the living room? Or is that room on the endangered species list too?

In With The Old

Webster defines the parlor (from the French parler: to speak) as a room primarily for conversation or the reception and entertainment of guests.

Today, we most often associate the use of the word with funerals (no wonder we left that one behind — no fun at all). Further, Mr. Webster describes a drawing room (short for withdrawing room (I always wondered about that) as a formal, more private reception room.

Is it that we have forgotten formal? Or conversation for that matter? Has the family room forever fractured our good ol’ living rooms?

Recently, I received an invitation from my daughter in Southern California to attend an afternoon garden party that included many celebrities. The suggested dress was listed as “Malibu casuaI.”

“Malibu casual”? I howled at first, thinking, “Only in California.”

Then, running a mental inventory of my apparently boring East Coast wardrobe, I found it all but impossible to translate the requested dress code into something I might already own. I imagined the need for some filmy, layered, see-through chiffon number over designer jeans, set off by strappy, suede, Manolo Blahnik sandals. Oh, dear!

Obviously, all this simply makes its own point: I guess we do live in changing times, and that goes for how we dress, as well as how we entertain and live.

But does that necessarily negate the use of the living room as such? No, I say. The two are not mutually exclusive.

For reasons of budget and ease, the design of floor plans in today’s more streamlined homes has eliminated the less functional and thus less frequently used rooms in favor of community-style, user-friendly areas like eat-in family rooms featuring large-screen TVs. Often, the kitchen is open to the family room allowing full range interaction and togetherness.

And that’s all fine.

Setting The Mood

But don’t you ever want to get away from all that? What’s that you say? You never use your living room?

If you do have a living room — and many homes both new and old still do — I think the whole issue boils down to comfort and usability. Getting a room to work comfortably is often fairly complicated — even challenging. It requires an experienced eye for the arrangement of furnishings. This is a space which must be flexible enough to accommodate two people, or 10 or more — a room to entertain others, in which conversation can flourish.

For this to work, the room must appear to be comfortable even before one experiences physical comfort. As a designer, I have observed that the living room, which often takes the lion’s share of the decorating budget, just doesn’t get used enough.

There are several reasons for this failure.

In many households, this room is not really a room for living. The look is lifeless and standoffish. In an attempt to please others, the owner often fails to decorate the room with the same personal point of view that is applied to other areas of the house, and the result is an unnatural and stiffly staged appearance.

Look Again

A fresh look at the furniture plan would be a good idea. Unless a room is arranged so that it functions comfortably, it will never be used.

You need to have a good number of chairs — several of them lightweight enough to be moved easily. The furniture groupings need to be able to grow as the occasion arises. If the space allows, use large and small sofas, placing casters on the larger pieces, which will make them easier to move.

Use fully upholstered, as well as occasional chairs. Include benches and ottomans. Some of the chairs should be firmer and a little higher, for those who might have difficulty climbing out of the depths of a squishy sofa.

Cover a large round table with a cloth in the room’s color scheme and place it next to a substantial chair. It can serve as a place to make drinks or serve light food. I like sturdy coffee tables that can take occasional abuse. Fabrics and floor coverings, too, can be at once beautiful and durable enough to take the wear and tear of kids and pets.

The idea is that the feeling of the room wants to be easy-going in a beautiful, every day sort of way — not stifling like so many are.

Inadequate lighting is aggravating. Too much light can be just as bad as not enough. Settle on a few comfy chairs to receive good reading light. These table and floor lamps always provide softer, more inviting levels of light than the harsh, recessed, overhead kind. Use small low-voltage, recessed lights as accents for art. And always remember dimmers.

Making It Personal

Make the room look lived in and livable by adding personal items, collections, a stack of your favorite large, hardcover books. Use your mantle or a shelf to display decorative items like special photographs framed in similar silver frames, artwork, groups of shells, a pair of topiaries placed asymmetrically.

Buy or make a brightly colored throw for your sofa, to add a dash of color to the room. During the summer, when the fireplace is not in use, gather pinecones in a large basket or place a green plant in the firebox. For sparkle when you entertain, stand a mirror on the floor of the fireplace and place white votive candles in front.

Styles and lifestyles change. Needs change. Shoes change. We change. But I remain a huge fan of the living room.

I encourage you to give it a second chance. Use it. Make friends with it. Get comfortable. It’s a valuable piece of real estate. In the words of Ali MacGraw, “A house should be about living.”

My next article will address dining rooms — or the lack thereof. I invite your e-mail questions or suggestions addressed to DovetailDeziner@aol.com.

Connie Britell, ASID, is owner of Dovetail Interior Architecture and Design with offices in Washington, D.C., and Ocean View. She is also co-author, with her sisters Mary Jo Donohoe and Suzanne Hawkins, of “SOS: Sisters On Style — The Professional Organizer For Your Home Designs,” available through the Web site at www.SistersOnStyle.com.