How to Design a Living Room with a Fireplace and a TV

Decorate a living room using a TV as focus point

While decorating a living room with a TV and a Fireplace, we have to consider certain points. A living room with a big-screen Television makes a good focus point and the fireplace will remain a focus point as well. This type of living rooms provides a space for the family members to be quiet and relax while enjoying TV shows. Another option is to design a living room with fireplace as a major focus point and have a small TV. Most families design their living rooms by making a fireplace as the major focus point place in the room with a small TV.

Then the room becomes the only place to enjoy the fireplace as the TV becomes less important. To make a living room more beautiful, the designer should not only consider the place of the TV and fireplace. The placing of furniture’s at proper position makes it more suitable for the users. If the importance of the TV is more in the living room, most of the furniture’s must face the TV. A good living room must be a place for relaxation and entertainment. Therefore, the importance of minimizing the focus point to the fireplace makes the living room more beautiful. This makes watching TV while keeping warm with a fireplace a more enjoyable experience. Using a big flat TV with a good sound system makes the feel of a theatre at home, which will increase the entertainment value.

Decorating living room with high priority to fireplace

If the designing of your living is only to enjoy the heat from the fireplace, the use and importance of TV will be less. While considering the design with highest priority for the fireplace it a big mistake, because the living room is the place to relax and enjoy family time watching movies. If you still want the fireplace as the major focal point, then you need to arrange the furniture to face the fireplace or even ensure that all members of the family can see the fireplace but also be able to see others in the room.

Combining both as focal points

When designing a living room so you can enjoy both the fireplace and the TV, it is best to position all furniture where the TV can be seen but also everyone can receive the warmth created by the fireplace. The living room is the room that is used by families to watch TV, to enjoy one another’s company and many times to entertain guests. This room needs to have an atmosphere of relaxation as well as entertainment. To create the right feel in your living when working with both a TV and fireplace, it is important to position all items correctly. The first thing you need to do is decide if you want the fireplace or the TV as the focal point or if you want both to be focal points.

You can actually have both as focus points and enjoy the beauty of the fireplace while still enjoying watching the television. In most cases, the fireplace is not going to be the item in the room that you must sit and stare at to enjoy. The size of both the TV and the fireplace come to into play. If both are close to the same size that is a good thing as they will both get attention. Consider placing the TV on the wall to the left or right of the fireplace. This way both can be enjoyed, as you will be able to position the furniture in a way that both can be seen without having anyone’s back to either object.

To draw attention to the fireplace even with the furniture facing more toward the TV, you can easily add things to the mantel or just above the fireplace. If you have room above the fireplace, you can easily hang a painting, photos of loved ones on mantel, candlesticks, or other objects that will brighten up the room as well and bring the focus to the fireplace.

Author Bio: This article was written by Shawn Lewis who works on the team for Roof.net a roofing company in Loudoun area of Virginia.

What Defines Contemporary Furniture?

The Oxford Dictionary defines contemporary simply as, ‘following the latest ideas.’ This fails to grasp the essence of contemporary furniture design. Contemporary furniture, which is often also called modern contemporary furniture or just modern furniture, is furniture created after the 19th century and was heavily influenced by the modernist art movement. The concepts of modernist art were translated directly into the world of furniture. Instead of creating substantially visual furniture, furniture evolved into simplistic visual design. Contemporary furniture design uses the furniture, and the area it resides in, as part of an overall design theme for a person’s dwelling.

How is Contemporary Furniture Different from Other Furniture?

In the 1950s, as contemporary furniture was beginning to emerge, the Museum of Modern Art in New York decided to address this trend. They published a booklet written by Edgar Kaufmann Jr., entitled “What is Modern Design?” which established a series of precepts that dictate what constitutes contemporary furniture. Furniture that abides by these precepts can be considered contemporary furniture. His precepts can be broken down into three main categories:

  • Design – Contemporary design takes into account an overall design scheme that the future owner may be attempting to accomplish. Kaufman states that the colors, texture and form of an item should spring directly from the materials used. The design should blend the utility of an object with the beauty of its materials to present a visually satisfying item. The design should be simple, with an apparent structure and no redundant materials.
  • Materials – One of Kaufmann’s precepts dictates the furniture must take full advantage of newly discovered techniques for crafting furniture and use cutting edge materials. This precept has created a trend of using pattern free fabric and materials that allow for a functional flat surface. Tubular metal, standard metal, various chromatic materials and a combination of all the above are generally used to create the structure of contemporary pieces. These types of materials allow the creation of crisp lines, pronounced edges, and smooth textures.
  • Philosophy – Designers employ a specific philosophy and spirit when creating contemporary furniture. Kaufmann suggests the furniture must adequately address the practical needs of modern life and express the spirit of modern times. He further states that this furniture should also benefit the advancement of fine arts. It should express the purpose of an object, the beauty of the materials used, and the methods used to create the furniture. It should never attempt to appear as anything that it is not, such as a mass-produced item should not be disguised as hand crafted. Perhaps the most important philosophical precept of Kauffman’s is that the item should serve as many people as possible, limiting costs so that it may be affordable and attainable to a wide market.

European contemporary design helped shape these precepts prior to the trend moving to the United States. In Europe, there began to be a shift towards function and massive accessibility of furniture, rather than overly intricate designs. This caught the eye of many designers worldwide and helped perpetuate this style.

Famous Examples of Contemporary Furniture

In art, there are always notable pieces that help define and perpetuate an emerging style. This is also true in the world of furniture design.

  • Wassily Chair – Marcel Breuer created this icon of contemporary furniture in 1926 in a cabinet making shop in Germany.  It embodied a minimalist design that employed tubular steel and leather straps, both combined to create a design of thin geometric shapes and function.
  • Eileen Gray Side Table – French architect Jean Badovici created a simple bedside table in 1927 that embodied her famous characteristic of refusing to conform to the popular standard. It featured a unique utility, allowing a special adjustment for serving breakfast in bed. It is composed simply of metal and glass in a conical design that is visually pleasing and functional.
  • Barcelona Chair – Mies Van Der Rohe and Lily Reich created the famed Barcelona Chair in 1929 as an entry in an international design fair in Barcelona. It features simplistic leather patterns and curved tubular steel to create an aesthetically pleasing chair. The accompanying footstool embodies the Roman numeral for 10 (X) to create its structure.
Contemporary Furniture Is…

Contemporary furniture is quite simply any type of furniture that uses modern materials with a simplistic design. The function is considered paramount. Creating a visually compelling item is secondary. Contemporary furniture strives to be affordable and attainable. There are many places to locate contemporary furniture online. For example, Modern Furniture Classics offers a selection of contemporary furniture that truly embodies a philosophy that would make Edward Kauffman Jr. proud.

About the Author:
Trey Reeves is a freelance writer and self-proclaimed collector and expert of contemporary furniture. His esteemed collection occupies several of his homes, and he someday hopes to open a museum dedicated to contemporary furniture.

Add Flair To A Child’s Room Using A Fun Theme

Do you want to have some fun with your child’s room and make it come to life? Why not create a themed room with all the bells and whistles for some spark and fun? Children love it when their rooms get changed around and will probably put in an extra effort to keep it clean. No guarantee on that part, however, since kids will be kids!

Themed girls rooms

Need some ideas for themed girl’s rooms? The best place to get started is on the Internet. You can get thousands of ideas for creating a stunning girl’s room there.

Don’t start off by thinking that a girl only wants a princess theme either. You can find plenty of those theme- styles anywhere. Dig a little deeper and look for fun girl themes that are a bit off the beaten track.

This is an example of a zebra themed bedroom for a little girl. As you can see, the zebra print has been placed with a bright pink border to make it obviously girl-related.

Accessories like the lamp, wall hangings, curtains etc. are an exact match to the comforter. If this seems a bit overdone for your liking, the lamp could be substituted for one that is in a solid color of black, pink or white. In fact, any of the accessories could be matched in a different way, according to your own taste and style.

Themed boys rooms

Here’s a great boys theme for the little guy that has his eyes to the sky and dreams of being an astronaut one day. Based on a bold blue color, this room is certainly sure to please any boy that loves space.

It sure is a busy theme, but who could be any busier than a little boy?

If you want to tone the room down a bit you can do as you would with the girl’s bedroom. Purchase some solid colored accessories. In the room pictured here some bright red colors would keep the room alive, pick up some of the red from the comforter and take some of the “busy” out of the room.

The best thing about building a themed room is you are in full control of it every step of the way. If you want accessories to match the comforter theme, you can usually find them online. If you think that a comforter and only one accessory with an exact match is enough you can do that too!

When you start working with these themes you’ll find that your creative juices start overflowing. You’ll start looking for zebra pictures to hang in the girl’s bedroom above and start shopping for zebra beanbag animals. For the boy’s room you may decide to put together a model aircraft with him and then suspend it from the ceiling as a nice added touch. Again, the choice is yours and you can decorate the room by adding some of your flair to it.

Another benefit of using a theme is it gives you direction. No matter whether you are working with single beds, bunkbeds for boys and girls or full- sized beds, you’ll be able to get started. Also, there are super themes that can be mixed and matched for bunkbeds for boys and girls, which makes the decorating that much more exciting!

Start looking at ideas on the Internet to create a masterpiece out of your child’s bedroom. Look around for some different ideas that stand out from the others and show them to your children. If you find that your little girl is stuck on a princess theme or your boy wants the theme from the latest movie he saw, that’s fine. It doesn’t take long for children to grow up and change their tastes. Then you can start redecorating the room again!

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