We’re here today to introduce the show stopper of our mid century modern home, its mid century modern living room. Even though I am introducing this living room to you now, it is almost near completion. Which means that some of the plans I am going to speak about in this post, I can now see on site. And I am already so excited about sharing this one with you!
Mid Century Modern Living Room:
As you walk in through the main door, a short, wide passage leads you into this large, spacious living room. The opposite side opens out through full length sliding doors into a good sized balcony.
The plan for most of the areas, the passage, the dining and living spaces, and the balcony, is pretty much like we would plan for most homes.
The unusual feature here is that long passage way that takes you into the heart of the home. I have intentionally added it to the plan so that you can see just how long it is. We certainly didn’t want to leave it that way, and so the plan for the passage is alittle unusual.
But let me take you through all these areas one at a time.
Entrance Passage:
As I said earlier, the entrance passage is quite wide. One of the requirements on the clients’ list was enough storage for shoes and crockery. Since there is enough space in this passage, we thought we’d put all the extra storage in here, so that the living area can be left more open and clutter free.
We decided to build a floor to ceiling unit on the left wall to take care of it all. We also built in our bar into this unit. And then we painted the whole thing white to match the walls. So though you can see the grooves marking the various shutters and drawers, the entire unit blends into the wall. This leaves the passage looking white and light.
Our bar is built in too, and planned something like this. When closed, it becomes one with the entire white wall.
When open, she shutters fold and slide into the sides, exposing a glitzy and functional bar that the client can use while entertaining.
The Dining Area:
As you step out of the passage, you first enter the dining area. A console on the right with a mirror above it should take care of keys, phones and knick knacks you need to place as you enter and leave the home.
Since we spread our seating wide in the living area, we pushed our seating against the wall in the dining area. A simple bench will take care of the seating on one side while we use chairs along the other three sides.
Striking artwork and beautiful pendants above the table should take care of the rest!
A sideboard on the far side will take care of additional storage for crockery and also serve as a buffet counter when they are entertaining in large numbers.
The Living Area:
The idea here is to have comfortable seating going all around to make a cozy space to hang out with family and friends.
When I think mid century modern living room, I think classical furniture in simple lines and neutral colours to give the space a timelessly beautiful look.
With artwork, furnishings and greens adding little pops of colour and character to liven it all up.
The Long Passage:
This passage was something we gave a lot of thought too. It is too long to be ‘wasted’ by doing nothing in it. I also thought how the walk to and from the bedroom to the living room would be so boring and seem like such a chore if you had to do it a dozen times a day.
We had to make this space interesting, but given how narrow it was, there wasn’t much we could add to it in terms of furniture.
We decided to make it an ‘art walk’ instead. The right side, as you walk in, has larger widths of wall as compared to the left (see plan above). We will use this side to hang art work.
The left side is smaller bits of wall. This entire side, including the door surfaces, we’ll panel with mirrors. This will not only help the passage to look wider, and therefore more proportional in terms of its length, but will also reflect the artwork on to this wall. This means that you can view the artwork reflecting in the mirrors from the living area too.
The walk down this passageway will not be boring any more for sure!
The Balcony:
As always, the balcony is my favourite area. When the clients shared this image with me for what they had in mind for their balcony, I was completely in love.
After all, how can you go wrong with lots of wicker and lots of greens in any outdoor space?
And so that is exactly what we’re going with. The layout though, will be slightly different. We can’t have our sofa blocking the entrance through our glass doors, nor would we want the chairs facing their back to the wonderful view from up high. So we’ll place the furniture to the left and right of the sliding doors instead.
The sofa will go against the wall on the right which we intend to treat just like this. A green wall, adding the greenery vertically since there isn’t that much floor space to place large planters.
The left side of our balcony is open and looks into the balcony of the adjoining bedroom. So we’re thinking of using a trellis with climbing vines. This will not only add the green but also act as a visual divider to give both the balconies privacy from each other.
Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)
As you can see, a lot of thought into planning all the separate areas of our mid century modern living room. It’s almost time for us to bring it all together and get you the finished result soon. The furniture is on site, patiently waiting there for us to unpack it and unfold all our plans to make them a reality. Just a few little things left before we get there.
So do remember to sign up here so that you don’t miss this reveal… and I promise you it will be one you cannot miss!
I think I’m waiting to see how the ‘art walk’ turns out most… and also the balcony. Which part are you most eager to see? Which do you think holds most promise? Write in with your thoughts below and let me know.
Until next time,
