You think a lot about your interior, but you just can't get it to feel right? Then you've come to the right place. Mona and Michael are here to help - today they're giving Sabrina some tips for her home.
My living room is very small and dark and I haven't yet managed to give the room a cosy feel. I would really appreciate your tips. The door in the living room on the right on the plan no longer exists, the wall there is continuous.
I'm also attaching a picture of the dining room. I'm still at a loss as to how I could make the windows look nice with curtains.
Sabrina
Dear Sabrina,
Furniture
Light
Curtains
Accessories
Materials / colours
We have sketched out our ideas for you in the floor plan and hope there is something you would like to realise. We would be delighted if you would send us photos of your new living room.
Have fun trying it out.
Your Moomii team
Note: The products included are suggestions from Galaxus, not recommendations from Moomii.
Does your home need help too?
Then send us a floor plan with measurements and pictures of your problem room to redaktion@digitecgalaxus.ch with the subject "My flat needs help!" Please also add a few sentences about what you are dissatisfied with in your flat or what you need help with. You also give us permission to use the images.
Whatever I do, I always do it with a lot of heart and passion. Passion accompanies me like a red thread through life. This is how I love to spend time with my family as well as to design rooms and objects. I like real materials where you can see, smell and feel how they have been worked by hand into an object. They tell stories and are the beautiful companions for life. I like to be inspired by nature, the things of everyday life and my children. I am also inspired by the sensual experiences in traditional handicraft businesses. Based on common values and virtues, I founded the interior design company "MOOMII" in 2016 with my colleague Mona Dolpp.
The Moomii team will be happy to look into your case and give you a few tips on how you can redesign your living and dining room. The photos you sent us clearly show the problem areas described above. Your living room only has one window that brings natural light into the room, which makes the room look a little darker. The two passages to the dining room also make it difficult to position furniture correctly in the room. With our tips, we would like to help you give your living room a cosier and friendlier atmosphere.
We want to completely reverse the placement of the seating furniture in the room. We would place the sofa where the white chest of drawers is now. This would block one of the two entrances to the living room. However, we think this is good for the room, as it allows you to position the furniture in the room better and minimises the traffic routes. The result is a much more pleasant room structure. The blocked access is ideal for placing a chest of drawers or a half-height built-in shelf. This way, you gain storage space and create some privacy for the sofa corner. Make sure that the chest of drawers is not too high so that some light can still enter the room from the dining room.
Your armchair is quite large and high, which is why it absorbs a lot of light in the room. We suggest swapping it for a smaller, airier lounge chair. The chair next to the chest of drawers is also less needed in this room. On the opposite wall to where the sofa used to be, you now have enough space to place a nice, long TV unit. We recommend that you choose deeper furniture for shelves, chests of drawers and sideboards, as this gives the room a more airy feel. Your sofa table is very nice, even if it is also a bit large for the room. However, we can well imagine integrating it perfectly in the living room by giving it a lighter base. The box on which it now stands makes the sofa table look very bulky. This piece of jewellery would look lighter and more elegant with a simple metal base, preferably smooth/matt powder-coated in a neutral colour such as dark grey or black. A metalworker can make you a customised base frame.
To make the most of the little natural light in the room, we would remove the roller blinds from the windows. You should be able to do without privacy screens with the new seating configuration. A floor lamp should be placed next to the sofa, emitting as much light as possible in all directions. Your current floor lamp is a ceiling floodlight, which does a good job of defusing the feeling of a low ceiling, but only makes a minor contribution to the brightness in the room. A luminaire with a textile shade, for example, would be more suitable. This diffuses light in all directions. When selecting light sources, you should pay attention to the Kelvin specifications. The colour of the light source can range from 2700-3000 Kelvin.
We would place a second floor lamp next to the TV unit. Alternatively, you can also add a directional wall light as additional lighting, e.g. as a reading light in the sofa corner. Wall lights take up very little space and create a nice ambience. However, make sure that they are positioned in such a way that they do not interfere with sitting. However, this would require electrical connections in the wall, which an electrician would have to lay for you if they are not available. Although the ceiling light is decorative, it doesn't bring much light into the room. We recommend using plain white ceiling spotlights with the widest possible beam angle. This brightens up the room and the low ceiling height is no longer so noticeable.
If you also want new curtains in the living room, we recommend floor-length, semi-transparent scarves in light shades such as cream, sand or light grey. We like your choice in the dining room. It would look nicer if the curtains were placed to the left and right of the two large windows. This would mean you would have to move the chest of drawers away from the back wall. However, it should not be placed directly in the corner by the window. You can fill the section of wall between the two windows with one or more small picture frames.
You can round off your living room with matching accessories. A monochrome rug in light grey or cream would brighten up the sofa corner and make it cosier. The picture above the sofa can be mounted lower down. A larger picture in a high-quality frame above the sofa would be nice. A plant next to the TV furniture adds a natural touch to the room and has a positive effect on the atmosphere. You can place a larger plant directly on the floor in a pot or use the small stool in the corner as a table for a smaller plant. Last but not least, a decorative, medium-sized mirror on the wall opposite the window would be a useful accessory. Mirrors reflect the incident light back into the room, which also brightens up unlit corners of the room.
When selecting materials for furniture, it is worth taking a look at the properties. A matt surface is often easier to clean, but also absorbs light. We would advise against high-gloss, but a silky sheen can also contribute to a brighter atmosphere. When choosing colours, you should opt for light tones in dark rooms. To prevent everything looking too uniform, you can opt for darker colours for accessories. In your case, it is also possible to paint a wall without having to sacrifice light. You can paint the wall behind the sofa in a light grey or sand tone without hesitation. If you are allowed to, we would also like you to paint the radiators in the dining room the same colour as the wall. This would make them less noticeable.
