A cherry panel slides silently to reveal a state of the art media wall. The custom stone fireplace looks just as nice in the summer as it does with a roaring flame in the winter. It is formed of carefully matched cut stone panels, including the flush set hearthstone. We thoughtfully study how people use furniture in a room, to form a conversation group, to face a television or a view or a fire, to be alone with a laptop or Ipad, to nap on the sofa with the dog. We carefully select the pieces, and then arrange them in a flexible way for different needs to be met. A design professor once asked me to look at a room after a party had taken place and our hosts carefully set up living room had been adapted by the guests,…… how smaller chairs are pulled up close to form intimate groups, how little tables function for drinks and plates and such, how ottomans are sat on,…… and to use that seemingly chaotic arrangement to create a real and useful plan. Form does follow function. And flexibility is the key. Pieces that can be easily moved, and pieces that anchor the space are equally important. This room illustrates that idea perfectly. For even larger groups, armchairs are pulled in from the nearby dining room, ottomans tuck under the corners of the cocktail table and are pulled out for extra guests, little tables float, deep comfortably upholstered seats under the windows are piled with extra pillows. The theatrically scaled wing chairs are on swivel bases so that they can face the conversation group or the media wall. With one or a dozen, this room works.
