Living room

The sunken living room has arched windows with exterior ironwork, a high beamed ceiling and features a floor to ceiling fireplace.  Photos were taken shortly after moving in.

Features

The obvious feature in this room is the (gas) fireplace, which is visible through the length of the main living rooms.  We will enhance this by adjusting the doorways through the kitchen. 

Changes

We plan to remove the carpeting and install large sized saltillo tiles over radiant hot water heating tubes. 

The windows on the east wall will be replaced with the archway windows present in the rest of the room. The blinds were removed in this room and so far we have not found it necessary to have window treatments.  I would like to replace the "brick" arch  around the fireplace with a natural stone. We will also be widening the ceiling beam. I have yet to decide on creating built in window seating on either side of the fireplace beneath the windows.

Color

Currently the walls are splatter textured with the fireplace done in concrete texture to resemble stucco.  Because of the style of the home, we plan to re-stucco the walls with a more traditional material, in an earthy terra cotta. (check, second photo) The fireplace will have a slight difference in color than the rest of the room. The large scale saltillo tiles will be a blend of oranges. I have yet to find an area rug that I like for this particular room, but want one with the tile floor.

Furnishings

The sofa is a dark green with wooden base.  Lighter green chairs will be facing the sofa over a large wooden sofa table. 

Lighting

Lighting is so important, and not to be overlooked!  I will be removing the existing lighting and installing a central wrought iron chandelier in the center of the beam to hang over the seating area.  The chandelier will be the only overhead lighting.  I think that too much overhead lighting would detract from the comfort of this room.

Art

Budgetary restrictions prevent me from purchasing large scale paintings and sculpture pieces that I enjoy.  However, time constraints do not prevent me from attempting such things myself. 

We have some smaller pieces of art that we plan to feature in the home as well.