Turning a walk-through into a room

What do you do when a big chunk of your living space is essentially non-functional except as a walk-through or passageway between other rooms? Even if you put furniture in there and hang some pictures on the wall, it still ends up being a walk-through and nobody feels comfortable spending any time there.

Our living room had this problem. When we first saw it, despite attempts by the previous occupants, it ended up a walk-through, a hallway between the front door and kitchen or dining room or porch (where their kids played) or stairway to the second floor. Why? Because it has five doorways off of it and all the furniture was lined up against the walls, further emphasizing a path running through the middle of the room, leading to everywhere else.

The problem is one I call "no containment." The solution? Create containment! Here's how.

Obviously, there are architectural ways to do this, e.g., with columns or partial walls, etc.--which can look beautiful but can be expensive and you have to deal with construction issues (and if that seems like no big deal, read my first post). Another option is simply to move your furniture around.

Once you "get" what the problem is, you can figure out ways to arrange your furniture, some plants, whatever, to give you little mini-rooms within your room. This will allow the traffic flow to meander, stay awhile, settle in or gently flow to another destination, but not feel compelled to bee-line through the room and out.

At first, it might feel odd placing a big piece of furniture away from a wall, sticking out into your room, but go with the flow and experiment.

Here's how I handled my living room but you can apply these principles to any room:

1. "Vestibule" -- when you come in the front door, you land in a tiny entry room fit for one where you can hang your coat before entering the living room. Right before you is the first doorway into the living room. Prior to rearranging this room, you got a clear view across the room to the stairway on the opposite wall and felt pulled in that direction, fast. En route through the living room, you discovered the dining room and kitchen doorways to your left and porch door to your right. So, you realized you could take right or left turns. But you didn't even notice the living room,because it basically was a hallway. So, I placed a folding screen a short way into the living room nearest the front entrance and abutting the wall on the left, placed a cheap wooden stool with table cloth over it in front and put a nice plant on it. This extended the entry room into a more inviting "vestibule" and gave the eye a place to rest on arriving, before moving into the living room. You can see beyond this screen, to the right, but the screen offers just enough "containment" to allow your eye, and you, to rest a bit before entering the house.

2. The "new" Living Room -- On the other side of the folding screen is a narrow armoire, angled into the living room, the folding screen at its back. This creates a small "wall" that is just wide enough to give the sense of "containment" for the living room, i.e., it feels more like a room and less like a hallway. The opposite side of the "new" living room is "contained" by placing a rocking chair a few feet in from the stairway (rather than against a wall) facing in the direction of the living room. This creates another small "wall" for the room. So, the four "walls" of the living room become: the pre-existing right-side wall, the pre-existing left-side wall, the newly created armoire "wall" and the newly created rocking chair "wall."

3. "Window seat"" -- The newly created space to the right of the extended "vestibule" is just right for a "window seat" area looking out on the front garden.

4. Small "hall" to stairway -- Between the stairway wall and the rocking chair "wall," a small hallway to the stairs is created. Entering from the kitchen, this little hallway faces a pleasant focal point in front of a window, created using a table, plants and a fountain. Because the stairway turns near the bottom, this little area also has become homey extra seating off the living room.

So, the large, unusable walk-through living room is now the most cozy and comfortable "room" in the house, with four distinct usable living areas and allowing for a smooth, gentle traffic flow between adjacent rooms.