STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

jen · Kate Spade

My living room is my bedroom, what to do?

Elle · Hermes

I've helped a couple of friends out with studio/alcove apartments before - they always end up looking really cute, so don't freak out just yet .

I would seriously consider hanging long curtains as a divider - you could do two sets, one sheer, maybe with some kind of embroidery or whathaveyou on them, and another solid or blackout set for privacy and/or when you want or need to completely block off your bedroom nook.

Another idea: Depending on how wide the entryway is between the rooms is, you could do a bookcase, centered if you're able so you can walk on either side to get from room to room. Like this one:

HTH!

jen · Kate Spade

Thanks. I was thinking a folding screen or bookcase diagonally (sp?) along the back of my bed would do it. I'll have to fool around with it. It's hard to explain, but the room is diagnal to the rest of the apartment so I would need a looooooooooong rod to hang curtains which is what I orgianally thought of as well. A piece of furniture might break it up enough though. I'm just SO excited, this is my first place with NO roommates so it's all up to me! Yay!

shopgirl82 · Chanel

i love to watch a show on hgtv called small spaces big style. and there was this one where essentially you have a half of wall (you can do this with bookcases), and then there's a clear plexiglass that let's light in, but still divides the room. that wall (with plexiglass), also acts as a headboard for the bed.

i actually found the episode.

the other idea is similar to elle's. you can add curtains that divide the room.

Cortney1982 · Chanel

I like the idea of hanging curtains if that is possible.

lynnie · Chanel

i like the idea of curtains and maybe backing a couch up to that "wall" so that a living room space is defined.

NCshopper · Hermes

I think curtains will be the easiest and least expensive solution. You can get a tension rod for the shower and mount it in the doorway and hang a window curtain, or even a cute shower curtain from that. If the opening between the two rooms is bigger than that, you can get some eye bolts at a hardware store, screw them into two studs in the wall and put up a stainless steel cord to hang the curtains.

A sheer window panel would let light in from both rooms, but an opaque panel would say more "off limits" to me. Another idea would be to put two cords/rods up and have a sheer panel on one and a lush opaque one on the other. When people come over, you can draw the sheer panel all the way closed and use a pretty tie-back to partially close the opaque curtain, so you have a very distinct divider, but it still lets the light in. I hope that makes sense. I can see it in my head, but I'm not sure if it's translating right into words.

jen · Kate Spade

I like the curtain idea but here is what my floorplan more or less looks like. See how the 14x12 space is diagnol? Like, I'd have to run the curtains from the kitchen to the balcony (the living room is my bedroom and the smaller square is the living room). Would that still work?

Elle · Hermes

Oh, I thought you were going to be using the smaller of the spaces for your bedroom ... .

I think the bookcase/large piece of furniture idea would work the best for your space, and if it were me I'd place it diagonally in the space and probably use the 'bedroom side' of it as a headboard and maybe the 'living room side' as an entertainment center.

You could still do curtains, but a tension rod isn't gonna work. They have tracks that you screw into the ceiling (really easy to install) that you could hang curtains from, maybe in a curved shape, but you could go diagonally across as well.

If you wanted to divide w/furniture, you could do something like this facing into the living room:

With two of these on either side facing into the bedroom, for storage and to extend the divider a bit:

This bookcase is pretty cool, too:

NCshopper · Hermes

Why not make the smaller space your bedroom? That seems like it would make much more sense. That way when you have people over, you have more space in the bigger room. Since there's a closet in the smaller room, I would think it would just make more sense to have your bedroom there.

Or!!! You could have some sort of futon as your bed and just arrange the pillows in such a way that it becomes a couch when people come over and then you'd have a HUGE area for people to come play.

jen · Kate Spade

That would be the easier thing to do! But, I'll only be having people over maybe once every couple of months and I'll be in my bedroom everyday so I want the larger space for my room since it's my primary living area. I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll even post pics when I get it all set up. Maybe I should write to Oprah and get that hot little piece of ass Nate to come do it for me...

ranchera20 · Marc Jacobs

jen wrote:

Maybe I should write to Oprah and get that hot little piece of ass Nate to come do it for me...

This made me laugh!!!

Elle · Hermes

NCshopper wrote:

Why not make the smaller space your bedroom? That seems like it would make much more sense. That way when you have people over, you have more space in the bigger room. Since there's a closet in the smaller room, I would think it would just make more sense to have your bedroom there.

Agreed .

Jen wrote:

That would be the easier thing to do! But, I'll only be having people over maybe once every couple of months and I'll be in my bedroom everyday so I want the larger space for my room since it's my primary living area.

Actually, since the whole place will be 'your space', I think you'll be spending less time actually in your bedroom. Just IMO though .

Actually, from the sound of things it might be best to move into the place first, figure out how you use the space, and then go about dividing it up. After all, you can always switch the spaces after the fact if you decide you don't like it the first way.

tara t · Marc Jacobs

ohhhh... ahhh...

i love it !

lynnie · Chanel

i agree with the girls that it makes more sense to have the smaller space be your bedroom. since its all yours, you will probably hang out in the living room mostly. i know in college we had to put our desks in our bedroom, but since you have a living room, you can even set up a mini office out there so all you really need is a dresser, bed, nightstand (and maybe a dressing chaise) you could also partition the living room in sort of a tetris L shape, so that you enclose areas only as extensions of the wall- tuck your bed in with the back to the balcony and the side against the double windows- chaise at foot of bed and dresser and desk in the smaller part of the L. with curtains or screen to hide them, but something more substantial for wall that hides bed. i live my bed to be as far from the front door as possible, but i also tend to like walls around it- so thats why i'm leaning towards the smaller room for bedroom. hot space by the way. i'm jealous- that would be sooo expensive here.

blubirde · Chanel

I agree with Elle about you using the bigger space more often than your bedroom. I thought the same way as you do when I first moved into my own place after living with roommates, but, as it turned out, I spent WAAAYYY more time in the living room than in the bedroom. I only slept in there and sometimes I did that on the couch!

Anyway, as for splitting up the space, my BFF did that for an efficiency she had and she used folding screens with fabric for the "screen" part instead of paper or wood. It looked really cool and you could use it for other things later on. When my BFF and I moved into a two bedroom after the efficiency apt., we used it to hide all our tv and cable cords. And now I've stolen it in my apt. to hide the washing machine and dryer. It's a very useful investment!