Living Room Design : Furniture Store vs. Designer Furniture

Our American society has not always been the most fashion forward, but we are quickly catching up to all of the trends (both clothing and design) now that the internet provides us immediate access to the rest of the world. Consumers are more conscious than ever of good design, and want to bring it into their homes, no matter what their budget. Furniture stores have started taking notice of this trend and are now offering complete room packages that have been created by their "designers". There is no mention of the level of education their designers have, and thought the rooms are very well put together, they are not what I would consider the same level of design quality you would get from a licensed interior designer.

The room below is a nice set up of neutral colored sofas that blend well with their surroundings. So what is the dead giveaway that this is a furniture store ad? All of the upholstered pieces, not just one or two, match. The same is true for the coffee and side tables. This shows that there was not a whole lot of selection and thought put into the individual pieces.

The space above shows you what you can do with a little thought, and an eye for color. In this view, the pieces all come from a similar looking collection, but the difference between the uses of materials makes all the difference. The sofa and ottoman are covered in a fabric and accented with leather, while the chair itself is in solid leather. If you look closely, you can see how the bright, graphic pillows on the sofa pull the slight blue hue out of the background painting. The coffee table has a completely different color of metal than the furnishings, but works nicely with the black leather. And though the furnishings are mostly contemporary, you will notice that many architectural elements are not (i.e. the fireplace, French doors with mullions, and the stair baluster in the background).

The furniture store advertisement above displays the same repeated use of the upholstery and tables, but branches out a bit from the typical by using a neat pattern on the ottoman and tying it in with throw pillows. The principle here is good, but could still use a little thought. Instead of using all "matchy matchy" pillows, you could branch out and find pillows that picked up a little more of the yellow, aqua, or cream from the ottoman and even bring in some of the brown from the rug to help tie it in as well.

Some people don't care for as much color as was mentioned above. That's okay, and is easily handled. The photo above is a good designer example of using the same colors on both the pillows and ottoman, and just varying the pattern from squares to dots. It is not the fact that the same colors are present that makes this a designer arrangement, but the fact that thought was put behind making these two very different patterns work through using the colors.

By now you should be starting to see a pattern from ad to ad. The matching sofa and ottoman are normally not what make the space overly coordinated, unless they are the only two upholstered pieces in the room as shown above. The table is an interesting shape, and matches the wood of the furnishings feet, which is a good principle to start from, but could have been taken to a different level. I do however, like the train of thought behind placing the live grass seen on the ottoman in front of the broken up mural of grass blades behind the sofa. It brings interest into the room.

This is an evolved example of what you can do by combining textures and sheens. The sofa is in a soft velvet and is bordered by a chrome trim at the base. A chrome table over the chaise lounge shows the effect even better. The table is a matte black oak that gently reflects the light that is cast upon is, varying its color to a lighter gray. The sculptural stands in the background behind the table draw your eye to the other side of the room and help to balance out the weight of the sofa by drawing interest. The large vase in front of the highly decorated gold mirror helps to draw your eye up, and helps to scale the mirror down.

I could continue on with my comparisons, but I wanted to find a way to involve and engage my readers, so I have come up with an idea I hope some of you will help me with. I want to hear your thoughts on the following two rooms, what you feel is good about the spaces, and what you feel could use a little work.

What are the good aspects of this space?

How is this space using a monochromatic (red is the only actual color in the space, black and white are technically neutral) color scheme and yet still very interesting?

With the passing of the holidays, everyone is shaking off the previous year, so why not test your design skills and participate? I would love to answer questions and respond to your comments!