One of the things that I hate about houses or apartments is when the layout is such that front door opens into the living room or dining room and you have no privacy when guests come by. Our first home as a married couple was like that. We were on the bottom floor of a two family house, with our own side entrance. Our small kitchen was not an eat-in-kitchen and had no dinette area. What we did have was a long room which served as a dining room and living room adjacent to the kitchen. Unfortunately, our door was located there too. When anyone came to the door, they immediately saw our dining table, and if it was during meal time, they saw us eating. This might not bother everybody, but I really didn’t like it.
Our next apartment was also in a two family house but we were up one flight and we often greeted anyone coming to the door at the bottom of the steps. And the single family house we moved into after that had a front foyer and privacy wasn’t an issue at all. It was so nice to be able to have people come to the door and not see into your whole house! That lasted for a while until our landlord sold the house and we had to move. We found a house which was about 80 years old at the time and had a very comfortable feel. We actually liked the layout a lot, including the front and back porches, and closed off dining room with built-in barrister bookcases. Unfortunately, the front entrance afforded no privacy; when opening the door you could see the entire living room. That would not do anymore!
At first I thought I would buy decorative room dividers in order to separate the front door from the rest of the living space. That way, one could greet visitors without exposing everybody relaxing in the living room to the right. Once we moved in however, it became quite obvious that our bookcases would serve this purpose for us and they functioned quite well as an additional “wall” separating our front entrance from the living room. We placed our bookcases with the shelves facing the living room, so the backs were facing the door. They weren’t pretty but they served the intended purpose and, in fact, I received compliments about the creative and functional way I used the bookcases.
Our current home is an apartment, again with a front door that opens into the living room area. The previous tenant had used this space for her dining room as well, but we chose the area off to the side, where they had set up their computer, for our dining area. I decided to again “build a wall” separating the front door from our living space with bookcases and cabinets. Since this apartment is much smaller than our previous homes, I used some additional ingenuity to make a space for myself and my computer. We set up the space so that our “living room” is toward the front of the room; our three-seater couch is furthest back in the room and faces the front picture window, our two-seater and over-sized chair are alongside and catty-corner to it , closer to the window. This left me with a space between the back of the couch and the bookshelves. I took a small desk we had placed next to the door and moved it so that it would be back to back with the couch and placed my laptop on it. I now have a foyer, computer spot, and living room – 3 separate areas where there used to be one!
I really enjoy coming up with creative ways of solving problems, especially those in the home. It is so important that your living space feels comfortable and is functional in the way that you need it to be. Whether you spend a lot of time at home or it’s just a place to eat and sleep, it’s important to enjoy being there. So, if the room layout of your current home or prospective one is not to your liking, for whatever reason, often creative use and placement of furniture can make all the difference.
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