Basically a chair and ottoman combined, this piece of furniture is too cute not to be a focal point but just awkward enough to make for difficult placement.
Ok, let me explain.
I've been tasked with incorporating one of these bad boys into one of the secret project rooms (mentioned here). As mentioned earlier, it's a great piece with a great shape which is why it totally needs to stay. The problem I'm having is that I've never designed a room with one in it before which is why I think it's driving me insane.
To make things even more interesting, the room itself is full of obstacles - two entryways, a giant bay window, a narrow floorplan and half a wall that's being used for the upstairs railing. The room is located directly to the right of the front door, the space typically used for one of those formal living rooms your mom used to (or maybe still does) not let you walk through or go anywhere near. Instead of having one of those rooms, the family decided to use the space mainly for reading, relaxing and just vegging out after a long day - a function I can definitely relate to.
So per usual, I put on my little thinking cap and checked out google and pinterest, design books and magazine clippings, trying to find some inspiration or a way to turn madness into a gorgeous room. As you'll notice below, majority of the images I found were cropped photos of a chaise looking all cute and adorable but with no other inclination of what else is going on in the room. For example, is it part of a sitting area? Is it near a couch? IS THE ROOM ACTUALLY LARGER THAN A SMALL CORNER?
Bottom line: the search turned out to be not that helpful. Here is the recap.
looking cute in a corner (@ little green notebook)
and by a dresser (@ pawleys island posh)
and in an empty room (@ belle inspirations)
and by a door (link to pic)
So back to square one. What is this room supposed to do? Answer: provide a place to relax and enjoy good company, a good book or good glass of wine. While the chaise, in theory, may seem like the most perfect piece of furniture to accomplish this, I think the primary issues are 1) defining a focal point to keep the chaise from looking too lay-on-this-and-I'll-feed-you-grapes and 2) creating a balance in furniture arrangement to keep the room from looking too look-at-all-of-this-random-furniture.
While I don't have an answer to the space just yet, I thought I'd share my progress (using floorplanner of course) on finding the perfect arrangement for a relaxing room that contains an adorable piece of furniture.
original: the current furniture arrangement consisting of a chair, chaise,
bookshelf (in corner) and glass top side table (in bay window)
option 1: make a more defined seating arrangement with circular coffee table,
treating the chaise like a couch and featuring it in the bay window,
adding consistency with another bookshelf and another chair,
leaving the back wall for artwork, shelves, etc.
option 2: more open, less defined but anchored by the addition of another chair,
adding a small side table and moving the bookshelf behind chaise to create reading area
option 3: saw a piano in their garage that could maybe use for focal point,
added an additional chair for consistency and kept same reading area
option 4: created small seating area, making the piano the focal point,
moved bookshelf to open wall but kept at close proximity to chaise
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