Casual Living Room Ideas

I’m itching for a switch and I did a quick refresh to my Jen Den, but I also am sharing my casual living room ideas we have planned.

When I was a little girl, my mom would often come into my room and find me moving my furniture around.

I probably did that at least once a month.

In fact, whenever I played with my dolls, I spent more time making sure the shoes lined up and everything looked perfect instead of making a story line.

Even now, Trent comes into a room, not surprised to find something different or changed.

I guess I’ve always been destined to ‘play house’ – at least the way I used to play it as a little girl!

When we set up our living room 2 years ago, I placed the couch opposite the fireplace, but I never enjoyed the layout.

We affectionally called it the Jen Den. Living in a house of all boys, not everyone wants to watch my favorite BBC shows.

So this is where I like to sit and hang out when I’m ready to watch my shows.

Except, most of the time, I look around and think about what I want to change.

In fact, there are a.l.o.t. of things I want to change about this room.

But I’ll share more on that later.

Here’s how it looked this past fall.

Awkward, right?

And I just couldn’t photograph it where it looked pleasing either.

So, I did a bit of redecorranging and this is what I have so far.

Casual Living Room Ideas

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I moved the couch directly opposite the TV, which immediately was better!

I also moved the big rug out of the room, creating more floor space.

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I found that it made the room seem bigger!

My goal for my home is to create casual feel where someone feels welcome to come in and relax.

I needed chairs that were low enough to still see my BBC shows without anything getting in the way!

I found these tufted armchairs from the Home Depot and fell in love with their casual, but elegant look.

Recently my father in law let me ‘borrow’ this vintage trunk.

It is so beautiful – made of wood that is perfectly weathered.

I love the edges trimmed in cow hide.

It had leather straps that have been long gone over the years.

Trent said he remembers keeping ‘his guys’ in this trunk when he was younger. 😉

It was really low, so his dad built a frame with wheels to give the trunk a little lift.

And now it’s the perfect height for the chairs.

I plan to get a cushion to set on top in case anyone wants to prop their feet up while watching a show.

Another piece that was moved around in this room was the chest below the TV.

I placed that on the wall opposite the fireplace and moved this cabinet from the sunroom in this spot – temporarily.

So let’s talk about a few plans.

While I love seeing my favorite collection, it feels too busy for this space.

So I am currently on the hunt for the perfect piece to place under the TV Cabinet.

And yes! There’s a TV in there! You can read all about that tutorial in this blog post.

Here’s how it used to look:

Here it is now:

The height and depth of the cabinet are perfect, but it needs to be wider and I would love something with doors.

I took the chest that was under the TV and moved it to the wall opposite the couch.

I think it’s the perfect fit. And the placement is just right for the next plan I have for this room.

And it involves knocking down a wall.

One thing you may not know, but this room is the darkest room in our home.

There aren’t any windows which means there isn’t any natural light directly coming in.

So if it’s a cloudy day, then it can feel like a dungeon.

But look at what’s on the other side of this wall.

Do you see how all that beautiful light from our front door is stopped by this wall?

So if we widen this opening and allow all that light to pour in, it will definitely brighten the room a great bit!

Another thing I need to do is update the wall color.

It’s a great color, Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray, but since the room is so dark, a lighter color would help make the room feel brighter.

I also plan to do is scrape the ceilings and possibly add come cedar beams, like the ones we DIY-ed for our bedroom.

CHECK OUT MY 3 SECRETS TRICKS TO REMOVE POPCORN CEILINGS!

One lofty goal is to install gas logs in our fireplace.

Sitting next to a non working fireplace is no bueno.

But that will take some research and budgeting!

All in all, I love the new room layout, but hope to get working on bringing these casual living room ideas to fruition!

DECOR SOURCES LINKED BELOW

As soon as we wrap up the music room, I’ll be grabbing my sledge hammer to bust out a wall. So be sure to follow along on Instagram to see all the behind the scenes shenanigans!