The idea behind the family room, as the name suggests, is to promote quality time that one spends with their family. It is about togetherness and sharing bonding moments with your loved ones. However, these days, a lot of it has been taken off that room due to gadgets like TVs, laptops, etc that dominate the space. You can now design a space that is all about being with the family. Here are the top 11 design ideas and tips to help you make that happen.
Maintain eye contact
[Image: Anderson Construction Group, Inc.]
The most important thing about seating arrangement is to have an eye contact. It is crucial to maintaining an eye contact in order to bond with the other person. You should be able to look each other in the eye and not the TV. This is the reason why you need to place the seating in such a way that it promotes eye contact.
Provide Various Seating Options
[Image: Cecile Lozano Interiors]
Sometimes people prefer to seat themselves as per their personalities. For instance, extroverts are most comfortable in a parallel sofa seating arrangement as they can get involved with you, as well as others in a conversation. They should be able to accommodate a larger group in their space. However, an introvert will prefer some periphery seat and initiate talk with only one person at a time. You should make these provisions in your sitting area so that you can involve people according to their comfort levels.
Break the Vision
[Image: M Squared Design – Architecture]
If it is important to have an eye contact, it is also important to be able to look away and gaze at something graceful. This means that while we are talking, there will be moments when we break the eye contact and at this time, there should be something aesthetic and creative placed in the room that enables these eye breaks. You can install a fireplace if you need or even a fish tank, which will adorn your room gracefully and give you a comfortable spot to look at.
Offer good back support
[Image: Kat Robbins Interiors]
It can be very distracting if you are engaged in a deep conversation and you keep feeling like someone is walking right behind you. Not to mention how discomforting it can be in the absence of good support for the back. To make your conversations healthy and more interesting, you should eliminate as many distractions as possible so that the other person is more involved with you than with the things in the room. You can use high backed chairs with intricate detailing or console tables for this purpose.
Create Multiple Action Zones
[Image: CBI Design Professionals, Inc.]
When your family is sitting with you in the same room, they may all want to do different things. You can make that possible by creating multiple zones for them to get engaged in. There can be a spot for all to sit and chat or a separate table and chair if someone wants to read or fiddle with a puzzle.
Provide Comfortable Posture
[Image: Normandy Remodeling]
In a family room, one not only goes to spent time with the family, but also to spend some quality time with themselves. If you have a goof posture and ability to stretch, you can feel more relaxed and in control of yourself. But you have to make this feature available to everyone in the room so that all the people can feel equally relaxed. It would be no fun if you can stretch your legs and the other person is sitting uncomfortably.
Seating should be at the same height
[Image: sagemodern]
Uneven seating can be very distracting and people that are sitting a level below may feel patronized by the ones sitting on a level above. The room should have the seats for the members to have their heads at the same height as everyone else in the room.
[Image: Incorporated]
Everyone’s head should be at the same level in order to establish eye contact and comfort level when having lengthy conversations. It can be very awkward to keep your neck up or low for a very long time if you are in the middle of engrossing topic of discussion.
Use Furniture as per Human Scale
[Image: John Kraemer & Sons]
When the furniture that we are using is too big or small, it can be very uncomfortable and awkward. This is the reason you should choose the furniture that is ideal for a normal adult and can easily accommodate your body frame with feet comfortably on the floor.
Some pieces should be easy to move
[Image: NanaWall]
In this image, the sofa bed can be placed on the porch when the weather is nice and can be pulled back in when you need to be cosier. This bed can be pulled along the tracks easily and installed back inside the room.
[Image: Rikki Snyder]
People that belong to different cultures prefer to sit at different distance from one another. You should be able to make that provision for your guests if they are visiting from another country. There should be at least one such seat in the arrangement that can be brought closer to the group or placed farther away as per their comfort level. In this image, the yellow chair can be moved around easily as per the requirement.
Give your room ambient lighting
[Image: John Kraemer & Sons]
To include warm lighting in your room will make the group feel welcomed and connected with one another. It gets much easier to bond with the people in the room if your space is filled with warm ambient lighting. Indeed, one of the most stunning lighting ideas!
Make TV less available
[Image: Susan Diana Harris Interior Design]
TV can be included in your family room as sometimes it can be fun to watch shows or movies with the family. However, make provision to move the TV in and out of the room so that it is not about the TV only. It can also be hidden from the rest of the room when in not in use so that the first instinct is not about switching it on when you see it.
Family rooms need to promote love and bonding after a long day of work. This can be easily achieved if you follow these simple design idea and tips. You can also experiment with the styles and see what works for your family. One size does not fit all, and hence, you can tweak your approach to suit your family members.
