Welcome to Operation Decorate a New Place.
As I mentioned earlier, I have not yet been inside the unit we are going to be renting. But I pieced the (not at all to scale) floor plan together from photos and videos of the space. It's a two story loft and the first floor is mostly a big open room. Which is awesome, but presents a bit of a problem when figuring out how to arrange furniture.
There are a lot of windows and a lot of mirrors so the normal solution – sticking the TV up against the wall and the couch against the other wall doesn't work. My plan is to break up the space just like in the drawing above (except, not with those colors) with a two sided bookshelf.
The best part of this layout is that a two sided bookshelf has been my dream since May of 2006 (seriously, this is why I blog). My original plan was to just get a 5×5 Ikea Expedit shelf like in the photo and then stick a small table with the TV on it in front of the shelf to face the couch. But yesterday, while walking through Ikea, I found this Expedit version that is built to work as a media center and thought that would work… until I emailed Paul and he reminded me that our TV is too big for TV spot in the media center.
So I am back to the orginal plan and on a mission to find a low, thin table that can hold our TV and sit in front of the shelf. We will still fill the sides and top shelves with books (with spines facing both sides), vases & other odds and ends until it becomes a perfect room divider.
If you look back up at my "sketch" you'll see the space has two built-in couches by the fireplace. I think the divider will help turn that area into more of a sitting room/reading nook/drinking wine/cozy space. The current couches have an older floral patterned fabric and I am going to cover them in something bright and fun and hang art above each side.
Here's to executing decor dreams five and a half years later. I am so very excited.
p.s. I know I gave up Ikea last spring. But the Expedit bookcases are real gems. 🙂
enJOY it 
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