Clever and easy grip has completely transformed the living room

Designer Aina Sollie Steen was given the task of finding out if a family’s living room with three children could be made more practical. Practical storage was lacking, large parts of the living room felt like a traffic area and the family thought the room was cramped.

By tearing down the wall between the hallway and the living room, the room got a completely different look, and the distance between the kitchen and the dining room was minimal—something which Gunhild and Arield valued very much, when they saw the result.

– This has become a completely different room. That’s a big difference, really!

The family had a new room solution in the living room, new colors on the walls, and special wallpaper on the end wall next to the dining area.

– We think the colors are very beautiful – calm and serene. Gunhild says the wallpaper is vibrant.

smart grip

Before there was a small corridor between the kitchen and the living room. This was at the top of the stairs. Aina chose to demolish the wall between the hallway and the living room, so that the ladder can also be experienced as part of the living room volume.

This way you enter the middle of the room, which is a short way to the dining area, sofa area and TV corner.

In addition to resolving the room, all surfaces were rehabilitated. Heating cables were laid on the floor, before new oak parquet was laid on top. The walls were completely covered with plaster before being painted or wallpapered.

All window frames and moldings were painted in the respective wall wolves. Only the roof remained in its original form.

Where the family demolished the old fireplace, a new tiled fireplace solution was built.

Find out what materials, colors and interiors were used in the product listing.

Designer Aina’s Renewal Ideas

“This room has a nice vibe with a great view and lots of light to let in, so here it was all about combining this with a good job,” says Aina Sollie Steen.

They have been carried over to the homeowners’ desires to provide plenty of space for play, teamwork, relaxation, and guests. All this on the square meters that were not available.

– I think all rooms can be a better version of themselves. Aina says it is possible to make the room look bigger.

In this case, according to Aina, it was about opening the room in a new way – by tearing down the wall to the hallway – and entering the room and dividing it into zones.

Zoning was done using furnishings: a free dining area, a sofa set and a TV corner. The different areas have also been enhanced with slightly different shades of color on the walls in the three sections.

Floor to ceiling storage

Since the room solution has changed, Aina has managed to make a large shelf with slots in three ways. This has become a staple in the room, and is made from a total of 13 identical shelving units.

These were not built on site this time, but were assembled from Ikea modules. Some shelves have been shortened to the rear so as not to conflict with the drawer.

The shelves are square and easy to install in several ways. The shelving unit has four compartments. When grouped together, they filled the full height from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. In the shelf unit, there was also a TV bench inside the TV hook.

Color Inspired TV Hook

At the back of the room, a clear area was created for relaxing and watching TV.

The sofa faces the TV against the wall and shelves for storage. The new built fireplace acts as a room divider between the TV nook and the rest of the living room.

If you want more separation, you can actually draw a curtain and make this a separate room in the room.

The TV hook is painted a purple inspired by one of the colors in the old leaded glass window found here.

Lounge with a view of the light

In front of the fireplace, Aina has placed her new sofa set. In front of the window, the view is amazing, and Aina thought this was a great place to enjoy an afternoon coffee or a nap.

Two sofas are placed opposite each other. These are bright, light sofas that don’t steal a lot of space or a lot of attention. Combined with the light rug, this became an obvious seating area in the room.

unusual wallpaper

The dining area got the room’s coolest material on the wall – checkered wallpaper in purple and gold. This picks up all the colors that are used in the room, and is topped off with a plush effect. A somewhat unusual wallpaper, but it is also an intent, according to the designer.

– It can get a little boring with only painted surfaces, so I found a little crazy wallpaper. Aina says this will be the treatment in the room that brings all the colors together.

The dining area is furnished with a small light sofa against the wall and a round oak table with two interior panels. The beds were by the comfortable stick chairs.

Made some changes

Gunhild and Arild have now been living in their new living room for two months and say they are very happy. They liked the solutions and colors very much, but they had to change one thing.

-The bright narrow sofas and marble table were replaced with furniture we had before, says Gunhild.

The ones that came in were very nice, but they weren’t quite appropriate for our use. We like to sit four pieces on top of each other, as families with young children do. Then they narrowed a little in the seat. Now the living room works great, she says.

Other than that, she says, the TV hook is warm and comfortable, and that the curtain—in addition to being able to divide a room—also acts as a stage curtain in a children’s play.

– We feel very lucky to be a part of this. Imagine that while we were on a ski vacation, a new living room was designed for us! A brand new living room without us being involved in a building project at all. And I concluded that we are very happy with that.

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