What kind of furniture do you like? I’m sure I haven’t seen everything, but it’s fun to find out what furniture styles people prefer. It’s also interesting to see how people can combine several styles into a hybrid (can’t think of a better term) style that looks and feels really comfortable.

Minimalist style:
A person has perhaps seven pieces of furniture at the most in a one-bedroom apartment. These pieces define both the kitchen nook and the living room. The look is very uncluttered, very simple, but not completely void of comfort. There is a couch and a television included in the mix.

My reaction: At first I was fascinated by this style. I like having ‘things’ around me or near me, at least. This style revealed a lot of space. But what caught my eye, was the lack of furniture and wall hangings. I usually like surrounding myself with visual pieces, not so, in this apartment. It made me wonder if the rest of the apartment was as clear as the front part. Lots of space can be refreshing or it can make me feel uneasy.

Themed style:
My friend and her family have a beautiful one-bedroom house that they use to entertain people on a regular basis. My friend’s eye for design is evident throughout the house, but especially in the forward part of the living room. She chose very comfortable couches, full of matching or complementary pillows. She has a variety of knickknacks on smaller tables, a coffee table and on the mantlepiece of their fireplace. She keyed the couches to blend with several types of chairs sprinkled in the same area. At Christmas they have the most wonderful tree that you can imagine. I love to visit them just so that I can see the tree.

My response: It’s very roomy and homey. I personally don’t like sitting with the pillows behind me. I like sitting up against the back of the couch, but the pillows are still very popular. She also chose a couch that sits high, rather than one that ’squishes’. It’s easier for me to get up and down off of a higher couch than the other style. I avoid those couches whenever possible. I think of a Victorian style house when I see this part of their living room. It’s comfortable, opulant and stunning in it’s attention to detail. I only have one issue with it, I am always afraid that I’m going to knock something over, one of the knicknacks or forget to use coaster on the glass-topped tables. Oh well. No one is perfect.

Cluttered style: This one-bedroom apartment used to have paint cans stored under the kitchen and workshop tools store in the linen closet. The rest of the living was filled with two bookcases, one coffee table, one desk and one very long couch. There were some other pieces too, but I will focus mostly on the ones I identified. The person who lived here, didn’t like having me move stuff around much, because then he wouldn’t be able to find it again!

My Response:
Yikes! It took a bit of time to walk in and out of this apartment. There were extra chairs, there, but in a pinch, if visitors came, we had to scurry around to find another seat(s) for them. Nearly every available flat space had something on it, except for part of the kitchen nook table. Piles of paper, extra envelopes, the daily paper, books, a stereo-radio that even had books stacked around it on the coffee table, and a table lamp, under which there were some tools. Needless to say, there wasn’t much room to move around or feel comfortable for very long in this apartment. I’ve seen worse clutter than this, but it does push a few buttons for me. What the room is saying to me,is, “Accept me on my own terms. I love to have you visit, but you might want to bring an extra chair with you. You also may want to meet somewhere else, after all, some people might be offended by how my apartment looks.”

Well, I started out discussing furniture and ended up discussing the present of clutter in living spaces. Clutter is a big issue for me, so I may discuss it more in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy the space you have this weekend!

Tags: A House For Life //