Mixing Modern + Traditional = Family Friendly Living Room Design
Hi Friend, welcome to Postbox Designs, E-Design! I’m Kristin-Mom to 3, Michigander, and I’ve been an Interior Designer for about 13 years now. And while I loved the decade I spent as a “traditional interior designer”, for the past three years I’ve focused exclusively on Interior E-Design. Why? Because if you are like me, you are a busy super star trying to juggle things like work life, family life, and that never ending To Do List. And while you want your home to be beautiful, you are feeling stuck and overwhelmed. So I’m here to take AWAY that stress and help you cross one more item off your never-ending To Do List.
And today I want to share a recent project I worked on with an awesome, busy Mama. She had an awkward shaped room, and was stuck with where to put her furniture, including fitting in a TV into a room that wasn’t really designed well for it. (I come across that problem quite often!). Plus she wanted a beautiful, polished look…but it also had to be super durable and easy to maintain because she had young kiddos at home.
Want to see what we did to create her dream Living Room design?
Modern + Traditional Living Room Design Version #1
She wanted to see sleek, crisp lines, but wanted her Living Room to also feel comfortable and inviting because this was their main family hang-out space. While this room likes polished, there are tons of family-friendly tricks to make this room comfortable, casual, and most definitely kid friendly!
Living Room Furniture
The Sofa
I always suggest to spend the majority of your budget on the one or two seating pieces that you will most often use. You want these pieces to be comfortable and will stand the test of time. You will be kicking yourself for buying the sofa that “looked pretty” but felt like sitting on concrete blocks. I suggested she invest in this beautiful sleek, but comfy, Pottery Barn sofa. This version had more clean lines than many of their traditional pieces. And because she has young kids, we went with this Performance grade fabric that is formulated to be stain and dirt resistant.
The Chairs
The secondary seating piece is usually an armchair or two. I liked these Pottery Barn chairs because the wood arms are the perfect antidote to “sticky fingers”! You know how kids tend to have sticky, dirty fingers? And the arms of chairs usually get the most use and abuse, so this distressed wood will be easy to wipe down.
The Coffee Table
So what is the perfect mix of a sleek and elegant coffee table…that is also durable and rustic? This bleached and distressed Restoration Hardware table has oodles of space to spread out on for family game night and puzzles. When you have young kids, I always try to stay away from more delicate surfaces such as polished woods and marbles. This distressed finish will stand the test of time with feet propped up on it, and movie night popcorn.
The Poufs
These leather poufs provide extra seating that is easily to move in and out of the space as needed. And leather is one of my FAVORITE surfaces to use with kids-it is easy to wipe down and clean. So go ahead kids and eat your after school snack on these babies!
Living Room Decor: The Accessories
But just like adding jewelry to a LBD, the accessories are what brings the room to life! These gorgeous pillows are all from Etsy. And all of them are removable covers so she can pop them off and wash them when spills happen. Because with kids, it is always WHEN spills will happen, not if. To keep up the “polished” more modern look of the room we layered in World Market marble lamps (#9), West Elm sleek metal side tables (#10) and glossy Target vases (#13 and #14). To keep the room still looking warm and comfy, we added in some more rustic pieces like this dough bowl (#6), rattan baskets (#15) and olive tree (#16) from Pottery Barn.
Fireplace Styling Ideas
This is one of the most asked for tips I get! How do you style your fireplace? I used this gorgeous Inspirational Photo (#27) to give my client a vision of how to style her own fireplace. And best part? All of these pieces are really budget friendly such as this Target vase (#24) with greenery (#20) and H&M Home black metal candlesticks (#25 and 26), with a single painting (#21) hung above the mantle.
Laying Out Your Living Room Design
When I’m finished designing their room, I always send my clients their Postbox. Inside are all of their drawings, shopping lists, and material samples all together. In every Room-Inside-A-Box is a Floor Plan with notes and measurements. And in this case, having a new layout was really important to my client as she was very unsure about where to put her furniture.
So we did a totally different layout than what she currently had, to maximize her seating and conversation area. Plus when you have two conflicting points of interest-say the TV and the fireplace, you want to try to arrange your seating to work for both. Additionally, my client needed a place to discreetly tuck away toy storage. To make their toy storage look less “kid-ish”, we actually used Pottery Barn bookcases (#18), but was chock full of basket storage to tuck away toys.
Modern + Traditional Living Room Design Version #2
After I create the first design for my clients, I always send it to them to get feedback and thoughts. I have found it is so much easier to give feedback from a specific design! After getting all of the feedback, I make changes and swaps out to the design to create something even better. So here is her Living Room Design Version #2-to create their perfect dream Living Room!
Living Room Decor: The Pillows
In this Living Room design, we swapped out some different pillows-these have more of a casual, farmhouse vibe, but still keep a polished look, and still kept her requested pop of navy color! And we also went with a different armchair-these are from Crate and Barrel. I love their sleek shape but the fabric keeps these chairs looking casual (plus remember the wood arms that help resist sticky fingers? These chairs still rock that look!)
Living Room Design: The Accessories
We also swapped out a few more accessories such as this new fireplace painting (#21), rustic wood vases (#22), and gold vases (#24). I also swapped in different wall artwork, with these modern-meets-rustic wood slice prints (#19). Both Version #1 and Version #2 are meant to mix and match, so she can use her favorite combination of pillows, furniture, and accessories to create her perfect look.
Think she will mind if I move in with her?!
Other Living Room Designs You Will Love
But before you go, here are a few more Living Room Designs-all in different styles, to get you even more inspired for your own home!
700 SF California Apartment Living Room Design Reveal
Think your home is small? This ENTIRE home is only 700 SF, see how we fit a lot into a tiny footprint:
Small Living Room Makeover Reveal
Navy is the Newest Neutral
Did you know Navy actually works like a neutral? Which is good news for me because it my color of choice in my own home! See how we styled this Living Room & Home Office area with neutrals that are far from boring!
6 Secrets for Decorating your Living Room with Neutrals
Farmhouse Living Room Design
Love the Farmhouse look in your home, but also want a polished, pulled together look? More sleek and less rusty tractor? I got you covered! Check out this Living Room, Dining Room, and Bedroom Makeover:
Modern Farmhouse Living Room + Dining Room
Want to Grab Free Designs?
And finally my favorite resource for you is my FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY! Inside are dozens of free Room Designs + Shopping Lists, for just about every room of your home! When you sign up, you will get an email with your password and link so you can access it 24/7…all for free. And check back often, because I’m always adding to it.
How Does Interior E-Design work?
Thinking that E-Design might be the perfect solution for you? You can check out How It Works plus you can check out all of the Room Packages and Prices. Don’t need as much work? I also work by-the-hour if you just need a few things to finish off your room. I send you a Welcome Packet so I can get to know your style, budget, and needs. By the end of your project, we will be design besties! Or feel free to shoot me an email at kristin@postboxdesigns.com and we can chat all about your project and needs.
Cheers,
Kristin
pat lewis says
Hi! I love the designs for the modern/traditional living room. Can you please tell me where the leather poof is from?
PostboxDesigns says
Thanks so much! I love those poufs too-they are actually from Wayfair. Here is the link to them: https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/casablanca-market-moroccan-leather-pouf-klhn1033.html?piid=12398658&experiencetype=1 Have a great day! Kristin