Formerly Formal

Once considered a stuffy, don't-touch-anything room, more and more living is taking place in the living room

By Dana Carman
CTW Features

Image courtesy Benjamin Moore Co.

In many houses, the living room is the place where furniture and accents can rest assured that few will ever touch them, save for a dusting. Long known as a formal room for conversation, entertaining and showcasing breakable family heirlooms, the living room is ready for its makeover from formal d�cor to more casual, but without the techno-blitz of the family room.

"I have noticed that the 'formal' living room, like the dining room, is becoming less common in new construction," says Kasey Stamey, owner of Clerestory Design in Greensboro, N.C. "However I feel that both are key parts of the traditional home and will never really be out. The living room is changing in most homes to a more useful and comfortable room."

Designer Carol Friedman, owner of Boston-area Design Resource, agrees. "What I'm finding in the new homes is that the focus is off the formal living room," she says. The focus, instead, Friedman says, is on the family room. Because of this, living rooms in newer homes tend to be smaller. You won't find plasma screen televisions in most living rooms, however.

What you will find is less "living room suite" types of furniture, says Stamey, and more of a mixture of wood finishes, material and styles. "It is also common to see the use of many fabrics and patterns in one room," she says. "The use of one fabric on a sofa and two wing chairs is out. It is now very stylish to mix chair styles and sizes."

While the move is toward more comfortable furniture, the living room is still a place to add touches of "formal" in terms of materials, such as silk. Friedman is seeing textures, splashes of color, materials such as metal and the accessories, such as pillows, adding the formal touches to the living room, rather than the furniture. "There's more of a punch in something like that," she says.

The living room has not lost its status as the "sitting room" of the home, which allows it to show off a few formal, decorative flairs that lend themselves to the atmosphere of quiet elegance the room still possesses.

It's a place for reflection, curling up with a book and cup of tea, or conversation with a good friend. "I think the living room is one of the few rooms in the home that is not dominated by computers, televisions, iPods, and other forms of technology," Stamey says. "Because it has become a little less formal, or less 'stuffy,' it can be more enjoyed and lived in."

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