Den Vrs. Living Room

When we first purchased our home we had a lot of different thoughts on what to do with our loft space. It is basically like a second living room above our normal living room but it's open and looks down over everything. We thought about using it as a studio, a game room, an office, a library and any other number of things. Eric suggested that we use it as a den but I had no idea what a den was. In my house growing up we never had a den, just a living room. I looked it up on the internet and found this definition "A secluded room for study or relaxation."

After reading that I thought, hey, I like the sound of this. In reality it's turned out to be kind of a combination library, office and living room. We have our comfy couches up in the loft area, all our musical instruments for jamming, books to read and our computers on one wall, a TV to watch and a small gallery of some of our favorite art and family photos. The Den is rapidly becoming my favorite place in the house.

The living room is another room that I love but for different reasons. We decided to make this more of a formal entertaining space while the den is more just for us. The den is a place that we don't have to worry about keeping spic and span while the living room is a chance to really show off our style and make a good first impression so to speak.

Here are some pictures of the two spaces, I'm really happy with how they both turned out.

bookshelf in the den

Computer area in the den, still needs some cleaning up

The TV and Music shrine

Comfy couches, the love seat makes a superb reading nook and has a great view out the funky window.

Living room, in here we wanted the fireplace to be the focus of the room rather than the TV so we stuck the TV off in a corner and oriented the couches and chairs around the fireplace.

Living room bookshelf, we try to put the books that make us look smart on this one ;-P

Living room from another angle, TV tucked away behind the couch.