Great Room Reveal

Jim and I started our Saturday morning at the Kalispell Green Market, which showcases many local farmers and vendors. The market had lots of locally grown fruits and vegetables. We picked up some yummy plums, parsley, beets, and more edible homemade goodies. In addition, there were lots of local artists and craftsman selling their handmade beeswax candles, pottery, quilted goods, wooden pepper and salt grinders, etc. We bought some beautiful pieces that were reasonably priced.

Handmade items like the ones at the Green Market bring character, warmth, authenticity and soulfulness into your home. These items have a unique appeal and charm that isn’t available in factory-made items. When shopping think about how you’ll use the piece. Will it be decorative or functional? Most importantly, always buy things you really love, even if they don’t match! In today’s post, I’m sharing our completed Great Room. You’ll see our living, dining, entry and kitchen spaces decorated with new, handmade, existing and vintage finds.

The pottery vase in the picture below was made by a local artist. The candle is made in Montana and smells amazing.

Modern Great Room Design

The modern great room concept traces back to the “multipurpose room” in modernist homes built by Joseph Eichler in California in the 1950s and 1960s. Developers started building high-end houses with great rooms in the 1970s and 1980s, at first simply adding vaulted entryways to ranch-style house. An example of this is the house in the television series The Brady Bunch. Our home features many of Eichler’s and other Mid-Century Modern design features, including large windows and natural materials, such as wood and stone.

Learn more about Mid-Century Modern design in the post below:

Mid-Century Modern Design

Living

The living room is open to the dining and kitchen, which allows Jim and I to be together, but not be on top of each other either. There are places within this area that we can enjoy the mountain view, watch TV, listen to music or read a book. When it gets colder, we’ll be cranking up the propane fireplace and sipping hot cocoa or tea. When designing your living room, you’ll want to identify your focal point. In our case it’s the Swan Range views first and fireplace second. You’ll want to place your furniture facing your chosen focal point. The sectional we bought is perfect, as it faces both the view and fireplace.

Furniture

The Interior Define Sloan sectional (Chenille Fabric in Wheat) offers a place to sit whether you want to take in the view, watch TV or enjoy the fire. The Interior Define Gwen accent chairs (Performance Velvet in Rust) provides more seating or a spot to read a book. These custom furniture pieces were reasonably priced, but you can find more affordable options at your local furniture store or vintage market. I’m confident you can find beautiful furniture within your budget, but creating a functional space is just as important.

Dimensions

For a functional space, use the rule of thirds as a basic guideline for planning your living room. For example, our sectional is approximately two-thirds the size of the walls in the great room space. The funky, vintage coffee table is two-thirds the size of the seating area of the sectional. As mentioned in a prior post, the coffee table is roughly the same height as the seat cushion on the sectional. You can go up to four inches higher or lower but keep it close to the same height. You’ll also want to ensure you have 12 to 16 inches between the edge of the sofa and coffee table. This distance allows you to sit comfortably and reach your tea without stretching too far. Finally, your side tables should measure within 2 inches of the armrests of your sofa or accent chair.

I sourced the 1970s walnut coffee table, which has colorful glass inlays from 1stDibs. It has storage on the bottom, brass wheels and it even rotates! As you can see below, it also matches the wool rug perfectly.

Keep enough room between other pieces of furniture to allow people to move around easily: 20 – 24″ is a reasonable space to leave. Remember to position furniture so that people can hear and see one another when seated. You want to create a conversation circle of a maximum of 8 – 9 feet so that chatting is easy, but people don’t feel uncomfortably close. Don’t forget to keep three feet in front of doors clear of all furnishings and decor.

Color

One of our favorite design elements in the house is the walnut paneling. It adds warmth, depth and a natural contrast to our lighter white oak floors. We wanted to keep the remaining walls light, so we used Sherwin Williams Greek Villa. This warm, neutral color compliments all the other choices we’ve made in our home. I added color with furniture, area rugs, pottery, art, decor, pillows and blankets. I used the fabric samples ordered from Interior Define to stay within my desired color palette. Don’t worry about matching the sample colors perfectly, just try to get close to your sample colors. Your color palette will help you achieve your desired feel or style for your space. Be sure to bring the samples, paint and fabrics into your home because your light is going to be different than the light at the store. Need inspiration to pick your color palette? Use a favorite painting or fabric to inspire the colors in your home.

Pro-Tip: A simple method to add color to your space is to use the 60-30-10 color rule. For example, 60% of the color in our great room is Greek Villa, then 30% is green and finally 10% is a rusty-red. A complete color palette consists of your chosen colors and additional shades of those same colors. I’ll use our color palette again here as an example, we have both the main green and rusty-red, as well as lighter and darker versions of these colors in our space. Adding these additional colors adds interest to your space.

The guys at Dopps Enterprises did an awesome job installing the walnut paneling:

Texture

We’ve talked about colors and dimensions, so now let me spend some time sharing how the choice of surface and structure is so important in the overall design. You can get away with using different shades of a color, but you can rarely get away with using the same surface everywhere. The low price and easy availability of MDF makes items affordable, but it can also leave your home feeling flat and lifeless. It is important to mix different types of surfaces. Mix tight, sealed materials (Quartz/MDF/LVP) with more natural surfaces (Stone/Real Wood), as well as textiles that are soft, fluffy, shaggy, glossy, ruffled, woven, pleated or rustic.

Texture examples that will add depth to a room:

Rug with a distinctive texture, such as a deep pile
A sheepskin or cowhide
Linen fabrics, such as curtains and sheets
A soft, fluffy throw
A woven fabric with natural texture
A glass vase or candlesticks with relief detailing
Hand-thrown pottery
Visible wood grain in furniture

Fireplace and Walnut Paneling

The Alluvial leathered quartzite is a great example of a textured surface. You can actually feel the texture in the stone, unlike quartz which has a completely smooth surface. The stone fabricators actually built the top and bottom pieces in their shop and then installed them on the fireplace. We expect our first cool front next week, so we’re looking forward to using the fireplace for the first time.

Our builder, Jason/J Martin Builders designed the walnut paneling, which includes small reliefs in the paneling. The area behind the relief was painted black, making the walnut paneling seem to float off the surface. It’s a beautiful detail that was much harder to install than simple trim pieces.

Learn more interior design tricks in my post below:

7 Critical Interior Design Elements

Indoor Plants

Indoor potted plants add another element of texture and color to your space. Our Interior Design partner, Joni Stoll Design recommended a local nursery for house plants. I was thrilled with the plant selection and quality at Plant Land in Kalispell. They have beautiful plants, plus unique pots, hanging plant holders, wind chimes and more. The Plant Land team were also super knowledgeable and provided terrific service, including potting newly purchased plants in a pot purchased from them. By the way, we’ll need to buy unsoftened water or get water from the outside hose to water our indoor plants. Softened water is great for everything, except your plants! The salt used to soften the water will actually hurt your plants in the long run. Finally, when asked about purchasing fresh cut flowers, a Plant Land representative mentioned several local flower shops that would sell them loose or in an arrangement. I visited one of their suggestions, Woodland Floral and Gifts to pick up fresh flowers for an upcoming Social Media video shoot.

I also ordered plants from the EasyPlant website. I decided to order from them because they have self-watering pots that don’t require a water tray. They were also not that more expensive than buying the plant, pot, stand, and potting soil. They looked great for being shipped across the country. I’ll provide an update in a future post, but I really like the idea of only watering once a month using the handy water reservoir. I filled up the reservoir with a one liter of water upon receiving the plants. I ordered a “Huge” Money Tree, a “Medium” Ficus Altissima and two walnut plant stands.

Dining

You know we rarely sat at our dining room table in the past. Of course, we sat down for holiday dinners with family and friends, but never every day. Now we sit down for lunch and dinner at our Arhaus Jacob dining table regularly. We like to look out across the great room at the Swan Range views beyond the living room windows. Jim and I look forward to hosting dinners for friends and family when they come for visits, but until then I’ll be lighting the candles and enjoying a meal with my hubby.