Light Up Your Living Room With Feng Shui Design Secrets

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Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
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Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
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Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
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Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
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Janice Carlson wants to spice up her living room while keeping it well-lit with natural sunlight.
Janice Carlson wants to spice up her living room while keeping it well-lit with natural sunlight.
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Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.
Angling the furniture and letting light spill into the living room makes it more inviting. Personal effects such as the didgeridoo on the back wall add personality.

Q: We aren’t sure what to do with our living room. Can you help?
–Janice Carlson, Nanaimo, British Columbia

Dark brown window blinds in Janice’s living room block all natural light, but letting the sun shine through a wall of windows makes the interior overly bright and hot. Janice should spend the bulk of her redecorating budget on light, neutral-colored translucent window coverings that would allow light to pass (even when closed) and provide privacy at night.

Janice can choose from three options: translucent shades, cellular shades or DIY rod-pocket panels. Once the shades are mounted, Janice should hang color-coordinated fabric panels over the vertical wood ballasts, reducing the window wall’s continuous, horizontal movement and hiding some of the wood, balancing the room. She can amp up ambience with low-voltage track lighting with adjustable heads that allow wide-beam bulbs for ambient light and spotlight bulbs to highlight points of interest. 

Janice could make the best use of her space by rotating her furniture 45 degrees and moving the arrangement as close to the window wall as possible. She could “fake” an L-shaped wall unit by filling the wall to the left of the fireplace with “storage modules” in a light-oak finish to blend with the existing wall unit. She should select modules with integrated media storage and consider leaving an open area to hang a painting.

Janice should keep her sofas and select an area rug to warm up the space and define the seating area. The rug should include enough blue to tie with the sofas, a light neutral to blend with the fireplace and a warm accent color. Three ascending pedestals to the right of the fireplace would allow Janice to display a sculpture collection or plants while drawing the eye into the room.

  • Published on Aug 17, 2010
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