There are things you can get used to lacking if you go without them long enough, or have never had them. For me, living rooms are one of them.
Get the look: engineered wood flooring / moss stitch throw (more throws) / door curtains / diamond brocade cushion / pebble grey sofa / coffee table / shelving unit / abstract painting
I stopped spending time in the living room in my flat — my family’s flat — when I was eighteen. I only held out that long because the only computer I had access to was a desktop and it was there. As soon as I had a laptop I was out of there. There are several reasons, the main two of which can be summed up as “my parents refuse to not smoke in my presence even though it makes me sick” and “my father exists.”
So I lived and now again live in my bedroom. There was a three-month stint at a dorm, which also had nothing comparable to a living room.
Last year, I moved to London. London: where housing is so expensive people turn living rooms into bedrooms so they can get another flatmate in to share the rent! I went through some places with no living room, or where the only room I could work in was the living room, or where I stupidly didn’t make the most of the living room.
And then I was in Crouch End for two weeks. That flat was all kinds of gorgeous, and well-decorated, and the living room had the most comfortable couch in the whole entire world. I missed it the entire time I was in Hampstead Heath, and then I moved to a place where the living room was off limits, though I asked to use it a time or two. Briefly. No blanket permission.
Holy god, I miss having a living room. I miss curling up on the couch and still being upright with my laptop, and I miss the light, and I miss not being in my bedroom all the time. I miss watching mindless TV and I miss the dining table. I kind of miss socializing with people I actually find interesting.
As usual, I dream through Pinterest. According to my interiors board, which is by far the most populated on my account, my dream living room is apparently spacious, bright, with comfortable seating, with gorgeous wood flooring, and painted like a 20s film.
Sometimes a bit of teal or mustard pops up. It’s rare. I tried to do this with my branding and I got bored and I’ve been wanting to rebrand with actual color — multiple colors, even! A color wheel, if you will! — for a year. My room in Belsize Park was super white and felt mightily sterile, like a hospital ward, so I don’t want to go entirely in that direction.
But grays with pops of color are my interior design of choice, and one day I will get something like it, goddammit. I deserve to decorate a whole place. #dreamjob, tbh. Well, maybe #dreamhobby. There’s no room for any more career paths up in my brain.