My husband and I are getting ready to call in a decorator, so I’ve been looking through pictures for inspiration. Our house is a colonial, like most houses in Northern Virginia, where we have a formal living room that doesn’t get used much. At least in our case though, it’s adjacent to the formal dining room, which makes it nice for holiday and family gatherings.
Anyway, I got the idea at first to use the Haunted Mansion at Disney World as inspiration, such as the Madame Leota seance area, with crushed velvet, fringe, a small table with a crystal ball — ok, so hubby nixed that idea.
I then moved on to describe (the same thing) in terms of a library, or as in a room that Voltaire would have hung out in, and since my husband loves to talk politics and philosophy with anyone who will listen, he suddenly loved the idea. So here are some ideas, the first even with a serving bar twist, which could also work out well for including in this conversation-focused room.

And how about this related idea for that TV-focused family room around the corner?



