We’re moving back into the living room
It’s bye bye to the three-piece suite, and hello to comfortable spaces that accommodate a variety of uses, says Jessica Doyle
Over the past few decades, with the rise of open-plan living, the kitchen has been the hub of the home: the place where we spend most of our time, whether cooking, eating, entertaining or relaxing. But research this week by John Lewis suggests that the focus is shifting, and the living room is becoming the new heart of home life. The department store surveyed more than 3,400 of its customers, and more than half said that they spend most of their time in their living room (or sitting room, or lounge… more on that later) – twice as many as those who said the kitchen was their most-used room.
The reasons for this can partly be explained by various factors, from changing tastes and lifestyle trends to the state of the housing market. As Philippa Prinsloo, John Lewis Home’s head of design, points out: “Our living rooms are being impacted and influenced by the affordability of housing, changes in technology and alterations in the make-up of households. House sharing and renting have become new lifetime norms for many, living rooms are often open plan, and more of us are working from home. As a result, we’re wanting more from our living rooms than ever before.”
The way we’re shopping for our living rooms has changed dramatically over the past five years too, with one of the most notable departures being that of the three-piece suite. The report seems to indicate its death: just two per cent of searches on its website are for matching three-piece sets, which has led to the store ceasing to sell them ready-made. Now, velvet sofas with accent chairs have taken over (usually with wide arms, to rest laptops on); the feature wall has given way to wallpaper or strong paint colours on all four walls (and ceiling); and the gallery wall has supplanted individual artworks. Fewer of us need a media unit for storing CDS and DVDS due to streaming; TV screens of up to 70 inches are becoming the norm; and with Alexa on hand to tell us the time, the mantel or wall clock is becoming a thing of the past.
Sonia Solicari, director of the Geffrye Museum of the Home, agrees that technology has had a huge impact on how we use living spaces: “Before, when everyone had a big PC, you’d need that to be in a separate workspace, but now you can have someone sitting on the sofa with a laptop and someone else reading, or playing a game.”
She also points out that the living room has become a far more egalitarian space: we’re less likely to have special chairs for certain family members, and with more of us using small screens, teenagers are now more likely to share the space with parents.
What you call the room in question depends partly, apparently, on your age: millennials call it the living room, midlifers call it the lounge, and the older generation tend to call it the sitting room – the odd traditionalist still calls it the drawing room. And what you do in it also depends: the most popular living-room activities are, unsurprisingly, watching TV and reading; but 19 per cent of those surveyed worked in their living room, 61 per cent used it for doing “life admin”, and half ate in it (of whom
21 per cent wished they didn’t).
Interior decorators are in agreement