LIVING ROOMS AND LOUNGES


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These rooms are variously referred to as parlours, drawing rooms, dens, sitting rooms, and so on.
The variety of names reflects the range of design approaches possible, but all refer to areas that are, essentially, gathering spaces in the home.

 

A comfortable living-room where you can sit back and relax, letting the worries of the day ebb away, is an essential part of any home and can play a major role in the social life within the dwelling. On the other hand, it can be that room within a home which may simply be a private refuge, often associated with the kitchen. It can also take the shape of a more formal lounge along the lines of the old parlour seldom used except on those rare occasions when visitors called and, of course, at Christmas.

Whether there are one, two or even three of these rooms within a dwelling will largely depend on your own individual requirements and lifestyle, and on the needs of family and children.

 

The living-room, as with all rooms and their relationships are constantly changing both in size and role. While privacy is important and separate rooms such as bedrooms and bathroom are still needed, the opening up of the living areas can be considered and has become increasingly popular with a move away from the clearly defined specific-use rooms like the parlour of former times.

 This is often achieved by combining rooms such as lounge/living/kitchen/dining into an all-encompassing open plan living area as is popular in many European countries. The space can be portioned out so that several people can happily share these areas while engaged in different activities. Alternatively an d possibly the most common today in Ireland - particularly since the kitchen has regained its position as the focus of the home - is the kitchen/dining/living room with the more formal lounge accessed off this area - possibly through a glazed screen or doors.