Living room

"Living Room" redirects here. For other uses, see Living Room (disambiguation).
A Tudorbethan sitting room in the UK
A California tract home living room, with a kitchen behind a permanent space divider, 1960

In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room, lounge or sitting room, is a room in a residential house or apartment for relaxing and socializing. Such a room is sometimes called a front room when it is near the main entrance at the front of the house. In large formal homes, a sitting room is often a small private living area adjacent to a bedroom, such as the Queen's Sitting Room and the Lincoln Sitting Room of the White House. The term living room was coined in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Overview

In homes that lack a parlour or drawing room, the living room may also function as a reception room.[1]

A typical Western living room may contain furnishings such as a sofa, chairs, occasional tables, coffee tables, bookshelves, electric lamps, rugs, or other furniture. [2] Traditionally, a sitting room in the United Kingdom and New Zealand has a fireplace, dating from when this was necessary for heating. In a Japanese sitting room, called a washitsu, the floor is covered with tatami, sectioned mats, on which people can sit comfortably.

In larger homes in the United States and Canada, the living room may be reserved for more formal and quiet entertaining, while a separate room such as a den, family room, or recreation room is used for leisure and informal entertainment (e.g., a home cinema may be located there). A great room combines the functions of one or more of these rooms.

From parlour to living room

Until the late 19th century, the front parlour was the room in the house used for formal social events, including where the recently deceased were laid out before their funeral. The term "living room" is found initially in the decorating literature of the 1890s, where a living room is understood to be a reflection of the personality of the designer, rather than the Victorian conventions of the day.[3] The rise of the living room and the funeral parlour outside the home meant the end of the dedicated room for receiving guests that had been common in the Victorian period.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Martin, Judith (2003). Star-spangled manners: in which Miss Manners defends American etiquette (for a change). New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 264. ISBN 0-393-04861-6.
  2. ↑ "Small living Room Interior Design Ideas". interiordesign. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Halttunen, Karen (1989). "From Parlor to Living Room: Domestic Space, Interior Decoration, and the Culture of Personality". In Bronner, Simon. Consumingvisions: Accumulation and Display of Goods In America 1880–1920 (1st ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-02709-0.

External links

Media related to Living rooms at Wikimedia Commons

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