Living room

A Tudorbethan sitting room in the UK.
A California tract home living room, with a kitchen behind a permanent space divider, 1960.
Louise Rayner, Tudor Style Interior at Haddon Hall, UK, 19th century.
Miller House, Mid-century Modern, Columbus, Indiana, 1953-57, "Conversation Pit".
Japanese minimalist interior living room, 19th century.

In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English[1]), lounge (British English[2]), sitting room (British English[3]), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. 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 Queens' Sitting Room and the Lincoln Sitting Room of the White House.[4]

In the late 19th or early 20th century, Edward Bok advocated using the term living room for the room then commonly called a parlo[u]r or drawing room, and is sometimes erroneously credited with inventing the term. It is now a term used more frequently when referring to a space to relax and unwind within a household. Within different parts of the world, living rooms are designed differently and evolving, but all share the same purpose, to gather users in a comfortable space.

  1. ^ "lounge room". OxfordDictionaries.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  2. ^ "lounge". OxfordDictionaries.com. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  3. ^ "sitting room". OxfordDictionaries.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  4. ^ "Living Room Furniture". The Refuge Lifestyle. Retrieved 2021-02-23.