Hi Lymarie!!
Congrats on moving into your new apartment! It’s so cool that you study interior design, I’m sure your place is going to look amazing!
This open living/ dining room area reminds me a lot of layout of Katie & Tom’s apartment that we made over for OMG We’re Coming Over! They had a large, dark sofa like the one you pictured, and needed to find a way to make one open room serve two different functions.
I think a rug under the sofa area will really help section it off and make it its own complete concept. Add on a coffee table (maybe one made of glass to counter the darkness of the sofa) to tie that area together in a way that is inviting and functional.
A bar table is a great choice for an apartment where you don’t have a set-apart space for a dining room. They’re tall, but usually not too large, so they don’t take up more space than is available. A design trick I would recommend (and also one I used in Katie & Tom’s place) is to not get matching chairs! Instead of getting a table and chair set like in the picture you uploaded, bring some color and style into the space with different chairs — maybe even choose two styles and mix and match them!
I hope this helps!! Please feel free to ask any more questions!!
Much love –
Kate
