For Koko — a content creator and devoted University of Texas Austin alumna known for her easy entertaining ideas — game-day gatherings are a given. So when she and her husband built their new home, she couldn’t wait to host family and friends for food, fun, and football.
Koko’s living room is already gorgeous, with high ceilings, full-length windows, and ample space for entertaining. But because it’s so large — with that brand-new, blank-space feeling to boot — she wanted to make sure it felt extra warm and welcoming. Plus, with a new baby in the house, comfort and durability were musts. She needed the room to work for game day and every day.
Enter the Apartment Therapists: Maxwell Ryan, Apartment Therapy founder and CEO, and Apartment Therapy executive home director Danielle Blundell. They have a knack for finding the untapped potential in real-life homes and creating functional, beautiful places for the people who live there. Ashley was a natural place for Maxwell and Danielle to shop for this project, with its stylish, well-crafted, and affordable pieces built to stand up to real life. Plus, Ashley’s white-glove delivery service made set-up a snap. Here’s how our very own Apartment Therapists set about solving Koko’s design conundrums:
The Apartment Therapists’ Challenge
- Figure out the best layout for this open-concept space
- Warm up that “large white box” feeling
- Prioritize comfort and durability without sacrificing aesthetics
- Style it to work well for both game-day gatherings and everyday use
1. Define the Space
To ground a large space, it helps to establish a focal point around which you can arrange the room. Maxwell and Danielle chose Koko’s beautiful modern fireplace. Then they used furniture and decor to create some boundaries within the open layout. An L-shaped sectional provided definition by acting as a “wall” that separates the living room from the rest of the house. It’s a game-day perch that’s both cozy and spacious, and its performance fabric will stand up to messes.
Rugs are also a clever way to carve up an open room. Maxwell and Danielle layered a warm neutral rug over a large ivory one to cover more ground and help the seating feel cohesive. This not only created a visual footprint, but it also added extra softness, texture, and warmth. (Pro tip: Textiles help dampen echoes!)
2. Design for Functionality
It doesn’t matter how beautifully you decorate: If a room doesn’t work for your purposes, you won’t like being in it! For this multipurpose living space, Maxwell and Danielle made choices with flexibility in mind. An elegant and earthy round coffee table is plenty spacious for a game-day snack buffet — including Koko’s famous queso. A pair of vintage-inspired swivel chairs encourages one-on-one conversation, but they’re also easy to reposition for watching the action. And hosting must-haves like serving trays and a chic bar cart are easy to repurpose or stash elsewhere when not in use.
3. Use Lighting to Add Warmth
The right lighting creates shape in a large space, and warm bulbs add a homey, come-on-in glow. Maxwell used one of his favorite design principles here: Have three points of light, which helps your eyes move around the room. He and Danielle chose a pair of table lamps with a modern shape and a touch of gold glamour, which coordinate beautifully with a sculptural standing lamp. The long arc really celebrates all that vertical space! During the day, these lights provide a soft counterpoint to the bright daylight coming through those stunning windows. And at night, they’ll help define the space and keep it cozy.
4. Create a Style Vocabulary
This is one of those pro tricks that helps a room just work, even when you don’t immediately understand why. The style vocabulary is the visual language — aspects like color, texture, and shape — that makes a room’s design feel holistic. Here, Maxwell and Danielle leaned into soft textiles, warm colors, and organic forms. Touchable throw blankets, buttery chenille throw pillows, and repeating shades of ochre, green, and off-white maintain a subtle theme throughout the room. The end result is a spacious room that still feels intimate and comfortable.
