The living room is the first and sometimes only room that your visitors might step into and hence, it is a must, to make it visually appealing and equally welcoming. This is the place where you are supposed to unwind after a long day, but if it’s awkward and cluttered, you will feel uncomfortable throughout.
Many small living room ideas revolve around tricking the eye into making the area appear more spacious. Such strategies can transform an area that feels cramped and claustrophobic into one that feels cozy and aesthetically pleasing. Decorate in a way that maximizes light and space, and pay attention to how you use color, scale, and weight. It can make quite a difference.
Your complete mood will depend on the colours, things, and pattern of the living room. While designing, you must focus on these things a lot.
Choosing Colour
Tour of the room will define the entire mood of the room. Colours can energize or relax the space, depending on how intense they are and how warm or cool they are. Room color can influence our moods and our thoughts.
You don’t have to worry about trends in order to have a beautiful home. Color trends will come and go. The people who live in a home make it beautiful by choosing colors that reflect their preferences and personalities. The trick is to blend the colors you like into a pleasing combination.
Warm colours are colours with warm undertones such as red-orange, reds, yellows and yellow-greens. These colours are radiant and cozy. Because warm colors seem to advance, they make small rooms appear smaller and large rooms more intimate. Cool colours are colours with cool undertones and include purples, blues, and blue-greens. These colours can have a calming effect. The neutral colours are white, gray and black, but in decorating, neutral colours have a wider sense and include a large range of colours.
Choosing Curtains
Curtains are much more than just window dressing. They can form the basis of a room’s whole look and atmosphere. The fabric is an essential part of choosing curtains since the material will dictate how well your curtains function and hold up over time. Keep curtains and shades light. While choosing curtains for a living room, opt for sheer curtains to allow more light into space. Measure the height from rod to floor before hanging curtains. Remember to account for the height of the rings or hanging hardware and how much space you want between the curtains and the floor. The elegance comes from the generous use of fabric in the draperies–they’re not fancy, but the thick folds and puddling end communicate luxury.
To make it a welcoming room that expresses your personality, choose wallcoverings or treatments that reflect your style. Heavier fabrics, such as silk or velvet, create more drama and provide a more formal feel. They will also block light, provide privacy, and insulate well. If you want a more casual look, try a lighter weight fabric, such as linen. A lightweight fabric will also be more sheer, allowing more natural light to come through. Cotton curtains are more transitional, as they work well in both formal and casual settings. They are also particularly easy to care for. Also consider that the sheen and texture of your curtains’ fabric will add a significant layer of design depth to your space, and you may prefer the look of one type of fabric over the others.
Lighting
In a space where you watch TV, read books, play games and entertain guests, lighting serves an important purpose in both the function and looks of the room. A good living room lighting scheme uses different kinds of light, set at different levels, that work together to make the space warm and attractive. When you want to highlight certain features in your living room, like a fireplace, textured walls or a favorite painting, accent lighting is the way to go.
A mix of different types of lighting, placed at different points in the room, is essential for creating a proper living room lighting scheme. A mix of different types of lighting, placed at different points in the room, is essential for creating a proper living room lighting scheme. In a large room, a single overhead fixture may not be enough. In most cases, pot lights are a good solution, but if recessed lighting isn’t for you there is another solution.
It’s amazing the difference a lamp can make. But with the right living room lighting, you can have a space that’s perfect for doing everything – from reading a book to hosting game night. And that means you can create a new room every night – just with the flip of a switch. Ceiling lights can not only light up your whole room – they’re a great way to show off your style, too. From spotlights to flush ceiling lamps to pendants that make a design statement, we have a wide selection to help you fit your space, style and lighting needs.
Table lamps let you fine-tune the atmosphere of a room in more ways than one. They give you additional light where you need it while also adding a bit of personality. Ours are available in a wide selection of styles to add a little extra color, texture, and light to your home. Spotlights give you a lot of light just where you need it, from a painting or a collection of your favorite knick-knacks to a countertop or other activity area. Many of our spotlights can be used with energy-efficient LED bulbs or come with LEDs built in, to save on your electricity bills and be kinder to the planet.
Choosing Flooring
When selecting flooring, a little homework goes a long way. You’ll want to take into account the style of the house, the budget, the amount of wear-and-tear you anticipate it will need to withstand, and the look and feel you want to create. From standard wood flooring to stone or concrete, living room flooring options are plentiful and offer a range of pros and cons.
Choose a floor covering that provides comfort underfoot and makes a design statement as well. If you prefer a less bold floor, choose a solid neutral flooring that allows attention to focus on furniture or art.
A successful lighting design combines a number of light sources at different levels of the room. Add layers of light from a number of types of fixtures that can be used together or separately for a flexible space.
Arranging Furniture
Establish the focal point of the room and arrange furniture around it. In some rooms, the focal point will be an existing feature such as a fireplace or window, and in some, it will be something you bring in to the room such as a television. Use the furniture to create conversation areas. Pull furniture away from the walls. Having all the furniture backs touching the walls is one of the biggest mistakes people make in the living room. If the pieces are closer together it will create a more intimate setting. Short pieces, like this tufted couch, keep an open floor plan cozy.
Coffee tables are practical pieces that are often found in the center of conversation areas. If you choose to use one remember that the height should be slightly lower than the seat height of the sofa and chairs around it. The length of the table should also be roughly one half to two thirds the length of the sofa. Don’t forget about traffic flow. Leave enough room for people to walk around furniture so they can easily get from one side of the room to another.
Side tables tend to be an afterthought but they’re actually very important. The number you need will depend on how much seating you have. Everyone should be able to comfortably set down a drink without having to get up and walk over to a table.
Accessorize with Art and Collections
Whether you’re redecorating a room from top to bottom, or just want to freshen up the look, don’t forget to accessorize. You’re going to be living with these items; select things you will enjoy seeing in your home every day. They need not be expensive but should add interest in shape, color, and texture. Lamps are not only beautiful but also provide essential light to any space. Potted plants also are great functional accessories; they work with any color scheme or design style and also clean the air. When decorating a coffee table or end tables, vary the size of accessories and use items of different heights. Always include one item with color, such as flowers.
A large piece of art may be all you need to inject a dose of color into a room and create that finished look. To bring balance to space, try utilizing other elements to build harmony. For instance, a room with high ceilings can appear better proportioned by filling empty corners with tall green plants.
When using accessories that look the same, your items will make a bigger impact and appear more prominent if you keep them close together. In this space, one group of vases looks more important than if they were scattered about. In fact, too many items spread around a space will look like clutter.
Decorate with Mirrors
Designers often place mirrors strategically in small places in order to make them feel larger. One of the most common small living room ideas is to hang a large mirror in a central location to create a focal point. Create a reflection. Use a large mirror to throw light back into a dark room. Position it either opposite or diagonal to a window for maximum luminosity.
Soften the lighting – Lighting is often overlooked in favour of other more prominent aspects of room design, but it can add the finishing touch to space. Try softening the mood by using table lamps instead of a harsher overhead light. The result will feel calm, sophisticated and five star. Discover some bright ideas for getting the light right.
Finishing Touches
Captivating yet calming living rooms result when neutral schemes are embellished with thoughtfully edited accessories. Choose the main hue, such as blue, to showcase coordinating patterned pillows and drapery fabrics. Distribute the color around the space via artwork and collections. Keep the peace by highlighting one metallic finish, such as the silvery tones that resurface here as table lamps, photo frames, tray-table handles, and art glass.
