Designing A Living Room: Proven Strategies For Budgeting, Planning, And More

We can be of assistance if you're seeking suggestions on how to design a living room. Sometimes it might be difficult to know where to begin, whether you're working with an empty space - possibly because you're moving - or a room that's quite crowded. Hence, everything you need to know about creating a living room from the start is given here.

Whatever the size, shape, or orientation of your living room, we've gone into the details you need to know to help you make the proper decisions, from furniture considerations to paint colours, layouts, and carpeting. After reading all the helpful design tips, be sure to look at our living room design ideas for a tonne of great decorating ideas.

1. HOW SHOULD LIVING ROOM FURNITURE BE ORGANISED?

Layout is the initial step in living room design. It's possible that you have a small living room with limited space for furniture placement, but regardless of the size of our rooms, the majority of us centre the design of our living rooms on the TV. In spite of the fact that converting your living room into a home theatre space may be ideal for Friday night Richard Curtis marathons, it's not always the most effective - and certainly not the most appealing - way to arrange your furniture.

If you have the room, place furniture to form functional zones, especially in living spaces. You can designate a specific workspace for a corner with a console table, desk, or home office hidden in a cupboard. You can also divide a child's play area from the rest of the room with open shelving. Sure, you can have a sofa that is just for TV worshippers, but you can also create a defined reading space by placing an armchair next to a window or table lamp.

Think about what you truly need and what you can live without when decorating a living space. Having enough seating, side and/or coffee tables, a TV unit, and storage for everything from games to toys to books is a must. What could be relocated elsewhere if this is beginning to overcrowd the space?

The best advice is to size out the space with a tape measure if you are unsure of where to start with your living room plan. From there, you can make a rough blueprint and illustrate a few potential furniture arrangements in the space. With our guide to the greatest living room layout ideas, you can learn much more about how to arrange the furniture in the living room.

2. INCLUDE PERSONAL STYLE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM DESIGN

After you've decided on the arrangement of your living room furniture, you can go on to the fun part: deciding on the style of your living room. You will spend a lot of time there, either in the evenings if you don't have children or starting in the afternoon if you do.

The design of your living room will therefore be largely determined by the age of your home, its intrinsic architectural elements, the style of the other rooms in your home or the current living room furniture, but it must also fit your lifestyle. In other words, choosing an ornate antique-filled living room in a home with lots of children is probably not a good idea; instead, you might prefer a contemporary living room design.

 

Make a note of the living room ideas you like (paste the images to a Pinterest board), and you'll quickly see trends emerging that will serve as a solid foundation for your room's design. What should you keep away from? A design that visibly contrasts with the age of your home: Similar to how heavy Victorian doesn't fit in a home built in the 1970s, the 1930s style works nicely in houses created after that time period.

Don't be hesitant to mix and combine styles, even though you might be inclined to stick with just one. This will give the room a less formal, more laid-back atmosphere, and since it's where you rest at night, it should be a genuine reflection of your tastes. (Up until the point that you decide to sell, at which point we'd suggest depersonalising...)

3. SELECT A COLOUR PLAN FOR YOUR LIVING ROOM.

The moment to choose your living room paint colour ideas will come once you've determined your aesthetic. While making this choice, consider the room's size and ceiling height. It may seem like interior design 101, but choosing lighter colours for a tiny living room will make it appear bigger and brighter. Nevertheless, if you mainly use your living room in the evenings, perhaps darker hues will make it feel cosier and more intimate.

If your living room is larger than average, you can use colour more daringly. You might experiment with a darker decorating scheme, add a striking feature wall, or be inventive with strong paint hues.

 

Remember that the amount of natural light your living area receives should influence the colours you choose. Warmer hues of all colours, from white to blue to grey, will make any living room that faces north or east feel more welcoming. Conversely, south or west-facing rooms may receive a lot of sunlight, so you may want to use cooler colours to keep them feeling restful.

Once you've decided on the main hue for the room, choose one main accent colour and one or two more accent tones to utilise sparingly. You may use this to link two ends of a long or open-plan space, bring warmth to a neutral colour scheme, tone down a bright one, and even coordinate the colours of your living room and hallway for a cohesive look across your entire home.

4. WOULD YOU PREFER WALLPAPER OR PAINT FOR YOUR LIVING ROOM DESIGN?

 

 

Whether you decide to wallpaper or paint your living room depends largely on your personal preferences, but here's what you should know:

• Feature walls defined by wallpaper on one wall matched to a paint colour on the rest of the walls are somewhat out of fashion. Love the concept? Put the wallpaper on a more unexpected wall – behind the sofa, perhaps, instead of on the chimney breast.
• If large prints are used on all four walls, small living rooms will feel crowded. Only use them if a wide window or French doors are located on one wall to create relief; otherwise, opt for a simple design.
• Tiny prints look more traditional than current ones, and fit modest spaces or country cottage living rooms.
•  Wallpaper designs can be used to exaggerate the dimensions of your room. A subtle vertical or horizontal stripe can give the impression that a space is taller or wider.
• For living room walls, paint is a less expensive and simpler option that can be updated. Colour blocking can be used to add interest.

5. CHOOSE PRACTICAL LIVING ROOM FLOORING

 

Your living room flooring is subjected to a great deal of wear and tear, so selecting the best material is essential. A carpet may look lovely to begin with, but light colours should be avoided in favour of darker shades, contemporary patterns or a low-pile, stain-resistant carpet. Either way, it's worth knowing how to clean carpet before you have yours laid. Natural flooring, such as sisal, is another option, but these can be tricky to maintain, so opt for a rug in these materials over hard floors.

Alternatively, go for hard-wearing wood or laminate flooring – you can always add cosiness and comfort with a rug.

And for you apartment dwellers, if you don’t live on the ground floor consider adding a really thick underlay beneath your living room flooring; that way you can minimise the chance of a neighbour banging on your door when you are in the middle of a Zumba DVD. Pet owners might want to consider a carpet that is going to disguise pet hair – otherwise, invest in the best vacuum cleaner for pet hair.

6. PICKING THE BEST LIVING ROOM FURNITURE

 

Moving on to choosing the best living room furniture designs. This is probably going to be the most pricey aspect of your living room design, so really think about what you do and don’t need (which may mean giving up on using your coffee table as anything other than a footrest and replacing it with an ottoman that can be used as extra seating instead).

Start with the basics and assess what furniture your living room really can’t do without – and how you might make it more versatile, with hidden storage, for example.

Also, think about how durable each piece needs to be and what’s worth investing in – soft furnishings get the most wear, so get the highest quality you can within your budget or opt for removable covers that can be machine washed.

And make sure to pick furniture that will endure the test of time, both practically and aesthetically. Don’t go with styles, shapes, colours or patterns that will date or that you will tire of too quickly.

7. LOOK FOR THE PERFECT SOFA FOR YOUR LIVING ROOM DESIGN
 

It is easy to get caught up in colour choices and your couch fabric choices when choosing your couch, but skip the frills at first, focus on the more practical aspects. Start by thinking about your rooms dimensions and shapes, how many people you will need to sit, where the couch will sit in the room, and whether a sofa bed may be a more worthwhile purchase; then, go over whether you will want removable covers. 

 

If so, then you can think about your sofas style, shape, and colour. Most of us choose a neutral hue for our covers, as they are easier to re-decorate with. Brightly coloured or heavily patterned couches are fab focal points, but be sure to live with it long-term. As for the shape of your couch, lower-back pieces seem more informal and take up less visual space compared to the more conventional-looking, more formal, higher-back couches.

If you have limited space, it is also worth considering whether or not you will need a huge piece of furniture that takes up so much precious space, either. We know it is difficult to picture living life without your own 3-seater, recliner couch, but dream along with us here. A loveseat or narrower couch can be a lot more practical, giving you more space on the floor, maybe even space for an additional seating option.

8. CONSIDER LIVING ROOM STORAGE SOLUTIONS

 

No matter how hard you try to avoid it, clutter is drawn into a living room, so get ready by adding lots of living room storage.

To save space and reduce unwanted excess furniture, opt for pieces that provide as much versatility as possible: coffee tables with lots of shelving for storage; TV cabinets with added storage; even couches with hidden storage. Opt for living room cabinets that offer both open and enclosed storage, so you can keep things hidden while keeping the more precious trinkets on display.

9. BE SURE TO GET THE LIVING ROOM LIGHTING RIGHT

Lighting the space well is a crucial part of designing for living rooms, since we spend so much time in them at night. The right lighting can turn your living room into a welcoming, inviting space; bad lighting, though, can make the room look drab, like the waiting room at a dentist.

Start thinking about your living rooms various zones, and pick light sources accordingly: You will want task lighting, like a standing lamp or desk lamp above your chair for reading; a dimmer centre-mounted pendant for times when you want your room brightly lit; and lots of accent lighting, in the form of lower-level desk lamps, picture lights, and even lights hidden inside shelves. 

 

 

You can also use light to create effects. Uplighters in walls can make the ceiling seem higher; downlighters make the room seem cosier; recessed lights can illuminate one particular feature, like a large indoor plant. Warmly coloured bulbs make the room seem cosy; bulbs that simulate daylight make it seem brighter.

10. CHOOSE THE BEST LIVING ROOM WINDOW DRESSINGS

Window dressings are crucial to the design of your living room: They provide patterns, colours, comfort, privacy, light control, insulation, and when chosen right, they can tie together the entire scheme of the room.

What you choose will come mainly down to your tastes and your budget. If you are looking to bring some extra opulence into the living room, a layered Roman Blind or Blinds over Lined Drapes is a great option. In a modern living room, just a shutter is a simple and coordinated choice, and it also offers a lot of curb appeal. Plus, if your budget is tight, DIY-fit options are a far more cost-effective choice than one made to order. Do not miss out on these living room window ideas for inspiration.

11. ADD PERSONALITY TO YOUR LIVING ROOM DESIGN USING ACCESSORIES

 

We all like clean aesthetics, but in order to keep your room from looking like something you picked out straight off the catalogue, incorporating lots of personality is a must. You can easily dress up soft furnishings with carpets, pillows, and throws, and inject colour through art and photography that are well-deployed, or with gallery walls. Oh, and do not forget about indoor plants; they are really an easy way to add splashes of colour and make your room feel more alive.