Your living room is not a place to take a nap after a hectic day, but the heart of your home, in which the memories are created, and life really takes place. However, the truth of the matter is, there are times that that heart has to be CPRed, right? You are either looking at the same crappy couch you purchased five years back or scrolling through Pinterest at 2 AM fantasizing a full redesign and you are in the right place.
I have collected 15 proven ideas of living rooms that do really work in a real home- not the ones that are shown in magazines. These are realistic and attainable designs that will not involve you borrowing a second mortgage. You are willing to love your living-room once again?
1. Cozy Brown Leather Sofa With Layered Textures
My brown leather sofa makes me scream come sit with me. It is similar to that old-fashioned jacket that you would never want to put off. The trick in getting this appearance? Layers, layers, layers.
Imagine thick, cozy knit throws carelessly tossed over the one arm, linen pillows that are creamy and possibly a warm chenille blanket that is lying in the corner. This mix produces the effect of visual coziness without leaving your place to the impression that you stole everything at the HomeGoods store.
This is what is so smart about the approach, brown leather does indeed improve with age. Leather also creates a beautiful patina that reveals the history of your family unlike that trendy fabric couch that displays each coffee spill and each small strand of pet hair. Add a jute rug and a couple of table lamps that are made of ceramics and you end up with a room that looks gathered instead of being decorative.
2. Grey Couch With Jewel-Toned Accents
Versatility would be grey in color. Your grey couch is a blank canvas that you are ultimately upon to paint your personality all over and jewel tones have become the ideal way to do so.
We are talking of emerald green pillows that contrast on that neutral backdrop, sapphire blue blankets that give depth or amber accents that provide unexpected warmth. The beauty of this approach? By changing some pillows, you can totally change your room. Fall feeling? Deep burgundy and gold. Summer vibes? Much lighter, aquamarine and coral.
It would be a great idea to remember a pro-tip of a former beginner: never test your fabric swatches in the lighting of your real living room. What you were in love with in that grey at the shop, may appear totally different in the light of your house. Trust me on this one.
3. Green Velvet Sofa As Statement Piece
Let people get clogged at the entrance door of your living room? A green velvet couch will do precisely that. It is daring, it is posh, it allows the outdoors to come indoors, and you have nothing to water.
Forest green: Drama is done, Sage: Calmness, and Emerald: Sophistication. The secret is to select the appropriate color in your room. Got warm white walls? Sage green is your friend. Crisp, clean working environment? Get darker with that emerald color.
And by the time you mention velvet and high-maintenance, I would prevent you. Tightly woven quality velvet is surprisingly strong. The occasional brush keeps it fresh and to be honest does not wither as well as you may imagine in a home that has children and pets.
4. Dark Moody Walls With Contrasting Textiles
Are you ready to accept your dark side? Dark walls are on a severe trend, and rightly so. The walls are painted in navy, charcoal or deep forest green, which is this amazing cocooning effect that one would never want to leave.
You see, I know you are about to say it will darken my room down to a cave. Then this is the counterpoint to that, dark walls can actually make spaces look bigger. They are pushed back to visual effect, and this plays a deception to your eye into believing that there is more depth than there is actually.
The key to pulling this off? Contrast is your best friend. Stuff with reflective light materials such as mirrors, metallic finishes and white upholstery. Consider it a tradeoff between dark chocolate and whipped cream, both of which render the other tastier.
5. Blue Sofa With Coastal-Inspired Accents
Blue always has a way of making a person feel better, does it? It is the same as having the ocean or sky right into your living room, except there is no sand in awkward spots.
You can use powder blue linen and get the airy effect, or deep indigo velvet and make things dramatic, but blue is one colour that looks great with natural materials. It works best with rattan furniture, driftwood-painted tables, and linen curtain to achieve a breezy coastal feel without resorting to the nautical theme entirely (this is what anchor pillows are all the rage in 2015).
This is an added advantage: a blue upholstery is great in concealing the daily wear and tear. This color is not only gorgeous but it is also very functional, especially when you have kids or pets or when you are simply in the mood to eat popcorn on the couch (no judgment).
6. Beige Minimalist Foundation
I have a few words to say about beige before you scorn. The contemporary beige is not the dull, neutral color of your grandmother it is a high-tech underpinning that allows all other colors to shine.
How to make beige work a secret? Texture is everything. Combine nubby linen with smooth leather, add baskets made of weavery, use various weights of cloths. It gives a visual appeal without the use of color so that you have a space that seems purposeful and not dull.
This style is excellent when you have good architectural details, as bare ceiling beams, vaulted ceilings, odd window designs. The grey background recedes and allows them to be the objects of the attention in the show. The best use of space is to add depth using artwork that is well selected or a single statement plant instead of crowding up those straight lines.
7. Tiny Living Room With Multi-Function Furniture
Someone who lives in a small space does not have to lose style, it is only necessary to become creative. And honestly? The small merry living rooms are the best ones I have ever seen, where each item serves its purpose.
Multi-function furniture is the key. Storage ottomans are your new best friends. Nesting tables provide you with space on the surface when it is required and hides when you are not using it. Furnitures such as sofas with draw-out beds transform the living room into a guest room minus the futon vibe.
This is the greatest error that people commit when it comes to small spaces and they will purchase large furniture thinking that it will make the room appear large. It does the opposite. Select well-selected sizes and utilize high space with tall bookshelves or hanging plants to create the upward look.
8. Large Living Room With Multiple Seating Zones
When you are lucky to have a large living room, the problem is not to fill up the space, but to make it look purposeful instead of unoccupied. The solution? Define separate areas in the larger area.
Consider it as making rooms out of a room. You may have your main sitting space with a sofa and chairs and a secondary reading area beside the window, or a gaming table area where the family can have fun. Every part must be anchored off by its own rug to give definition of the space.
Lighting is crucial here too. Use more than one overhead light to mark various areas rather than have a single light and attempt to do everything. This solution is particularly ideal in a family set up where children can play in one room and the adults can converse in the other yet still in the same room.
9. Black Accent Pieces For Drama
Looking to give it an instant upgrade but not a total upgrade? Your little secret is black accent pieces. We do not mean heavy, dark furniture that makes the space so heavy consider strategic touches.
Boxed window frames, lamps, picture frames or one accent chair may be just enough contrast to prevent the light colored rooms from appearing washed out. The addition of eyeliner to an otherwise natural makeup look is like adding an eyeliner, and all is defined.
The cost-efficient nature of this trend? It is possible to paint the already existing furniture black, or to replace the light fixtures with a fraction of the expenses you would spend on replacing bigger pieces. The optimum balance is reached with just 10-15/percent black elements in most spaces.
10. Cute Cottage-Style Comfort
Cottage style has something irresistibly appealing--it is a kind of warm hug in a form of a design. The aesthetics of this look is gathered-over-time with vintage goods, flowery, and mismatched furnishings which somehow go well together.
The magic is in the editing. There are too many patterns that only bring chaos instead of beauty, hence it is advisable to keep the color stories all the way together. Wood coloring of whites, creams, and soft pastels is expected to complement each other quite well.
It also does not require a fortune to be able to attain this look. Cottage treasures can be made with simple objects, estate sales, thrift stores and a little DIY elbow grease. It requires a lot of patience, but allow your space to develop naturally (instead of attempting to make everything at once).
11. Living Room With Fireplace As Focal Point
Having a fireplace is one of the luckiest things in this world, and you should treat it as a masterpiece that it is. This is a simple aspect which is not so much considered and may turn out to be the natural meeting place that attracts individuals.
Furnish your main seats towards the fire, and place other chairs at an angle to complete the group of chairs. With a classic wooden fireplace or a gas insert, it feels like a cozy and meaningful home with the fireplace leading the way in organizing the furniture.
The fireplace naturally turns out to be the centerpiece of the room, and, frankly, that is what lured so many of us to our homes in the first place. Venerate that aspect and model around it.
12. Grey Sofa With Warm Wood Tones
There are coupleings that work best, and grey upholstery with warm woods is one of those. It is also as though the design world had made a flawless marriage- the grey provides modern sleekness and the wood gives the organic warmth.
Coffee tables, side tables, and shelving units are made of walnut, oak or teak to give the scheme visual balance and those human moments that an all-grey scheme often fails to offer. Your room does not look like a showroom but like a lived-in room and this is what we want.
This composition is quite effective in open concept areas where you can literally see your wood cabinets in the kitchen extending their appearance to the living room furniture. Wool or jute rugs and textiles made with linen are an addition of warmness to balance.
13. Colorful Eclectic Living Space
When you feel like yawning, here is one that will appeal to you. Eclectic living room allows your personality to be spread all over throughout the room in the most desirable manner. We are speaking of patterns, colors, styles, which are not supposed to go hand in hand but make magic.
The magic of successful eclectic design? Color repetition. Apply 3-5 colors in different extents in the room. There is one color and other colors are involved in supporting roles. It is this repetition that brings about cohesion in the case where you are combining florals and geometrics with vintage with modern.
Eclectic becomes very soon jumbled up without this linking thread. However, when you make it right, then you would have a place that tells your own story.
14. Budget-Friendly Transformation With Paint And Textiles
Big changes without big spending, now we should discuss. The furniture may be in good condition except that it is old and only needs to be renovated. That is where textiles and paint become your best friends.
Less than 50 dollars makes a gallon of good paint change the walls. The new throw pillows introduce up-to-date colors in a non-commit manner. Creative floor-length curtains are classy at a fair price. These modifications are of colossal visual effects and do not deplete your budget.
The mistake many people make? Purchasing the low-end furniture that appears nice at first and collapses in a short time. Rather, do what you have and invest into quality where it is likely to have the greatest impact--where it matters most which in most cases is your area rug and window decoration.
15. Modern Small Spaces With Clean Lines
Small-space modern design is all that does not make one cold or sterile that is minimalism. Imagine that furniture has legs, instead of a skirted couch, glass or lucite tables, instead of solid wood, slender lines over the cushions, instead of plump cushions.
This style does well in metropolis apartments where every inch counts. It is a philosophy in a nutshell and all has to make its mark in the form of beauty, functionality, or preferably both.
Be ruthless in your editing. A loveseat with 2 chairs may be suitable in small rooms compared to a huge sectional that may even take the whole room. Reduce the quantity of pieces you have and ensure quality and size actually fits your room space, you will be able to come up with a room that breathes, not one that grabs at air.
Making Your Living Room Dreams Reality
That is the reality of designing a living room you adore: there is no need to follow all the trends and to spend a lot of money. It is about picking things that appeal to the way you actually live as opposed to how you believe you ought to live.
Perhaps you are attracted by the drama of dark moody walls, or maybe the coolness of a blue coastal-inspirational space appeals to you. You may be longing after the accrued comfort of cottage style or the smooth sophistication of modern minimalism. Whatever thou makest A call unto thee.
Your living room is a room that you should feel as a part of who you are--it is a room where you can really be able to relax, have friends around, have memories with your family and just sit back with a good book on a rainy afternoon. When you start with one thing that is exciting to you, go at your own pace and allow your space to develop on its own.
What do you think was the most appealing to you? Are you willing to take a free ride in bold color, or you are in the team neutral department? The best part about design is that, there is no right or wrong choice- it is only what suits you and your house.
