You know what they say, if you are looking for a change in your life, start rearranging your living room furniture! And personally, I adore rearranging and redecorating my living room and bedroom. It helps me cope with life and change it at the same time. Plus, I consider it a workout session I can do without going to the gym. The more you rearrange your living room and its furniture, the more free workout sessions you are entitled to! One of my favorite rooms to redecorate is the living room. It may sound like a lot of work, but the satisfaction you get in the end is priceless. Anyhow, here are a few tips for you to go through before you redecorate and rearrange your living room and its furniture.
How to Define a Living Room Focal Point
Mockup cabinet a TV wall mounted in a cement room with a wooden wall.3d rendering
Before you even touch your furniture, you have to determine which element you want to highlight. So, look around and figure out what your focal point is. It can be your fireplace, entertainment unit, sofa, a painting or that big picture window. Choose wisely. And once your focal point is determined, you can arrange furniture starting from the main seating area. Once you are done with the main seating area, you can go on position the rest of the furniture and decorate the living room as well.
Leave Some Room
Despite the size of your living room area, you have to leave some room for people to move. Large and small spaces alike, it’s vital that it does not look packed. 30” of space between furniture is a good rule of thumb in most cases. That is for walking. When it comes to space between your sofa, coffee table or end tables, 18” is the perfect space so that everything is within easy reach. And if you do not have that kinda room to spare, you can always use a nesting table. They are very functional and super fun as well.
Build a Natural Traffic Pattern
3d rendering loft luxury living room with bookshelf near dining table
Did you make enough room to move around? Then I imagine you have ample room now. Make sure you can see a good traffic pattern in the room. If you have done a good job, there should be open access to the main seating areas. If you feel like your living room is cluttered already, try removing a few items that do not serve a real purpose.
Remember, Light is Important!
Imagine yourself in a room filled with natural light and breathing fresh air. That’s what this is about. Nothing adds more life to your home like good old natural light and wind. You can center your room around a stunning view as well. Therefore, you can sit on your sofa, sip your morning coffee and enjoy the view of old tall trees in your garden. That’s what I do! Light is important, but you have to pay attention to your television unit as well. Make sure there is no glare on the television screen. When positioning your TV console and entertainment unit, make it face away from the sunlight.
A Conversation Area is Vital for a Living Room
The living room of a modern apartment with two identical sofas opposite each other
What do you do when you are not watching TV? Even if you are texting with friends or on social media just swiping, it is nice to have a face to face conversation, right? Positioning your sofa in an ‘L’ shape and placing your coffee table in the middle would be a good option. You can also use a rug to define and compact the area.
How to Design Your Living Room Space
There is a lot you can do with whatever space you have. So, don’t be afraid to try different designs and arrangements for your living room. You can paint the space and use decoratives to give it a stylish look. Even the smallest furniture can make a difference in a living room. You don’t have to implement all the living room decor ideas out there, it’s not advised either. Keep it simple and minimal.
Augmented Reality for Living Room Decor
This is a cool and fun way to foresee how your living room would look like, the optimal method to place furniture and see how good your color picks and wallpapers will look in your actual living room. Use your augmented reality app. Augmented reality apps allow you to see how your furniture will look in your space. This way, you don’t have to actually move your furniture but can see exactly how they will look. You can also use 3D room designers for this task. If you don’t like the look, all you have to do is simply touch and move the items. There are many options, try them out and see what best fits your living room environment.
Keep Conversations Cozy
Keeping defined conversation blocks makes it more comfortable. It also reduces unnecessary shouting of family members. You can divide your living room into activity zones if you own a large living room. Furniture ‘islands’ is a good choice in this case. Then you are able to put your space to its maximum use. If you are a family with kids, you can have a part of the living room as a play area or a reading area with chairs and a little library. You can use your sofa or loveseat as a physical area divider in this scenario.
New Accent Pieces
Are you done decorating and arranging your living room space? Does everything feel wholesome or do you feel like something is missing? What you are missing is an accent piece! Use a new accent piece for a finishing touch. It is a budget friendly method to freshen up your home and the entire living area.
Think About Changing Your Rug
It’s amazing how a small rug can change the look of your entire room. You can give it a new look and feel with a new rug. If you are into colors and are interested in a colorful living space, you can pick colorful rugs. Introduce color and texture to your room. You have to consider how the living room is divided prior to selecting rugs. It all depends on how you define the area. Maybe you can use mini rugs for play areas or reading areas to complement the main rug that is used.
And if you have an extra large living room, we have tips for you too. The way you arrange a small living room is different from that of a large room.
Let’s focus on large living rooms now. Also, their layout ideas to make the best out of your capacious lounge. If you are wondering what to do with all the extra space in your large living room, these tips might help. First things first, divide and conquer!
How to Zone Your Large Living Room
The wise choice to make when you are designing or decorating a large living room is to create zones. Divide your space according to functions. For example, the room around your fireplace might be more formal while the room in front of your TV is more of a relaxed area. And if your window has a garden view, it will best function as a comfortable seating or writing area.
Seating Arrangements for a Large Living Room
You can create two separate areas for seating as well because as you can already imagine it’s impossible to fill your large living room with a single couch. This way, you will have extra seating that covers many functions.
Spacing Your Living Room Correctly
Unlike spacing a small living room, you can be very generous with spacing your large living room. There would not be a minimum amount of inches between your furniture when it comes to this. The goal here is to have your pieces close enough so that they feel cozy enough and lead you to natural conversations. And enough space so that there is room for breathing space between your elements.
It’s alright to make large gaps between your furniture pieces, chairs and side tables, sofa and coffee table, side table and table lamps. The distance is usually recommended to be within arm’s reach but in the case of a large living room, you can go ahead and make it a little wider.
Dividers for Your Large Living Room
When you have a large space at home, you can use dividers to visually break it up. Dividers are a great feature to add to your living space. They don’t only divide your room but add a bit of aesthetic to your living room as a decorator as well. Dividers vary from non-permanent pieces to great screens you are going to see for the rest of your life. These can also be bookcases, center tables or shelving units. A tall bookcase would be a good room divider as it provides a lot of separation and can be moved around if needed. These architectural features will upgrade the design of your living room area for good.
Large Living Room Masses
One of the many important factors, when you design your living room, is your mass. There are two things to consider in this; volume and quantity. Larger the space, larger the pieces you should be using to decorate the room. Pay attention to oversized furniture pieces, be wise not to pick them up! Massing is a nice way to group a set of objects that appear larger. For example a gallery of art, or a group of armchairs. Use the mass to emphasize the size of your living room and the impact of your pieces.
What Colors Should You Pick for Your Large Living Room
A small amount of color can make a major difference in your living room. And it is one of the most incredible and easiest ways to lighten up your space. The way intense colors behave in your space is different than that of lighter colors and deep colors are even different than that. Some colors make your furniture look small and some can make them appear larger to the eye. Some can even make them look visually heavier. So, before you pick the colors, define how you want your living room to look like, how you want its furniture to feel like.
Use Texture
Texture helps you to decorate and rearrange your room as much as colors do. Just like color, texture can alter the perceived size of your room. If you are looking for continuity and seamlessness, you can go for a polished, glossy finish. Before start decorating, you also have to think about textured wallpapers, custom walls and ceilings as well.
Cabinetry
For a small space, built-in cabinetry can be either inappropriate or overpowering. But it is a different story for a large living room space. A larger room can handle built-in cabinetry very well. If you may, you can feature an entire wall from floor to ceiling as cabinetry. The best side will usually be your media wall, you can house your TV here too. This will give you a composed, flawless look. Just imagine open cabinetry that is lined with LED lighting, soothing, right?
Extra Side Tables for Your Living Room
This may sound unnecessary because it kinda is. You might not need extra side tables, they won’t be having a special purpose to serve. But, they are great in filling the corners of your furniture arrangements and give your living room a complete look. Even if they are not regularly used, they create that sense of rightness. Another way to fill your empty space while giving it a wholesome look is by using floor lamps.
Oversized Pieces for Large Living Room Decorating
Along with your key furniture pieces, there are choices you can make, choices you can afford to decorate your large living room. These accessories will not overpower your room the way they do with a small living room. Don’t use small items since they give away a negative sense and appear insignificant in your huge living room area. Go for large pieces.
I hope these tips and guidelines will help you re-arranging your living room space magically! Happy decorating!
