How To Design Your Living Room

When moving into a new place, be it your first apartment or a family home for the future, everyone knows that decorating is the most exciting part. However, a living room in particular presents many challenges: not only is it the family hub, a space for relaxation and fun in your private sphere, but also where you entertain guests and hold parties. Follow our tips to create a comfortable, yet lively living room.

Choose Your Sofa Well

The sofa is the bedrock of any living room, big or small. Choosing the right sofa is a monumental task in itself: it’s your space for an afternoon catnap, for fitting party guests on, and for family and friends to curl up in front of a film, and it’s also the focal point of the room, tying your decor ideas together. Before heading to a store, think carefully about the amount of space and shape you have to play with in your room - a small graduate pad will usually have space for a small sofa against a wall, while a larger open plan kitchen/living room would benefit from a corner sofa to divide up the space without being too bulky. Visit show rooms and take pictures of your space to get some practical ideas.

Be Smart About Storage

Once your sofa is picked out and fully approved, it’s time to consider your storage solutions - a living room will need to hold what you need to live, so think carefully about the books, magazines, and DVD cases you have with regards to shelving. A large dresser can be fitted to a wall and function as a TV/entertainment cabinet and store these items in the shelves and cupboards for a clean and simple storage solution, perfect for a period home. Alternatively, look out for individual pieces or matching sets of coffee tables, cabinets, and shelves. Make sure that any storage furniture is suitably durable, and at the very least ensure that there is a place to put down a cup of coffee and slice of cake.

Keep To Colour Schemes

When choosing your furniture and accents, it’s important to make sure that they all blend well together. A mix-and-match look is effective but has to be done right so it doesn’t look cluttered, so ensure that you have a base material or colour to tie everything in. For example, choose a sofa in a block colour and use this block colour to choose co-ordinating prints for curtains, cushions, and rugs. And of course, think about the colours with regards to the use of the room - a white sofa won’t stay so for long with young children around.