The living room has to be many things at once, including a place to relax, host, watch television and sometimes work. That’s why the best living room decor begins with how the room gets used rather than with a color or a trend. When the layout and lighting work, the styling becomes much easier and usually costs less.
How to plan a living room that works
It’s tempting to start with a new sofa or a paint color, but a few decisions should come first. These steps help you avoid buying furniture that fights with the room.
Find the focal point
Most living rooms have a natural anchor, such as a fireplace, a large window, a television or a wall of shelves. Arrange the main seating so that it relates to that anchor and still allows people to talk to one another. If the room has both a fireplace and a television, decide which one matters more each day and plan the seating around that answer.
Measure before you move anything
A main walkway of about 30 to 36 inches keeps a room comfortable to move through. A coffee table usually sits about 14 to 18 inches from the sofa, which is close enough to reach and far enough to pass. The rug should be large enough for at least the front legs of the sofa and chairs to rest on it. Painter’s tape on the floor is a cheap way to test any of these numbers before you commit.
The main sub-topics in Living Rooms
This category is organized around eight sub-topics that follow the way a room comes together.
Living Room Styles
The Living Room Styles section explores directions such as modern farmhouse, minimalist, Scandinavian, boho, coastal, traditional and industrial. It also looks at mood and color, including warm and cozy rooms and gray schemes. A style holds together when its colors, materials and furniture shapes repeat around the room.
Living Room Walls
The Living Room Walls section covers paint, wallpaper, mirrors, accent walls and art. Art usually feels right when its center sits about 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Above a sofa, a piece or grouping looks balanced at roughly two-thirds of the sofa’s width and about 6 to 10 inches above its back. Always test a paint color on the wall and look at it in both daylight and evening light.
Room Layout
The Room Layout section deals with furniture placement, rug sizing and the awkward shapes many homes have. Narrow rooms, combined living and dining areas, corner televisions and reading nooks all belong here. Floating furniture away from the walls can make a room feel more connected, even in a smaller space.
Fireplaces
The Fireplaces section looks at stone surrounds, mantel-height televisions and furnishing around a firebox in a small room. Always follow the manufacturer’s clearances and local codes for anything placed near or above a working fireplace. Those rules matter most for televisions, mantel decor and anything flammable.
Shelf Styling
The Shelf Styling section covers bookshelves, floating shelves, mantels, coffee tables, side tables and TV stands. Good surfaces mix heights and shapes and leave some empty space so that each object has room to be noticed. Grouping items in odd numbers is a helpful starting point, though it’s a guideline rather than a rule.
Lighting
The Lighting section focuses on layering overhead, task and accent light so that a room doesn’t depend on a single ceiling fixture. Dark rooms, small rooms and rentals without much wiring each call for a different mix of lamps and fixtures. Matching the color temperature of your bulbs, often around 2700K to 3000K for a warm look, keeps the room from feeling patchy.
Throw Pillows
The Throw Pillows section answers the practical questions of how many to use, how to mix them, and how to arrange them on sofas, loveseats and sectionals. A useful mix usually varies size and texture and repeats a color from elsewhere in the room.
Holiday Decor
The Holiday Decor section follows the year through spring refreshes, fall mantels, Halloween and Christmas. Keep trees and greenery away from heat sources, use lights rated for their location, and turn decorative lighting off before you go to bed.
Curtains, plants and the finishing layer
Curtains and plants are often what make a living room feel finished. Hanging a rod several inches above the window frame and extending it past each side can make a window look larger and let in more light. Choose plants based on the light the room really gets, and check whether they are safe for pets and children before bringing them home. A budget room benefits from this order too, since a well-measured layout and good lighting often make more difference than new furniture.
