How to Design the Perfect Living Room

For most people, the living room represents the main hub of the home. It serves a myriad of important functions, and realistically, it can be anything you want it to be. It’s a space to relax and curl up on a sofa to read a book after a hard days work; it’s a place to set the mood and watch a great movie with the family; it’s also the perfect room for throwing a killer house party!

If you’re considering a redesign of your living room, all and more of these potential use cases have likely been on your mind – but setting up your dream space requires much more than just imagination. It’s hard work, with a huge amount of planning and effort that goes into it. 

In this article, you’ll learn about each key step for creating the perfect room, from planning out the rough idea to satisfyingly adding the finishing touches. 

This is a contributed post.

BRAINSTORMING: DECIDING ON THE MAIN PURPOSE OF YOUR LIVING ROOM

The first thing you need to do is start throwing some rough concepts around. Nothing has to be set in stone at this point, but you should get some of those imaginative ideas out of your head and onto paper or a screen. 

Set aside some time, and if you have a partner, have them come and collaborate. Take a good look at the space available to you and take some good quality pictures: from here, you can print them out to make a mood board or upload them to an app (such as Notion or Evernote). It doesn’t matter whether you go the traditional or digital route, but you need to aranage these three or four images on a large background and give yourself space to write around them. 

From here, consider the images you’ve taken and start to brainstorm ideas. Figure out where you want the centre of the room to be – this could already be made easy for you if you have a chimney breast or other structural feature that offers obvious symmetry, but if not, it should be fairly simple to determine it for yourself. This step is important because all other elements will fit around this central point. If you have a very large room you can have other focal points, too, but you’ll still want a main one. 

Having ‘centred’ the room, you can start to jot down what springs to mind so far as use cases. Perhaps you’d like to arrange things to best entertain guests, or maybe there’s a particular corner of the room you could envisage working well as a partial office. Any ideas you have, get them down. You’ll undoubtedly get rid of most of them, but right now, it’s about quantity over quality!

SELECTING THE LAYOUT

Once you’ve battered around some ideas for the general feel of the living room, you can start to plan out a layout. Maybe you have furniture already or perhaps you’re going to go for a complete refresh and buy new stuff, but either way, start to piece together how the largest elements of the room are going to come together. 

Think firstly about couches and tables. Having somewhere to sit and a place to rest plates, cups, glasses, and whatever else are going to be crucial components, and with these pieces of furniture being very large, they’ll do a great deal to determine the shape and feel of the room. Again, it can help to sketch these elements out on paper, and you always want to keep your dimensions in mind so that you’re sure you have enough room for any plans you make. 

Beyond these pieces of furniture, elements like large bookcases and drinks cabinets can add a high-status feel. You should also remember to factor in a TV cabinet if you’re not planning to have a wall fixture.

Remember, this stage is just about getting a feel for the layout; the actual design itself comes next, so don’t worry too much here about exactly what sort of furniture you need to purchase. 

Finally, do your best not to overcrowd the room when planning, as this is a common mistake many people make. Less is usually more, and once you’ve arranged everything, you can always add something else later. Having to return a large item because you don’t have room, however, is much more of a hassle to have to deal with!

CHOOSING A THEME AND COLOUR SCHEME

Next up is a particularly fun part – designing how things are actually going to look! This involves both identifying the theme you want and then the correct colour scheme to fit that theme. 

Thankfully, choosing the colour scheme is usually made quite easy once you’ve picked the theme, so rather than do things the other way around as many people do, work out the theme first.

Are you aiming to make the room as cosy-looking as possible? Then consider more muted, warm colours and populating the room with plenty of rugs, cushions, and other elements that look soft. Perhaps you’re proposing that one of the main functions of the room is as a party space, in which case, mirrors and metallic accenting can help add a glamorous edge and richer colour palettes will follow. 

Rather than having the function of the room dictate the theme, you could also design the place to fit the look and feel of a certain place. Maybe you want to go for a beach-type vibe, in which case white-washed furniture, rustic, tasselled fabrics, and pale blues and creams would look great. Alternatively, you may like the Art Deco look from the 1920s to 1930s, which features opulent, ornate furniture and plenty of black and gold. Don’t overcomplicate things – have fun with it and go with what you like.

ON LIGHTING

Deciding on the lighting can be tricky, so it’s best to break it down into parts:

Ambient Lighting

This sort of lighting is what you’d consider the ‘main’ lighting. It’s the light that comes from your main fixtures in the centre of the room, as well as other built-in ceiling lights that cast light across the entirety of the space. This should be your first consideration. It’s likely you won’t have to worry too much about it as you should already have your main fittings accounted for – just make sure your main lamp shade fits the theme you’re going for.

Accent Lighting 

Accent lighting does what it says on the tin – it adds to the general mood of the room as a decorative element, helping to highlight certain features. The main types in this category are directional lighting and uplights, and this is also where coloured LED lamps can come in handy. 

Utility Lighting

This lighting serves a specific purpose. This category comprises table lamps, swing lamps, and wall sconces to provide extra illumination for tasks like reading and writing. One important consideration here is making sure you have enough electrical outlets where you need them to accommodate your plan!

You should organise your lighting efforts starting with ambient lighting, then move onto accent lighting, and next follow up with utility lighting. There’s plenty you can do to create a unique feel for whatever sort of theme you’re going for, so experiment and see what suits the room best. Remember to take care to take into account both day time and night time solutions, as this isn’t a one-size-fits-all sort of affair. 

Note: do your best to avoid solid white LED lamps. Most of these give off a harsh, clinical, bluish tinge that can end up throwing off the vibe of the entire room. Instead, go for lights that are marketed as ‘warm’ if you want a standard colour. 

THE FIREPLACE AND MANTEL PIECE

A great-looking fireplace and mantelpiece is one of the single most important aesthetic factors for a living room, and depending on the sort of fire you go for, it can also be an integral element for heating your home. 

This is a great feature of any living room, and the perfect centerpiece for making the place look both luxury and cozy at the same time. Mantle pieces come in a great many varieties, so pay close attention to the colours, textures, and themes you’ve decided upon so far and match it to that. 

For the fire itself, there are also many options. You could go with a traditional open fire, but in this day and age, there are many excellent electric fires options to choose from that still look great and output a decent amount of heat, without the added expense, mess, and potential danger of a real one. 

WRAPPING UP

This article has provided you with a basic rundown of all you need to know for redesigning your living room. As you’ll undoubtedly come to realise, it’s not quite as simple as it looks, but take things one step at a time, be patient, and enjoy the process: you’ll be enjoying your new room in no time!

Olivia x