Decorating Living Rooms
A Practical Guide

Discover professional interior design hints, tips and ideas that you can use in your room.

Create a stunning room you can't wait to spend time in...

It really is important that you get your living room right.

You will be spending a lot of time in there - and hopefully showing it off to friends and neighbours - so you want to create the right impression.

Before you start your decorating living rooms design project, have a think about the following:

• Who do you expect to use your room? Just yourself? The whole family? Frequent parties? Entertaining friends?


• How do you expect to use your room?Do you want a relaxing retreat? A cosy, comfort room? A fun, games room? A formal entertaining room? A party room? Perhaps you need a multi-functional room, that can cope with a few of these roles?


• What styles do you like for decorating living rooms? In magazines or in other people's homes? Can you come up with something similar? Will it suit your lifestyle? Click here to discover an easy way to come up with your own unique interior design ideas.


• What is the style of your home? Modern? Period? Does this fit with the style you have in mind? Does it actually matter to you if it doesn't? Do you need to add period features? Take them away?
  
  
  • Your answer to this question may be different if you are planning to sell your house in the near future - buyers usually expect to see period features and styles in traditional homes, and modern styles in a more modern building. But don't, necessarily, let this deter you if you have your heart set on a particular style - you spent a lot of money on this house - your home - and it is your home - so I think you should decorate it to suit you!


• What items do you definitely need to include in your living room?
  
  
  • Seating - for how many?
  
  
  • Tables - a coffee table? or side tables? If we had a coffee table in our living room, the tiny room would be far too overcrowded - in this situation side tables are a much better option.
  
  
  • TV, Hi-fi equipment etc. Think carefully about the positioning of these, and consider your TV screen size too.


• Furniture. To keep your living room from looking cluttered, only include the items of furniture you really need. Take stock of the furniture you already have. Do you have too much? Too little? Are you fed up with your furniture? Can you buy new? Or re-upholster or paint furniture that you already have?


• Check you have the best layout for your room, and get measurements to help you with the ideal spacing for furniture for living rooms.


• Focal point. Does your room have a focal point? - that is, other than the TV? The TV is clearly the natural focus for most people's attention when they are in the room. But just think, how many magazine photo-shoots or TV makeovers, ever have the TV as the main focal point to the living room? Any? The TV may be practical, but it's not really pretty, and does not create an attractive focal point for decorating living rooms around.


• A great idea for an attractive focal point for decorating living rooms is a really great picture or print. Choose one that really picks out colors in your room, or choose your whole color scheme around a fantastic picture. I think the best, and most unusual, choice of pictures and prints is at Allposters.com. They have an absolutely massive selection, from fine art, to modern art, vintage, retro, beautifully shot photo prints, and lots more ... so you are sure to find something to your tastes. You can buy ready framed prints, or canvas prints there too. All the prints come really well packaged, so you don't need to worry about them getting squashed in the post, and the delivery is really fast too - so no unnecessary waiting around to get what you want. Definitely my first port-of-call when choosing a new print for any room. Browse for ideal, focal-point prints and pictures for your living room.
• A fireplace also makes a really good focal point - and it is actually far more relaxing to watch a fire (even an artificial one) than to watch TV. Consider fitting a fire when decorating living rooms, if your room doesn't already have one. These days there are lots of types of fire which you can consider, even if your home doesn't have a chimney, or gas flue.


• I really like to create two possible focal points when decorating living rooms. The 'attractive focal point' is the fireplace, and the practical one is the TV. Try to make the fireplace the first thing that catches your eye when you enter your living room. Arrange your seating at right angles to the fire, facing opposite each other, then you can position your 'practical focal point' (the TV) at the other side of the seating, opposite the fire. So you can sit, relax and take advantage of either the TV, the fire, or both.





Plan your layout carefully, taking into account what your focal point will be.



• There are, of course, many variations of this type of layout for decorating living rooms, depending on your furniture and the size and shape of your room, so just try to arrange your seating so that you can equally enjoy the fire or the TV, but whilst concentrating the attention on the fireplace. You can do this by creating an accent wall for the fireplace, with a different color paint, or beautiful wallpaper. Use your favourite picture, or a gorgeous mirror above the fire. Arrange beautiful objects, ornaments, candelabra or flowers on the mantelpiece.


• What else do you like to look at when you are sitting and relaxing? Do you like to gaze out of your window? Or would you rather try and ignore an ugly view? My sofa is positioned under the window in my living room - during the day I like to sit at one end of it, as the view is of trees and a stream (well, it's a ditch really, but I am a bit of a romantic dreamer, and I do have a good imagination ...!). But if I sit at the other end, all I can see is the neighbours' house. I don't do curtain twitching, so tend to only sit this way round during the evening, with the blinds closed, and watching TV.


• Try not to position your sofa or easy chair so that you are looking out of a door - it's not relaxing in the slightest!










• Consider storage in your living room. Are you the sort of person who likes being surrounded by your favourite belongings and nick-nacks? Will you really dust and look after, bits and pieces displayed on open shelving? Do you like a minimal look for decorating living rooms? Everything closed and completely hidden? If you like your belongings on display, but aren't great at keeping up with the dusting (hands up - I'm guilty I'm afraid...!) glass-fronted storage systems are a really great idea, and can give you the best of both worlds.


• Some 'clutter' and bits and pieces in your room are good - it's what gives your room a sense of personality and life - and stops it from becoming sterile, unlived-in and unloved.


• Well thought-out, minimal styles do include personal items and display items. They are chosen with the utmost care and attention, and positioned with much thought, to create maximum impact.


• Disorganised clutter is definitely not a good look for decorating living rooms, though. It will detract too much from the style of your room, easily get out of control, and stop you from relaxing fully.


• There are loads of storage options which you can consider:
  
  
  • Go for custom built furniture to suit your room and your exact storage needs.
  
  
  • Do you want to hide away belongings like your TV, hi-fi etc? Or have everything on display? A streamlined look can be achieved by including lots of fitted furniture in the same style, color or wood.
  
  
  • Window seats.
  
  
  • Storage cubes - which can double as a seat, and even a coffee table or side table.
  
  
  • Open display shelving.
  
  
  • Stacking cubes.
  
  
  • Wicker baskets - not just for logs! Great for storing magazines too, and essential for a rustic or traditional look.
  
  
  • Specialist CD holders and DVD racks.
  
  
  • An unusual look can be achieved by adapting furniture more usually seen in other rooms of the house - such as a linen cupboard, or a tall-boy.


• Consider which items you use most often and make sure that they are easily accessible. Use boxes and lids for things which you don't need as often.


• Can you make an interesting feature out of your storage? Think about how you can use color in and around your storage area - or could wallpaper be used to make a feature out of panelled doors, on your storage cupboard?

Do you have a tiny living room? Discover how to deal with decorating small spaces successfully.

Do you want to see some living room photos, to give you some inspiration for decorating living rooms? Click here for the interior designs living room gallery pages





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