Interior Decorating your Living Room and Dining Room

beautiful contemporary living room with a striped rug and deer head on wall

Make your living room into the ultimate place to relax and unwind!

Make interior decorating your living room and dining room a resounding success!

Stylish Living-Dining Decor

Read hints, tips and ideas on how to create gorgeous and stylish living areas.

You can also read about other people's living and dining rooms, and ask your own questions, if you get stuck...

Your living room areas are probably the most important in your whole home.
It is where you will spend most of your time - certainly most of your leisure time...
...so it is important to create a room where you will be happy to relax, have fun and entertain friends.

interior decorating living rooom

Practicalities

Comfort and practicality are important factors for you to consider...
...your seating, TVs, hi-fi's, computers and other AV equipment, and storage for books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, etc...
...the clutter soon builds up, doesn't it? Well, certainly in my house it does...!
Take a look at the practical guide to decorating living rooms for more help with the practical side of interior design in your living room.

Help with Interior Decorating a Living Room - Styles

Read style and design tips to help you get a great living room decorating idea in your home.

modern scandinavian style for a living room

Incorporating the TV into your Design

Back on a practical note, discover ideal layouts for decorating living rooms, incorporating your surround sound and TV equipment, and get the recommended seating distances for different screen sizes - you can learn how to get comfortable viewing, listening, and a stylish living room!

Every living room should have one! And although the TV is important, it's not always the most stylish and beautiful of centerpieces in your home!

Here you can get hints and tips to disguise or hide your flat screen TV

If you'd like to go one step further and create a home theater room in your home, you can get home theater interior design hints and tips here - ideal for dedicated home theater rooms, and home theater in your living room.

Focal Point Fireplaces

Or, why not create a gorgeous focal point with these fireplace design ideas

Look at Pictures of Fireplaces - Fireplace Gallery to inspire you to create your own cozy focal point.

a fireplace creates a beautiful focal point for this rustic style living room

Photo Inspiration

Need a sudden flash of inspiration to get you started? Try these real room photos of great interior designs for living rooms.

Open Plan Living and Dining Areas

Do you have an all-in-one living and dining area? Open plan living is becoming more and more popular, and is especially suited to a contemporary style...

Read practical hints and ideas for successful open plan interior designs for your living room/dining room.

Dining Rooms

dining room decorating ideas

Are you lucky enough to have a separate dining room in your home? Check out these tips and ideas for decorating your dining room.

For special occasions, or just to look nice everyday, check out these table decorating ideas.

Also have a look at the decorating dining room ideas and photos in these dining room gallery pages.

ideas for interior decorating a living and dining room

YOUR Interior Decorating Living Rooms and Dining Rooms

Ask your own living room and dining room questions, here...

More reader Q&A about living and dining rooms - see if their problems and my replies can help you...

Comments, Questions and Pictures - Living and Dining Rooms

This is the page to share all your photos, stories, questions and comments about your living and dining room concerns...

Finding it tricky to choose the right color? What color goes with that sofa? How to choose a new look for existing furniture and carpets?

Show us your living room and dining room remodelling triumphs, and let us help you with your makeover disasters...

Share your thoughts and questions with us...

I love helping you out with your interior design questions and dilemmas.

But due to the volume of enquiries I've been getting recently, and other time constraints, I can now only answer a small amount of quick questions for free...

If you think your question requires a lengthy, time-consuming or more complex reply, please consider paying me for the time I take to answer your queries, and get a quote for my help with your design dilemma.

(Please note that some of the Q&A you see on the site were responded to when the site was much smaller and I had more time available to me to answer all of your questions.)

While I always make every effort to answer your questions, I'm sorry but sometimes not all submissions will receive a response.

To improve the chances of your submission being included in the website, please let me know as much information as possible about your current interior decor, and what your problem is.

Enter a Title for Your Comment or Question

Share your Comments and Questions[ ? ]

Upload 1-4 Pictures or Graphics (optional)[ ? ]

Add a Picture/Graphic Caption (optional)

Click here to upload more images (optional)

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

Your Name	(first or full name)
Your Location	(ex. City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

Check box to agree to these submission guidelines.

(You can preview and edit on the next page)

Click here to see the rest of the form and complete your submission.

What Other Visitors Have Said about their Living and Dining Rooms

Read real-life questions and concerns from readers to this website...

Take a peek into other peoples' front-rooms...

Help and be helped - ask your living and dining room questions, and try to help someone else with their worries, too...

Click below to see...

Badly Planned & Claustrophobic Lounge
Please help! As you walk through the front door of my house there ss a tiny porch, you open the door and there is my lounge, which is small, badly planned …

Living Room Hallway Challenge
I'm moving into a new build that is open plan which I like, but there is one thing I definitely do not like. The house plan dictates that when you …

LIVING ROOM - A cappuccino question
Hi, I have a 2nd living room in my house where I currently have my computer, TV and serves as a playing room for my kid as well. All walls are painted …

What colour for my living room walls?
Hi i have a chocolate leather sofa at the moment with magnolia walls and chocolate rug on a light beige carpet and have accessories to match etc, …

Living Room Help - Pale Blue & Hunter Green
Help, I have a very small living room with a large sliding glass door leading to the deck. I currently have hunter green carpets, latte color walls …

Help! Bizarre shaped 70's living room!
Hi We're about to move into our new home, super excited but really stumped on what to do with the living room! The shape is difficult to describe …

Designing a dining-cum-living area in a small flat
Hi I got a flat where the main entrance opens up into a L shaped area surrounded by rooms and kitchen. The area when looked from the main door seems …

Ideas for Displaying China
I would like to display my great grandmother's pink depression china and old family photos in my dining room but don't know how to display them on the …

Living room - purple and red scheme
Hi Charlotte, we spoke via facebook... Sooo, I uploaded some photos of the way my place is now. I live in a 1920s character home. The main …

Living room - pale green and chocolate
Hi: I have no idea how to decorate my living room... I have a chocolate brown sectional with Pine cathedral ceilings. I have just purchased a very …

How to decorate a narrow L-shaped, odd ceiling height living room
My particular room is a little difficult to describe. It is a long relatively narrow space with a small L shape at the one end. The long space has …

Centering of Chandelier
We are building a house and the dining room is part of the den (not a separate room) and the ceiling is coffered. Question is how to correctly place …

Dining Room Asian Style Makeover - and a funny story!
Charlotte - I just want to say thanks for your e-zine and all the links therein, I bought a 130 yr. old house that needs tons of work. That's the …

Positioning a Plasma TV in the Living room
I am replacing my TV with a plasma and am not sure if I should wall mount it or what. Any ideas/help would be appreciated, thanks.

Which Wallpaper would Suit?
hi, my sofa is red and at the minute my walls are cream but I would luv my fire wall done in nice paper. I dont want one with too much red as my living …

Redecorating a TV room
Hi, I am currently redecorating the TV room. I already have cream and gold curtains with matching valance as well as two cream pouffs with two matching …

Faux brick or stone paneling around the fireplace
We are wanting to cover the area around our fireplace with either faux brick or faux stone, but we want to also keep the decor contemporary and modern, …

Lightening up the Living Room
I recently rented a tiny NYC apartment. I currently own a nice dark brown leather small couch with clean lines and an antique persian rug which has rich …

Help for a Cluttered Living Room
Hi everyone! Our small living room has the piano and a bookshelf along the right hand wall. Our large blue couch is on the opposite wall to the left …

Dining room - elegant and sparkly!
I'm looking to make my dining room look elegant and sparkly, with eye catching/bold colors (blue, brown, gold, silver, or white.) My major dilemma is …

Where to put the TV in the Living Room
I have an L- Shaped Living Room/Dining Room combo. The house was built in the 1930's so the space is smaller, and the very even dimensions make it hard …

Off center chimney and fireplace causing problems
I have an ugly two sided white tiled fireplace with an off centered chimney (and high ceilings). I can't seem to make it look right, help! (picture …

Flora oil painting above the sofa
Hi, A friend of mine painted a beautiful floral picture for above my sofa. I love it, but the problem is its just about 24 inches wide, and framed makes …

Walnut dining set in a red dining room
We are moving to a new house which is bigger and has a nice formal dining room. The dining table and chair that we have is nice, but not too stylish. …

Click here to write your own.

Old tile on concrete in corner of hardwood floor
We decided to pull up the carpet and refinish the red oak floors underneath in our new-to-us house. The living room is basically 17' x 12', with bookshelves/cabinets …

Making the large lounge room work.
How would you paint/decorate a large lounge room which has an opening to the kitchen (galley) and also the front door/hall opens onto it. The lounge …

Built-in TV problems - it looks unattractive
I like that there is a built in tv area, but it doesn't fit my tv, the black distracts from the "beachy colors," and I HATE the marble fireplace next to …

Family room and adjacent dining room
Just purchased a house on Lake Michigan. Very tall ceilings, walls of windows, lots and lots of natural light and views of the beach and lake. I want …

Painting to Go Over My Sofa
HI, I am looking at the Monet 'Chemin Dans Les Bles a Pourville' ocean painting for over my sofa. I have a standard sofa and I want to add two …

Stuck for Ideas for my Living Room
I really want to redecorate my living room, but I'm not very creative and I don't have much money. I can't even decide on a good color scheme for it. …

Living room with low and sloping ceilings
Our living room is a large square shape. The ceiling is very low (only around 7 foot). Two sides of the room have sloped walls incorporating a velux …

Help for a Narrow and Dark Lounge
Hi. I have a flat on a farm. My biggest problem is my lounge/living room. It is a long narrow room. It has dark brown carpeting and unfortunately …

Want a cozy, warm living room
I would like to change my living room to make it more cozy and warm. I was thinking of changing the furniture to darker furniture (dark leather) and …

what i can do with this mess?
Hello, I have this problem, I don't can find something to put beside the tv for the dvd because under the tv I don't have space, ANY IDEA, PLEASE …

Modernizing a small living room
My husband and I bought an antique house a couple of years ago (built in 1920). My living room is relatively small, but with a very high ceiling - …

Disapointing living area's colors :(
Dear there, U can't believe how happy I'm to find such a helpful website! it's over than great, really!! My problem is sooo disappointing. I'm a …

Living room ... ideas please?
I live in a 2 story Townhouse and the problem is with my Living room. I purchased 3 large pieces of furniture separately and now find that they are …

Help for a long narrow room
This room was a patio that we enclosed. It measures 9 x 20. As you can see it has a patio door on one side. Also, on that side behind the chair …

Where do you put the cable box? Not rated yet
I have a cut out for a flat screen above my built in ovens IN THE CABINETRY. I see this in kitchen home design all the time, but where is the cable …

Click here to write your own.

Our Living Room Makeovers

Interior Decorating Our Living Room

Take a look at how we decided to decorate our living room

UPDATED Now take a look at our new and improved decorating color schemes in our living room makeover...

UPDATED AGAIN Another revamp for our living room...

ANOTHER UPDATE A budget makeover on our living room

Have you got your free subscription to my interior design e-zine?

Receive my my free, monthly, e-mail newsletter, full of the latest interior design hints, tips and ideas, straight to your inbox.

Also take a look at this great little website - especially dedicated just to stylish living room ideas - I think you'll find it a great resource - see more living room decorating ideas, here...