Dear diary,
You know how I’d love to have a cozy home. My home, where I could relax completely and just be myself. Home, where I could spend more time with my family without worrying about decor. But I am a scientific person and I have no idea about styling my interior. Do you know what I am dreaming about right now? I want to transform my living room! Completely. I heard about eDesign service. It helps for those who know how to cook, clean home, do shopping but have no idea how to design interiors. I think it’s perfect for me.
You know what, dear diary, I think I’ll take a risk. Everyone should do their job, right? I bake great cakes but I’m not interior design pro. So let’s see, how we contact this designer I love…
(Sarah goes to her computer, finds her favorite interior designer contact form and…contacts her! She writes her expectations, her wishes and clicks “Send”). What a relief!
“My name is Sarah, I’m single and I have a small living room in my flat that I am not happy about. I am so afraid to start doing anything so I painted it a quite ugly beige color that looks so pale and uninteresting. Furniture is expensive but not nice because I chose everything in brown. You know that feeling when everyone has neutral tones interiors, I could not be other than conservative. I could not choose bold colors at that time. So I bought the furniture without thinking much and did not really analyze my needs and my personality. It just looked at the catalog and ordered some. When it had been delivered to my house, I thought I was going to have a heart attack, it was not at all adapted to space, it looked different than in the showroom and it cost a lot. So now everything I want is to save some money with your help. Please help me to save my mind!”
Sarah.
And here’s a designer’s reply for those who are seeking to enlarge small living rooms.
Choose the perfect furniture arrangement for your living room
I know that it’s very hard to think about furniture arrangement when there is nothing in your room and you have no idea what furniture and how many pieces you will have. But, you need to start right from this point in order to design a perfect living room (or any other room!).
Define your living room style and colour scheme
When you have gathered all the technical information, you should start collecting images for your mood board. It could be some colour inspiration, pattern, textures, style etc that reflect your personality.
You should ask yourself what furniture style you prefer? Coastal, eclectic, modern, minimal, industrial… It’s so easy to get lost when choosing the perfect room style. Just try not to jump from one idea to another. If you wrote in your workbook that you prefer raw wood, palm trees, and urban inspiration, go for it. Go to websites and showrooms that sell only this kind of furniture. Don’t go to Provence style or glam showrooms that do not fit your style.
When you know exactly what type of furniture you want, you can start sourcing.
How to Style Small Living Room #1: “Go Bold or Go Home” With Your Walls
Painting your walls with moody colours can help to create a moody atmosphere. Sometimes whites and beiges are not always suitable to style small spaces. Bold, dark and moody colours can reshape the space completely differently and create absolutely different shapes and feel of the room. But be careful if you don’t know anything about choosing a color – it is very tricky. Prefer asking professionals.
How to Style Small Living Room #2: Dress your windows properly
Windows treatments are very important because they can add volume, height and style cons of your room, it reflects your unique style, it is also a tool to add some privacy.
TIP: More is More: Use more fabric than usually and cover more than just a window – cover also some walls near it. You will see how the room will become bigger.
How to Style Small Living Room #3: Something Soft to Touch
Choose something lovely, stylish and soft as a designer cushion or cozy throw. It will add details which help your eyes to “travel” through the place. Your interior will become dynamic and more appealing.
How to Style Small Living Room #4: Mirror Mirror
Hanging a mirror is never a bad idea. It reflects light, it enlarges the space and gives more depth to the room. Choose the wall to hand the mirror that is in front of the windows. Mirror shapes can be different – from small pieces mirror to big one-piece mirror through the whole wall.
How to Style Small Living Room #5: Statement Piece On The Wall
This year statement art piece will dominate over lots of Scandinavian style prints and artworks. Choose wisely one piece and hang it or put it where it catches eye the most.
How to Style Small Living Room #6: Choose statement rugs with colour or pattern.
Don’t neglect rugs as the statement piece of your living room. A perfectly chosen rug can create the atmosphere you desire. You need to ask yourself before you start sourcing what amount of money you can spend on a rug. Natural wool rugs cost about 250euro or more per square meter. So, an average rug measures 2x3meters. It’s up to you if you are willing to spend more than 1000euros for a natural rug. The price, of course, depends on design and brand. Polyester rugs cost less but they are…polyester.
How to Style Small Living Room #7: Don’t hang TV alone
Place it in the bookshelf, or cover the rest of the wall with pictures. You see that bespoke furniture creates a perfect wall statement. Also, don’t be afraid of using bold colors for this piece of furniture. There is a variety of colors to use as yellow, blue, black, white… Try to free your mind and imagine your perfect furniture and colors without thinking much. Just close your eyes and imagine. Then, take the workbook and start noting everything.
How to Style Small Living Room #8: Choose furniture that “floats”
If your room is not so big, try choosing furniture on little legs. It gives the room extra volume, no matter that bulky sofa can provide an extra place for storage. Don’t get caught on this! Better to use lighter furniture, believe me.
All photos belong to Authentic Interior, if not mentioned otherwise. Photographer Aida Sniraite. All rights reserved.
I liked your suggestion was putting up a large piece of artwork on a wall. That does seem like a great way of creating a focal point in your home. I am planning on buying a new home this summer. I will have to keep this in mind while I start decorating my new home.
Some great ideas here, Sarah, thank you for sharing – we love seeing the clever ways people come up with to maximise small spaces; this is especially important if they are communal/shared ones (family or housemates)! The “floating” furniture idea is a very good one, saves on visual clutter – we also really like (actually) floating shelves as they add storage without occupying valuable floor footprint in small rooms – classics like Ikea’s Lack range won’t break the bank, either, and can be dressed up with a lick of paint or the right textiles to fit any room style.
I like that you suggested a combination of bold choices and more subtle ones. I especially like using mirrors to open up a space. Unique mirrors can also double as statement pieces, which is nice.
Nice info Sarah. The best Idea was about the mood board. I will definitely check my mood board and try to understand my taste for the living room renovation I am planning. Helped a lot. Thanks, dear and keep spreading such useful info.