Design Ideas For Decorating A Small Living Room

By Lee Dobbins

Your living room is a space for gathering and entertaining therefore you want it to have a comfortable interior decorating theme. But what should you do when the space is really small? Fortunately, there are a lot of room design tricks you can use to make decorating a small living room easy!

First, you should pick an interior design theme which appeals to you but which will also add appeal to a tiny space. Having a good amount of clutter in the living room will make the place feel smaller so avoid decorating themes that clutter up the room.

Don't forget when you are decorating a small living room to research where you are placing the furniture. Even if some people reject the aspects of Feng Shui, the ideas behind it may still be used when placing the furniture in your living room. Unhindered access into a room is able to make it feel bigger, so put your furniture away from the doors. Moreover, if you do go with a larger piece of furniture, such as an entertainment, for example, it tends to help to veer guests attention to it therefore making the room seem larger into the bargain.

If you stick with an explicit design approach, then you can plan from the beginning on how to maximize the living rooms space. A sleek contemporary look can be best because this de-emphasizes clutter and is likely to emphasize space. Choosing a design style you really enjoy, however, is a good idea as this is going to be where you spend the majority of your time.

Small or medium sized furniture is your best bet when decorating a small living room. In place of having a large sofa, look at using a loveseat which will give the illusion of more space while still allowing guests to be comfortably seated. You ought to consider mixing some small pieces with some large items for added style, so combine your small sofa, use a large mirror or art piece- it might make the room feel sizeable in addition to adding character.

If you want to paint your living room, then the colors that you adopt will play an important role in making it feel larger. If you have always thought that you had to keep your smaller rooms white, then here is some terrific news for you. You are able to have color while still making the living room seem bigger by pairing colors that have the same intensity, or sticking to a monochromatic color scheme. So you should plan to pick all pale blue, or bright colors in orange, yellow and red. You will generally add interest and depth to a room if you paint the wall opposite the entrance an intense, deep hue. A gray-blue color is great for overall attractiveness and for also making the walls seem to recede, hence making the room feel more spacious. If gray isn't your favorite color, you could also try cool colors such as purples and blues to get the same effect.

Even if you have never tried to decorate before decorating a small living room might be easy. Making use of a little bit of elbow grease as well as unique creativity can help make even the smallest room appear like a decorator showplace.

Three Tips On Choosing Stylish Furniture

by: Dakota Caudilla

Stylish furniture is not just what is considered to be fashionable right now. If you browse through magazines devoted to home decorating you will see all the latest trends in furniture, but not all of these trends are stylish. A stylish piece of furniture is much more than a cool, trendy or modern piece. Stylish furniture should pass the test of time, should be of high quality and should also be comfortable to use.

Test No. 1

Styles come and go, but furniture shouldn't. A stylish piece of furniture should be an investment. As such, it should be designed so that it doesn't age and become unfashionable very quickly.

While it isn't always easy to tell if a piece of furniture will pass the time test, there are some basic rules to go by.

Stylish furniture should have a sleek and simple design. Something that is understated and pleasant to the eye will often pass the time test. Any design that is too odd, or sharp, or bold, runs the risk of "getting old" too soon.

Test No. 2

The quality of a piece of furniture is a sign of its stylishness. Always try to balance quality against budget choices. A better quality fabric or material (wood or metal) may cost more now, but will secure a longer lasting, and hence more stylish, piece of furniture.

Test No. 3

The third test for style is a practical one. Any truly stylish piece of furniture must also be useful, practical and comfortable to use. Today ergonomics (or the relationship between you and your environment) plays a vital role in choosing the furniture for your home and office. Ergonomics is a stylistic choice and the more comfortable you are with your furniture the longer life it will have.

How To Use A Living Room Sofa For Maximum Space Utilization

By Shrinivas Vaidya

Sofa in a living room is a very special way to occupy space for a special purpose. The main purpose of any sofa unit is to not just to provide seating, but create a secured environment where the home owner and his family can enjoy moments of togetherness.
That's why sofas come in a variety of shapes and sizes. In most cases sofa units come in a category of "number of seats".

3seats in a row, 2seats in a row (commonly called as a "love seat") and a single seat sofa are available today in the furniture market. Apart from these special designer sofas for placing in corner on the living room are also popular. These designer sofas are sometimes in the form of a letter "L" in plan, with the longer side of the "L" has a back rest with 3 seats in a row.


The most preferred arrangement of sofas in a living room furniture unit is making use of one 3seat sofa along the longer length of the sofa and two single seat sofas with an end table in between them. A living room set is also available for customers. This living room set contains a 3seat sofa, a love seat, a single seat sofa , end table(s) and a coffee table.

Depending upon the design/dimensions/shape and volume of the living room various combinations of the sofas can be done to utilize space. While deciding the arrangement of the sofas keep one thing in mind that as soon as you arrange a sofa layout, the volume of space occupied by the sofas and surroundings immediately becomes the focus of attention. For example if the sofas have been arranged around the TV unit, see that the rest of the space gets enough attention or it will look unoccupied. Also make use of small elements such as end tables and coffee table of various shapes to create some interest in the living room.

Before defining a living room furniture layout first finalize your main activity of interest in a living room. What does this mean? What I mean is for do you use the living room most. Is it reading? watching TV, sleeping, home office in a short corner with a computer etc. Answering this question first is very important because in a living room furniture layout sofas play a major role. Since sofas are the heaviest furniture elements you can not move or shift them every other day for a different layout. I'm not saying you can never change the layout once it's done, but if you arrange the sofas around a TV unit then naturally watching TV becomes your main activity.
On the other hand if you place them around the exit to patio then naturally you will have to spend a lot of time watching nature and birds in the outside garden.

I hope this article was a good start in thinking about more creative ways to use sofas in a living room decorating.

How To Quickly And Easily Create A Living Room Furniture Layout

By Shrinivas Vaidya

If you planning to buy new furniture for your living room, then most probably you have already thought about the furniture layout in your mind or else you have probably thought of repeating the same old layout with only the new furniture pieces. In this article I will show you a simple method to create the most efficient layout for your living room.

Before we begin there are a few points that need to be considered. A living room is always a transition space. This means that entrances to all other rooms are located in living room. Other bedrooms, dining room, kitchen etc. are accessed through living room, that's why a sufficient "circulation space" for family members is a must.

So here is what you can do to create the most efficient layout for a living room.

1) Take a plane white paper. A4 size is also enough.

2) Draw a sketch plan of your living room on this paper. While drawing this plan it is important to show the following things in it:

a) Entrance door
b) Entrance doors to other rooms
c) Window positions
d) Minor column projections (if any)
e) Swing of the doors (inside or outside the living room)
f) Presence of staircase
g) Fireplace (if any)

3) Take a pencil and draw lines starting from entrance door to all other doors and window positions. This is the natural travel lines for any person using the living room. If the room is empty without any furniture these are the lines any person would follow to reach other point in the living room.

4) Now start placing the furniture units like 3 seat sofa, single/double seat sofa, coffee table, end tables lampshades, bookshelves, TV unit, etc.. Depending upon your budget you can go for any number of these units.

While placing these units it will always be seen that the furniture obstructs the pencil travel lines drawn in the third step. But that's OK for now. Now make as may combinations and arrangements of the furniture units as possible. Think out of the box while doing this. Try to do something different.

Remember if you try you will easily come up with at lest 10 layout for that same living room. You will be amazed at how many combinations are possible. Also imagine the furniture pieces you already have or can you replace that table in the bedroom with the one in the living room.

How about keeping it vertical rather that horizontal in the plan. Whatever you do keep one thing in mind. Always keep the human movement "unobstructed". People passing through the living room in other rooms must be able to pass without cutting vision if you are talking to other person in the living room.

That's why those pencil lines have been drawn. After you have drawn the furniture pieces on the living room plan, modify the travel lines. Now these lines will be around the furniture, especially at corners. The travel lines will now take the shape of the furniture at the edges.

After this short exercise you will have probably 5 different layouts on paper with. Select the one in which you see the following points of interest.

a)Travel line lengths are shortest.
b)Travel lines do not pass trough the furniture.

Apart from the efficiency there is another factor called as visual balance while designing a furniture layout. Finally does it look good to YOU. Are you comfortable with the final layout. The visual balance is achieved by making the most use of all walls of the living room with decorating elements such as paintings, color schemes, etc.

So if you follow a system from the beginning you will be definitely be able to create a beautiful living room in the shortest possible time. I hope this article has helped you to find more creative ways of doing this job more efficiently.

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of livingroomdatabase.