Refreshing Your Living Room
They say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, but many will agree that it’s really the living room. This is the main communal area for the whole home, where everyone can come to relax, bond over their favourite TV, and catch up with each other. With this room being so important, obviously you’ll want yours to be as beautiful and as welcoming as possible. Here are a few handy interior design tips for refreshing your living room…
Start with the Colour Scheme
(Pixabay)
Just like every other room in your house, the colours in your living room are going to have a major effect on how guests feel in the space. The colour scheme you use has the potential to relax the room or breathe more energy into it, depending on its intensity, and how warm or cool the scheme feels. A light, soft main colour accented by neutrals like white or beige can give the whole living room a more calm, cool and collected mien – the perfect space for entertaining guests.
Accentuate the Walls
An 18 x 38inch canvas wrap of “Delicate Arch”, taken in Arches National Park. Great detail and color. Available for any photo.
(Flickr)
You’ve probably noticed that living room walls tend to receive more attention and treatment, as it’s one of the more public areas of the home. If you want your living room to really wow people, you should be accentuating the walls using treatments and décor that reflect your personal style. Though a lot of people these days prefer the minimalist tactic of painting their walls and leaving them as solid colours, there are countless wallpaper treatments out there that you may find more suitable. The one thing that no living room can go without is some kind of focal point. Fireplaces are perfect, so if you already have one you’ve got your work cut out for you! Other than that, large canvases and sculptures, or even more verbose elements like indoor waterfalls can be great for filling an empty wall.
Make Furniture Conducive to Conversation
Living rooms are a place where people can gather, relax and chat, so you should be arranging furniture to be conducive to conversation. If there are any seating pieces that are pressed up against the walls, bring them further into the centre, and arrange them to face one another. If you have a particularly large living room, you may want to group furniture into two separate groups to create a more comfortable and intimate feeling. Smaller chairs and ottomans will be easy to re-arrange if you want to bring two parties of people closer together.
Use Inviting Lighting
(Flickr)
The way you use lighting in the living room should lean towards a relaxing and comfortable mien. Make sure you’re layering your light, and positioning different lights in a loose triangle to distribute the illumination evenly. Table lamps that can be pointed downwards will make it feel more natural for people to sit back and relax. By keeping the lighting fairly low, and casting more on the furniture than the surrounding features, you’ll send an automatic, welcoming message to anyone who enters the space.
