Each room in your house has a value addition to your life. The Living Room as aptly named so as it makes you live life and feel alive. It has to be vibrant and bright. Therefore, you have to give apt attention to this room in your house.
Try following these tips you need to decorate your living room.
Walls, Flooring, and Ceiling
The first impression when someone enters the living room should be of WOW. The floor and the walls of the room take up the major eye vision when you sit in the room. Spend a deal of time in planning the walls and floors of the living room. Keep the walls bright and clean. There are several options for decorating the walls of the room. You have two major options. One is to keep the wall decorations and wall hangings to the minimum.
Bare walls with just one or two artworks on display look elegant. You can highlight that artwork with lighting as well. One large mural will also do well. The other option is that you can hang as much as you like. Cover the majority of the wall with photo frames, ethnic art, small paintings, etc. Paint a designer wall and hang just a couple of wall arts as well.
Throw in a pretty rug on the floor. The rug should be large enough to encompass the seating. This could be sofas or chairs. Small rugs lying here and there look awkward and unkempt. It also eats up space creating an image of a smaller room.
There are hundreds of choices available for doing up the ceiling of rooms. For your living room, you could go in for designer panels on the ceiling. Fix your fan in the center and see eyes go up. Consider adding a noise control barrier on a wall to keep sound in its place, nobody will even notice it is both function and decor.
Furnishing and Upholstery
This aspect of the living room is the best to play around with. Go in for bold and bright colors and prints while selecting drapes or blinds for doors and windows. This is valid for upholstery materials that you use for sofas and other seats in the living room. Place some bright cushions on the sofas to bring in some color and variety. Keep in mind that there should be a contrast and variety in textures of the materials as well. Use silk, jute, cotton, leather, wool, denim, corduroy etc.
Furniture and Fixtures
The items of furniture that you place in the room are also important. You may want to select pieces that are antique, regal, ethnic, or modern. Bring in the futuristic element too if you want. A treasure box converted into a table, some side stools, a small cabinet shelf to display decoration items can be a part of the room. Bring in the element of surprise and change by carving the legs of the tables and seats; fixing a decorative wooden panel.
Apart from this use in textures in furnishing and furniture, go in for varied other materials like metals, leather, wood, brass, steel etc. Use them in handles, knobs, table ends, planters with silk floral arrangements or artificial floral arrangements etc.
Another trick is to buy pieces of furniture which are movable like side tables, lamps, coffee table, etc. Place some vases with silk flower centerpieces or silk tulips on these movable items. You can then play around with the arrangements. This will bring a pleasant and welcome change in your room and you will not be bored seeing the same setting day in and day out.
Color Schemes
A simple rule to keep in mind is that too dark colors always make the room look smaller and crowded; while the lighter shades make a room look more spacious and larger. Thus, maintain a healthy balance of colors while doing up the walls. This includes the patterns and textures along with the color scheme. If you love darker shades, then the best way is to add a touch of neutral colors to tone them down. This will also help you to highlight the piece of furniture or a lamp in a neutral shade against the dark background of walls and floors.
Lighting
Simple and straightforward wall lights are passé. Fix lights at strategic points to highlight your wall art, photo frames, and other wall decorations. Ceiling lights, which are inbuilt or otherwise, look elegant and smart. This also gives a neater appearance to the room. Small decorative lights help to highlight pieces of art, fake flower arrangements, photos, curios, certificates etc. There are options of built-in lights along with the fans. Avoid colored lights as it doesn’t go well in homes. Highlight a planter with an artificial palm tree at one corner of the living room.
Connect with Nature
It’s so very important and a great designer tip to bring in nature into your home. Since the living room is the room of life and social activity, your guests and your family will appreciate your connection with nature. Place some colorful planters with fake plants like silk orchids, fake ficus tree, artificial ferns etc in the living room.
The basic factors to keep in mind while decorating your living room is that this is one space where you will relax, entertain, and socialize. This is the room where you may have a common television to spend evenings in front of or even the room where you may like to sit back and read a book or two on a holiday.
Put your thoughts and feelings into it while decorating. Make it comfortable and open to relationships building with family, relatives, and friends. Invite people over and see the visitors also relax and feel comfortable. The little touches of color, nature, designs textures etc that you add in here will pay off in the rich, yet livable space in your home.
So, go ahead and get to the enjoyable work of doing up the living room.
