Best Small Living Room Ideas

Not everyone has a large and spacious living room, and even if you do, it can be difficult to properly decorate. Even so, most city dwellers know and love the challenge of working with a small and compact living room all too well. Regardless of the availability of space to work with, it can transform your living room into a stylish ideal place to relax, entertain guests, and do the things you love most. Especially with this selection of small living room ideas as suggested by the interior designers at Décor Aid.

So if you need inspiration to make your small living room as comfortable, stylish, and inviting as possible, here are the best small living room ideas to personalize and maximize one of the most used and viewed rooms in your home – your living room .

mirror

The key to getting the most out of a small living room while making it look bigger at the same time is a lot easier than you think. In fact, most households only need a few stylish and affordable mirrors that add more reflective light to the space.

Mirrors are also easy to source and require little to no installation when you lean them against a wall at an angle to add even more depth.

Stick to the symmetry

In small spaces, symmetry should also be seen as the key, as a well thought-out layout gives the abbreviated space visual harmony and makes everything appear well-judged.

Keep even numbers and less random add-ons in mind when trying to make a small living room well decorated and on purpose.

Glass tables

Tables with a glass top are ideal for preventing the floor from becoming blocked. Your small living room will feel bigger while also offering plenty of space to work. When it comes to furnishing a small living room, the brighter the parts you bring in, the better it is.

Layer design styles

Keep the eye moving with a fascinating juxtaposition of design styles for the ultimate, rich transition design. Think mix and match, but make sure everything has a clear common ground to tie everything together.

This can be done through fabrications, colors, patterns, materials, and pretty much anything that holds it all together to avoid feeling random.

Keep it up

Just because you have a small living room to work with doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have any sense of play. So bring unique finds that are full of personality, wit, and character.

Shelves help

Take advantage of wasted vertical space and have sleek floating shelves installed or bring a bookcase to store and display books, decorative items, and treasured collectibles.

White on white interior

It goes without saying that a white-on-white or neutral and tonal color scheme is best for maximizing a small living space. Pairing your white walls with beige and other soothing furniture in neutral tones will instantly brighten a small room while looking larger.

However, you should avoid using more than a handful of pale colors at a time as you don’t want the eye to be bored. And worse, since you’re working with a small living room, they tend to look messier and dirtier, and all white only highlights imperfections. So make sure to add seductive pops of color and patterns to your living room, even in the smallest of doses.

Choose your sofa wisely

Large sofas, no matter how comfortable they are, can take up almost all of the space you have to work with in your living room. Hence, it is important to choose less invasive ones. This is one of the most important mistakes homeowners make when thinking about the best small living room ideas. Avoid large sofas when you need ideas on how to best decorate your living room with limited space.

Instead, go for a 1.5 seater that’s big enough for a couple of adults to sit comfortably on. One or two of these will be enough for an ideal living room, although that depends on the space available. Or you can do without a couch entirely and opt for a narrow sofa or even a bench instead, so as not to bring visually heavy objects such as bulky sofas.

Bring furniture that is easy to move

One of the worst things to do while decorating your small living room is adding lots of furniture until there is no space to enter. Opt for a small, scaled sofa and small furniture. However, if you still need more furniture, use easily moving parts like stools and nesting tables instead.

That way, you can create more floor space if needed, while also ensuring that you have enough seating and surfaces for everyone in your small living room.

Make long curtains

Your living room windows should be given equal attention, whether or not they are covered with curtains. Small living room design ideas require effective hacks and tricks to make them look bigger while also helping you get the most out of your living room space. Of course, take advantage of high ceilings when you have them, but if you don’t fool the eye into believing they are much higher than dramatic floor-to-ceiling curtains.

They will work to create a huge illusion of space while pulling the eye up. And always stick with white or see-through curtains to emphasize natural light, as lighter rooms always look bigger.

Consider multipurpose furniture

If you are looking for the best small living room ideas in 2019, consider multipurpose furniture as essential. There are tons of stylish coffee tables that provide storage space underneath, while the top can be used as a surface for dining and working in general. Think of parts that serve more than just one function, including when it comes to decorative extras.

This, in turn, will help you make the most of your small living room while minimizing the amount of things you need to bring with you. Imagine a sofa with storage space underneath, convertible tables and stools that can be used for sitting, storage and as additional surface. This type of furniture will not only make your living room look less crowded, but also bigger.

Take the focus away from the door

When you ask an interior designer for smart ideas for small living rooms, you are immediately asked to work on doors and entrances instead of decorating from them. It can be difficult to create the living room of your dreams when you are steps away from your door but not drawing attention to your front door.

Use carefully arranged seating patterns like an L-shaped cut or any other sofa arrangement that looks unique enough to grab attention while focusing on the decor, not the door. And if you have a budget to work with, you can install clever pocket doors so they don’t take up valuable space.

Work with awkwardly shaped walls

Finding small home design ideas can be quite challenging, especially if your living space or layout is awkwardly shaped and difficult to work with. Instead of thinking of the room as a defect, remember that it is impossible to decorate a room. Instead, consider strange looking spots in your living room as a trademark and turn them into a striking focal point.

If you are unsure of where to put your sofa in a vertically shaped living room, consider placing it at an angle that is right next to the door. If you have more than one sofa, you can use them to create an L-shaped conversation area or place them symmetrically in front of each other. That said, if they don’t work well together in your small living room then you should let go of one because there is clearly no room for it or any justification for just keeping it.

Add elegance to your living room

If your living space is small, don’t make it appear clinical and cold, or worse than a dormitory. Modern small living room ideas certainly require lightness and practicality, but that doesn’t mean you should forego everyday elegance entirely. Get creative because every element should have a sense of sophistication, like a useful bookshelf desk attached to a wall with built-in storage instead of a coffee table as it can double as a work surface.

Choose decorative and furniture pieces that evoke a unique spirit to make your small living room unique and unforgettable. And do a layer for a rich, yet calming feeling.

Don’t forget plants

Your little living room design ideas shouldn’t be free to encourage plants that are sporadically arranged in your living room. Decorating your living space with plants is a great and inexpensive way to instantly add color and texture to it.

Unless you are gifted with a green thumb, you should easily care for plants that require little maintenance or light while doing regular work to purify the air in your small living room. But if that still sounds like a stretch, bring the beauty of nature with art and printed fabrications that feature delightfully showy plants.

Transform your boring room

Most box-shaped living rooms lack architectural beauty and shape because they are simpler. When thinking about the best ways to add elegance and style to a small space every day, consider architectural elements that you can put in inexpensively. Dramatic shapes, pre-cut panels, and even ship hatches can lead to traditional ideas for small living rooms in 2019 that will never go out of style. That way, you can refine and redefine your small living room yourself without breaking the bank or doing a major renovation.

Feature walls are great for architectural accents as they act as a visual anchor in a small living room. They will help you achieve a polished look on any wall that lacks design features. You can also paint new moldings in dramatic colors like an Art Deco-inspired glossy black. All you need for your blank wall conversion is inexpensive pre-cut moldings or panels, paint, tape, and glue or nails.

Use vertical strips to raise a low ceiling

Do you have a low ceiling? No problem. That’s what you’d expect from a small living room anyway. However, you shouldn’t let your ceiling height limit your style or make your living room less customizable. To expand a room, add vertical and horizontal strips on your walls or on a carpet.

Striped walls can fool the eye that your living room ceiling is higher than it really is, and a graphically striped rug will make your small living room look longer.

Make the most of the lighting

Your small living room shouldn’t be without adequate lighting, even if it only has one window. Take a hanging pendant lamp to make a statement that defines the space and at the same time to illuminate your small living room. This ensures that the room is properly lit, especially if your room has little light.

You should also overlay lighting units to create a warm and inviting glow over wall lights, table and floor lamps, and candles. And make sure you don’t block your windows with bulky furniture so that you get as much natural light as possible.

Decorating a small living space is not an easy task as you may not know where to start. Choosing a sofa style and where to place furniture can be confusing and clutter your small space, leaving you little or no extra space to work. We hope the little living room ideas highlighted here will help you make the most of smart living room ideas with tight spaces.

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