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While a small living room might have limited space or little square footage, it can be furnished to look more spacious and stylish with the right methods. In addition, arranging a small living room is simpler than furnishing a large one because fewer objects are required.
With the right furniture and home appliances, you can make a small living room look spacious while improving the overall decor. You don’t need to spend a lot on new furniture. There are many DIY projects you can do to improve your small living room. You can make a pallet, a sofa, reupholster your old one, make a sliding door, build a coffee table, and so much more.
This post will show you how to furnish your small living room and point out the little tips and tricks you may find useful.
Small Living Room Ideas
Here are some awesome ideas on how you can upgrade your small living room:
Replace Sofas With Club Chairs
Most sofa sets occupy a large space when compared to club chairs. In fact, club chairs can occupy tight places and move around incredibly simply, making a tiny living room appear larger.
If your living room has a fireplace section or TV, we recommend placing the club chairs close to the fireplace or tv stand so that you can see the fireplace or TV easily while, at the same time, having a conversation.
Club chairs are suitable for a smaller space, as they offer you more floor space, thereby improving the layout of a small living room. If you already own club chairs but use them in your dining room, why not try a little reshuffle and see how it looks?
But, if you prefer to keep your sofa, you can very well do so. You can customise it to your liking and make it more comfortable.
Incorporate Some Large Items
While a small living area might have limited floor space, it’s still a good idea to incorporate at least one larger item. For instance, a medium-sized chandelier might make a small living space look more elegant and attractive, tricking the mind into picturing it as a big room.
However, the chandelier should not be placed directly above the sofa or sofa bed, as this may make the room look cluttered. Also, keep in mind that it needs to hang at a suitable height to prevent any bumps or knocks.
High Ceilings To Maximise Vertical Space
High ceilings are a great feature for making a small living room look bigger than before, especially if it has high windows. With such ceilings, you can frame your windows with high curtains. Choose a set of curtains that ties in various aspects of your living room – whether that be in terms of colour or pattern.
To make the room look even more stylish, we recommend that the curtains have enough material to cover the whole length of the wall – from the top of the window to the floor.
Hang Artwork To Act As A Focal Point
Wall-mounted artwork pieces can style up a compact living room, improving the overall decor of the small space. While a gallery of wall-mounted art pieces might make a tiny living room look congested, the right prints can improve the ambience of a space.
To make the space look bigger than it is, you can mount the art pieces at different levels and spots. In this case, having different-sized or coloured frames can work to your advantage, adding a bit more colour and light.
Low Furniture
If your living room doesn’t have tall ceilings, opt for low furniture such as low sofas, low coffee tables, and low chairs. Such furniture creates an illusion that tricks the mind into thinking that the ceiling is high, making a small living room look bigger than it is.
Use Coffee Tables of Different Sizes
Different sizes of coffee tables might be ideal for a small living room. For instance, you can put a small round coffee table under a large one, layering them together to save space. Not only does this create a unique arrangement of coffee tables that improves the decor of your living room, but it also gives you the possibility of expanding your table space when you can invite guests over for some drinks and nibbles.
Floating Shelves
Instead of using a large piece of furniture, such as a bookshelf that often occupies a lot of space, you can build shelves that lie flush against your wall. Such floating shelves offer you enough space for storing various household items and books and don’t make the room look cramped. Just make sure not to place too many items on your shelves to look cluttered.
Additionally, you can often also change the shelves around if they are different lengths or designs. For example, the lowest shelf can have the largest storage space compared to the highest shelf, but you could reverse that and hang the shelves in a way that suits your needs best.
We also recommend that the floating shelves should have a colour that blends perfectly with the walls around them to make it seem like more space.
Lighting
To save on precious floor space, use lighting fixtures that can hang from different spots instead of using a floor lamp. For example, some lighting fixtures can be installed on a wall without protruding from the surface, saving space.
You can also install some decorative lighting fixtures to improve the overall decor of the living room. Examples of such fixtures include lighted twig branches, globe lights, a chandelier, fairy lights, or even decorative table lamps. Choose the style of decorative light that suits your home the most. The good thing with such is that you can get creative and create your fixture.
Portable lighting fixtures might also be ideal for a small living room.
Sliding Doors
Instead of installing the usual type of door that opens into a room, why not look into buying and installing a sliding door? This will help you save on space. Not to mention, some sliding doors are made from glass, which can make your living room look more attractive and let in more light.
Sliding doors come in all shapes and sizes, and there surely is a design that suits your needs. Another little tip is the check that the colour of the doorframe blends in with the walls of your living room.
Mirrors
Mirrors improve and increase the amount of natural light in any tiny space. However, they have to be placed in strategic locations to reflect sunlight rays throughout a room.
Moreover, mirrors can create an illusion, which tricks the brain into thinking that a small space is larger. To get such results, use large mirrors with a simple frame that offers a large reflective space.
A mirror frame can make a room look stunning and attractive, taking it to the next level. Decorative wall-to-ceiling mirror frames may be manufactured from wood, shiny metallic materials, or plastic. Not to mention, some frames have artistic engravings that can provide a touch of elegance.
Use White Paint to Get White Walls
White paint effectively reflects sunlight and artificial light, making a cramped living room look more lively and brighter than before. It also helps you highlight different items that might be hanging on your walls, such as paintings, mirrors, or decorative clocks. Lighter walls also often help make furniture more noticeable, making a small living room look bigger than it is.
Apart from that, white paint gives a small living room a simplistic yet attractive finish. Most colours also blend perfectly with white paint. Whether you plan to install a painting with brown frames or black frames, most will match perfectly with white walls, making your living room look stunning.
Creating Visual Interests
Do you want to make your small living room more visually attractive? Here are ways how to do it:
Hanging Egg Chair
If you want to create more sitting space in your living room that at the same time also creates an interesting focal point, why not install a medium-sized hanging egg chair? Because such chairs hang from an elevated level, they occupy less space than most indoor chairs while offering you a cosy nook to sit in.
Hanging chairs are manufactured from a wide array of materials, offering you various options to choose from based on your preferences.
Ottomans
While small coffee tables might be ideal for small living rooms, ottomans are even more effective at saving space. Plus, ottomans are manufactured from various materials, so you can choose one that blends perfectly with your sofas, club chairs, or curtains. For instance, some ottomans are manufactured from natural leather, giving a living room an elegant look that is neither too casual nor too formal.
Ottomans are versatile pieces of furniture that offer you enough space to hold various household items. For example, you can easily store some blankets, throws, books, or serving trays out of sight within the ottoman.
Moreover, most ottomans offer you a comfortable and sturdy space, additional seating space, or double up as a footstool.
Wall Designs
If you like creative and unique designs that improve the architectural appearance of a space, a feature wall might be another suitable choice for your living room. Feature walls are unique in their design and can improve the interior decor of a specific space.
The perfect example is an accent wall that might feature red bricks, stone veneers, panelling boards, wallpaper, or a collection of paintings.
Once you determine the style that you want to add to the accent wall, you can get in touch with an interior designer or add the style on your own, depending on your preferences. Furthermore, you can get creative and incorporate your design by using various materials or paintings.
Jewel Coloured Accents and Accessories
Jewel colours, such as silver and gold, can make a small living room look stunning and attractive. Such colours can be incorporated into mirror frames, clocks, and painting frames to improve the interior decor of a small living room.
Furthermore, fabrics of the same colour can blend perfectly with such accents, giving a certain space a uniform and attractive decor and creating balance. For instance, materials that have a silver undertone or a gold undertone can blend perfectly with silver or gold items that might be mounted on your walls.
Stunning Furniture Fabrics
Fabrics can improve the decor of a small living, taking it to the next level. A large carpet or a large rug can cover a small living room floor, making it look attractive. Plus, such carpets and rugs feature different colours and designs, offering you a wide array of options to choose from based on your preferences.
Adding colourful or patterned carpets to your living is an excellent idea if you already have them decorated in neutral tones.
You can also revamp your furniture with new and updated fabrics. In this way, you’re also doing the environment a favour, as you’re keeping your old furniture and simply updating the material.
Most importantly, make it a habit to regularly clean your furniture, especially ones that are frequently touched and used. Making your small living room attractive also means keeping it clean and everything else in it.
Introducing Plants Into Small Living Rooms
Various plants can make a small living room look stunning by incorporating a natural finish in different spots of the room. You can hang plants from the ceiling or fill some vases with your favourite flowers – they could even be dried or synthetic flowers. Wall planters can be another great addition that can blend in seamlessly with the colour of the walls in your living room.
While a planter might be ideal for decorating a small living room, it shouldn’t have a colour that creates a huge contrast.
Just remember that while real plants might refresh the air in a small living room, maintaining such plants might be challenging. On the other hand, synthetic plants require minimal maintenance efforts. However, such plants cannot refresh the air in a small room.
A Living Room With Style
Many small front room ideas can make it seem larger. Some options are more costly, require more work, or are bigger than others. Whereas other options are small, minor details that can make a world of difference.
Either way, the style you choose needs to match what you already have and not clutter your available space. Choose a style that blends well with some of the items you already own, and if you want to create an illusion that tricks the mind into thinking that the living room has square footage, decorative mirrors might be ideal for creating such illusions.
If you love creative and artistic things, a feature wall might make your living room look stunning while making an artistic statement. Small and stylish furniture like ottomans and club chairs are ideal for small living rooms, or if you aren’t in the market for new furniture, consider reupholstering your existing armchairs, couch, or club chairs.
Hopefully, you have gained some inspiration from our tips and tricks. If you feel like we missed out on something, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
Ian loves everything that revolves around the home improvement niche. He loves trying out new home appliances. He has also handled a lot of equipment and has a lot of insight. Plus, he’s worked on various home improvement projects that became a success.
If Ian isn’t busy working on his latest project, you can find him reading up about another one!
