Decorating Ideas for Small Living Rooms
Nowadays, a lot of people are crowding up places and instead of living in a single detached house, a lot of people are now living in apartments, condominiums and studios. And a lot of these housing types are small in living space. Yet, living in a small space does not mean that you can no longer accentuate your house to make it look fabulous.
There are a hundred ways to make small spaces look pleasing and this lens will provide some of them.
Walls
The walls can help make or break the design of .your living room. For small spaces, it is much advised to use light and brightly colored walls. Light colors are more reflective, which will help maximize the effect created by natural light. Yet this doesn't mean that you should stick to whites all the time, you can use other hues such as light green, light blue, yellow, beige or cream for your walls. Pastel colors gives an airy feel to your room. Darker shades of red and blue provides a more cozier feel, if you are more comfortable with that.
Once you've chosen your wall color, choose your trim and moldings colors. Paint your trims and moldings in either the same hue as the walls, or a lighter color. Lighter objects appear closer while darker or shadowed objects appear further away. When you paint your moldings a lighter color, the wall appears further back - thus making your room appear bigger.
If your colors are already dark, try to move the darker colors to a 'background' role while maximizing your neutral white or ivory. Be careful when using wallpaper. Solid colors are the safest, with tiny patterns taking a close second. Whatever the wall color or finish, we recommend the ceiling in a small room be painted stark white to maximize brightness.
Floor
As much as possible widen the floor. Try not to use a carpet because it will cramp your vision of the floor. Using tiled or laminate flooring can give a lighter and larger appearance to your small living room. Using tiles adds horizontal lines to the floor and accordingly highlights its width.
Windows
Use light gauzy and filmy fabrics for your window treatments. These fabrics let natural light pass through and adds more personality to your living room. Do not overdo and avoid using heavily printed fabrics in a small living room design. Get rid of heavy draperies and open up the windows to let the light of the outdoors into the space.
Large windows can make a small living room look bigger. The idea is to maximize the light. If you really want to supersize the look of your room, you should turn the window into a floor-to-ceiling glass door. It won't cost too much and will add much more liveliness to your room. If your living room has small windows, try to keep them neat. Don't put too many knick knacks on the window sills, as they will create a cluttered look. Heavy draperies are not ideal for a small room. Shutters, Roman blinds and sheer curtains are better options.
Furniture
Trade in bulky furniture for slimmed down pieces. A sofa with scrolled arms can take up to two feet of unnecessary space. Opt instead for straight, narrow arms and you gain living space. This doesn't mean you should buy small furniture, just furniture with a slim silhouette.
A small apartment living room can easily be overwhelmed by excessively large furniture. Trade in bulky furniture for slimmed down pieces. A sofa with scrolled arms can take up to two feet of unnecessary space. Opt instead for straight, narrow arms and you gain living space. This doesn't mean you should buy small furniture, just furniture with a slim silhouette.
After you choose your furniture, you'll need to position it in a way that best organizes and accents your living room. Consider what activities you'll use the living room for. Make sure to provide areas equipped specifically for all the living room endeavors on which you'll embark. Also keep in mind that you may need to walk through your living room (if it's positioned between other rooms), and so you'll have to leave "traffic flow" areas open accordingly.
Arrange some of your larger pieces of furniture at a angle. You don't have to place the furniture at an exact 45 degree angle, often a lesser angle looks best if you can balance the look with another furniture piece.
Keep furnishings in scale with the rooms. In small rooms, use slim rockers, open-back chairs or a simple sofa or love seat rather than overstuffed furnishings to avoid overpowering the space.
Lean and tall cabinets will make your living room arrangement much easier, as they are more space-saving and can fit into narrow spots that are often left unused. Save your wide cabinets, chests and bookcases for other bigger rooms. You can also employ wall mounted shelves or built-in cabinets, it saves a lot of space and provides a lot of storage.
Mirrors
A mirror is a necessity in a small space. It enhance space through visual illusion. Mirrors reflect light and create an illusion that makes the space feel larger than it is. Add one medium- to large-sized mirror to the focal point of the room to draw the eye as well as diffuse as much light as possible. You can learn to use mirrors cleverly and avoid overwhelming a room with them.
A large mirror in the room will reflect light around the room. The mirrors also reflect both natural and artificial light to make a room brighter during the day and night. They bounce light deep into the room, making it appear larger. This is especially effective with near a window so the outdoors can be reflected.
Use glass-front or mirrored cabinet doors to make spaces feel large and uncluttered. Large, expansive mirrors over vanities, mirrored wardrobe doors or a floor-to-ceiling wall of mirrors (combined with our decorating suggestions) can make even the smallest of spaces seem larger.
Storage
Storage is essential in small spaces, but too often it seems there isn't enough. To make up for a lack of closets or storage try incorporating trunk, chests and boxes into your décor. For example, a trunk with a flat top can make a great coffee table.
Tall bookcases, armoires and floating shelves are terrific for making use of vertical space. They allow you to build upwards and use very little floor space. Adding a few floating shelves and wall-mounted CD holders to your living room walls will provide extra storage space for your favorite books, games, CDs, toys, etc. Plus, some wall-mounted shelves are so interestingly designed. They often seem to be creative items for living room decoration, rather than just storage shelves.
Lighting
A smaller living room calls for a lot of attention to be paid to the lighting. Flat overhead lighting makes your apartment seem smaller. In Decorating small living room, consider accessorizing your apartment with separate light sources and lamps. Not only will this 'stretch' the corners of your room, it will give you control over your atmosphere, allowing you to conceal cluttered areas and highlight others to get the best and most flexible use out of your space.
Any room will look larger if it's well-lit, either by natural light or artificial lighting. Get rid of heavy draperies and open up the windows to let the light of the outdoors into the space. Add more lamps or install track lighting or recessed lighting. When you decide on the lighting fixtures make sure that you do not use very elaborate shades, as these could further cause your room to look crowded. In decorating ideas, the smaller spaces have as much potential as the larger ones.
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