24 simple ideas for a living room to envy

Roz ffrench Roz ffrench
Guest House, Pini&Sträuli Architects Pini&Sträuli Architects Modern living room
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Everyone has a different idea of their perfect home. However, regardless of your particular tastes, there are some basic rules to follow; things you shouldn't overlook that are essential to achieve a functional and comfortable space.

Of course, it's important to have a particular style in mind to follow or get you started—only you can know the true potential of your living space! For a cosy and quiet atmosphere, we can't forget a single thing, so we decided to create a small guide with 24 whopping ideas on how to perfect and refine your home and its style.

Try a few ideas out—it's easy!

1. Wall stickers

Wall stickers are fantastic if you feel like your bland, bare walls need a bit of sprucing up. Make art on your walls! You can get your favourite and most important quotes on your wall to remind you every day, or simply an inspiring silhouette to break up the emptiness of the wall.

2. Nooks

Use the corners and nooks in your home. You can change them into bookshelves, storage corners or display areas; using this space is both cheaper and more efficient than buying a bookshelf or storage boxes. 

3. Favouring natural light

Arrange a room so that as much natural light as possible can flow through! Placing your sofa up against a window will block the light and any view you might have. Everything looks and feel so much better and more relaxed in natural sunlight.

4. Divided yet open spaces

Intelligently dividing up rooms can have a great effect on how your home functions. For example, sectioning a room into a living room and a study is efficient and easy, low-cost and can also look good!

5. Kitchen islands to divide

Some connected spaces need dividing, so to give a sense of separation to a shared space between a living room and a kitchen use a kitchen island. They're useful, add extra space for food preparation, and act as little walls to separate space.

6. Diving the living room and kitchen with a sofa

Again, dividing up parts of the home can be an efficient way of perfecting your living space. Using the sofa is a simple idea and not many of us think about it!

7. Modular wall design

Modular designs for your wall is an awesome way to spice it up when you need more shelves or more to look at when you walk into a room. They can break up the colour of a wall into different sections. 

8. Demolish parts of the wall

Do away with portions of the wall altogether! Having open archways into other rooms makes any given room feel bigger and more airy. Rather than being one single room, it would be open to other parts of the house. 

9. Create something with a portion of the wall

Smaller parts of leftover wall can be transformed into something functional, stylish and beautiful. For example, it can be a place for shelves, art or a wall-mounted TV. This saves floor space and brings a whole new area od functionality to  the home.

10. Use a long cupboard for the TV

Standing the TV on a long cupboard or storage unit integrates storage, stand and entertainment into one thing. Stash away your DVDs into the stand or hide away your various television boxes. This is cheaper than purchasing an actual TV stand!

11. Light colours for a small room

Small rooms can feel dark and tiny already, so decorating and lavishing the pace in bright, neutral and light colours will open it up and illuminate every corner. All you need is a coat of paint and a few light colours!

12. Window between rooms

A lot of us love connected space in the home, so making use of archways can be a beautiful thing! They leave rooms open to each other instead of closing them off so deliberately. It certainly saves the need for a door…

13. Use stone to spice up a wall

Abbandonare l'impronta tradizionale senza rinunciare ad un ambiente caldo e confortevole, AMlab AMlab Living room

You don't always need plaster, paint or wallpaper to improve the look of your house. To achieve an industrial style, exposed brick walls are a must-have.

14. Think extra large

XXL seating is fantastic for busy homes. All we want at the end of a long day sometimes is to simply collapse onto a soft, forgiving sofa or bed—and an extra large sofa like this is perfect!

15. Make the most of every corner

Utilise every corner of your home—use it for storage, shelving, seating or creative decor. You can make it look like a designed part of the house.

16. Minimal decor

Sometimes a bare wall can be just as beautiful as a wall that has been lavished in your photos, memories and decorations. Depending on your chosen stye of interior design, less can be more!

17. Curtains

Never underestimate the essentials. Curtains can add a certain high-end taste to your home—their designs and patterns bring something new. They also give you control of how much light to let into the room, so if you're in the mood for an afternoon nap in front of the TV, that's no problem.

18. Touches of colour

If your home is sleek and neutral all the way though, little touches of colour can enliven your home and illuminate even the dullest of areas! There's no fear of colour clashing as neutrals fit perfectly with most bright tones ad hues.

19. Carpentry

Timber is a beautiful material for furniture in the home. Wooden furniture brings a natural air and feels home-made, where metal and plastic (and other materials) sometimes will not. 

20. Use the full height of a room

Who says you have to leave the walls to simply being walls? Use them! Walls are fantastic to use up if you need more shelving, more space for photo frames, mirrors or other decor, or lighting. You can choose to use the entire extent of the wall or simply use little portions of it.

21. Large carpets

If you feel like your floors are looking bare or feeling cold against your feet, huge carpets and rugs will help endlessly. Not only is there now softness and comfort for your feet, but the room feels more like home and looks beautiful.

22. Make use of structural columns

Fed up of seemingly useless columns dotted around the house? Just embrace them! You can transform them into shelves, little photo walls, or anything else that you feel would enhance your home.

23. Reassess flooring

Sometimes you need to rethink your flooring. It can make or break the whole atmosphere and style of your space—bland, boring and old will do nothing to help your house. Instead, adapt your flooring to your chosen style and perhaps even the furniture and wall decor.

24. Plants, plants, plants

Plants bring a whole lot of beauty to the table! Freshness to open up the air, green as a splash of life and elegance to add to the beauty of the rest of your home.

If you liked this guide, check out this article on using palettes for your home!

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