Is Your Living Room Décor Making Your Home Look Smaller?
Our living room is the highlight of the most important place in your home. This is where you unwind after a long day, entertain guests, or where you hang out with your family. You will obviously want it to appear spacious, welcoming and a cozy feel to it. Yet, some of the decoration choices can make your living room like a cage.
The great news is that you can correct it! With a little help here and there to avoid common décor pitfalls, it can be possible to make a living room feel much more open and let in a lot air. In this article, we discuss the most common concerns and provide a few practical suggestions for your living room to make it appear more spacious and bright.
The Problem with Dark Colors
An elegantly modern and dramatic living room, but dark colors can shrink a space. Dark walls, furnishings, and floors absorb, rather than reflect, light. This gives a very claustrophobic atmosphere to the space, and even a relatively large room can feel cramped.
Solution: Embrace Light and Neutral Colors
If you want to make your living room look bigger — repaint the walls with some light and neutral palettes such as white, beige, or soft gray. These shades are bright and bounce light, creating a light, fresh space. Inject a little bit of personality using some colourful cushions, throws or artwork. A pale grey sofa, paired with light coloured throw pillows but adding in a punch of bright yellow can be chic, yet still remains open-hued and not heavy looking in the room.
Oversized Furniture Takes Over
Soft, bulky furniture may give the illusion of coziness but can suffocate your living room. Whatever it may be — a bulky sectional sofa or a solid wooden coffee table — it occupies a lot of your space and hardly allows you to move.
Solution: Choose Proportionate Furniture
Choose furniture that suits the size of your living room For smaller spaces, opt for minimalistic designs that are sleek and without a bulky look. Choose versatile such as a bed sofa or a storage ottoman. A larger then sofa can be balanced out with small side chairs or a light coffee table. Be sure to elbow out a few inches from the pieces of furniture to the walls to give the sense of room.
Clutter Steals Space
Another dreaded enemy which makes a living room look smaller is clutter. Magazine stacks, mismanaged décor objects, or excessive knick-knacks can clutter the area causing chaos within.
Solution: Declutter and Organize
Begin to declutter (go through your stuff, toss out anything you no longer utilise or need) then Give them away or keep them somewhere else. Opt for decorative baskets, or shelves, or even invest in some hidden storage furniture. So for instance, a storage ottoman housing the blankets, floating shelves holding books and small décor items neatly on shelves. A tidy living room appears larger and more inviting.
Poor Lighting Creates Shadows
The way your living room is lit plays a crucial role in making the room feel large and airy. Shadows, are created by a single overhead light or dark corners of the room which make it look smaller.
Solution: Layer Your Lighting
A layered lighting creates depth and suffuses your living room with warmth. Layer your lighting — Use a mix of floor lamps, table lamps, and even wall sconces to make the room feel brighter. For a warm atmosphere, use warm tone LED lights If your living room has windows, leave the curtains light and airy to let in as much natural light as possible. Mirrors are also a great source to bounce around light and creating an illusion of a bigger room.
Rugs That Are Too Small
Having a living room with a tiny rug will break the flow of the room. Often, it causes furniture to be floating randomly in the middle of nowhere which not only feels dysfunctional, but cramped and disconnected from the rest of the room too.
Solution: Pick the Right Rug Size
Pick a rug that is big enough to hold your furniture in. At a minimum, the front legs of all major furniture items—the sofa, chairs, and coffee table—should be placed on the rug. One of those multi-layered textiles brings the whole room together with a truly complete look and feel when the runners are properly sized.
Neglecting Vertical Space
Many when decorating only consider the floor and ignore the vertical space. So this causes the living room to become flat and narrow as well.
Solution: Use the Walls
Install tall bookshelves, hang curtains high, or hang large art on the walls to utilize vertical space. Vertically inclined items, like tall plants or standing lamps, also lead eye move up and help give an impression of height. For instance, a full-height bookshelf offers both additional storage and the illusion of greater ceiling height further emphasizing volume in the room.
Overloading the Walls
Yet, as in the case of vertical space: Too much wall décor tends to have a reverse effect. The rapid clutter of overloading walls with scores of little frames, poster boards, or decorations erases all spatial aspects, making the room feel more chaotic than anything else.
Solution: Go for Simplicity
Skip a gallery wall of hundreds of smaller frames and go with one or two large art or mirror pieces. They are plenty in your face without taking over the room. If you love small things, display them together, in orderly fashion — they can become cluttered if not careful.
Heavy Curtains Block the Light
While thick, heavy curtains have that luxurious feel, they also block natural light and could make your living room visually heavier. It lends a heavy dark, more cave-like sensation to it.
Solution: Lighten Up
Opt for light, translucent curtains or blinds to let in the light of day. Places where you need some privacy can use sheer curtains in layers with roller blinds, which you can close at any time. Adds delicateness and airiness to a living room, with light, billowy fabrics.
Bad Furniture Arrangement
The way you use furniture in the living room is either make it or break it kind of stuff. When you push all the furniture against the walls or create pathways that are blocked, it creates a awkward feeling.
Solution: Rearrange Strategically
If you can get away with it, you could even try to float furniture. For example, place couch/chairs around a coffee table and ensure there is a clear path laid out. Define the seating area with a rug and keep the layout simple. Make sure not to cover windows or doorways, as this will hinder the pure movement of the area.
Ignoring the Power of Mirrors
The simplest way to make a living room to appear larger is through mirrors. They bounce light around making your room look bigger. Despite this, most of us ignore this simple trick.
Solution: Add Mirrors
Place big mirror on one wall to bounce light around the space. Another alternative can be a mirrored furniture like a console table or cabinet that can also do the same trick. Mirror Opposite Windows in a Location to Capture Natural Light.
Too Many Patterns
The eye may be overwhelmed by many bold patterns in your living room décor. It provides a very cluttered, chaotic and busy texture for the space, which appears smaller.
Solution: Simplify Your Patterns
Limit yourself to one or two if patterned, and pair with solids. If you have a rug that has a lot of patterns in it, go ahead and get sofas and chairs that are solid colors. Likewise, use patterned cushions with solid throws. This will bring coherence amongst the content and avoid the image from looking cluttered.
Forgetting Open Spaces
A living room should be balanced, and that means that it cannot have too much in it, it should have some space that is open, free, unused. Over-furnished: A room should never feel overcrowded and cramped; try and leave some of the corners empty, loading all corners with furniture or décor should be avoided.
Solution: Leave Room to Breathe
Do not put any furniture or decoration in at least 1 corner of the living room. This void generates an feeling of readability to the room. If your living room and/or dining room is small, remove one or two pieces of unnecessary furniture to give yourself some breathing room.
The Role of Plants
Plants can be a nice addition to a living room, but having too many big plants can make a small space feel crowded.
Solution: Choose the Right Plants
Opt for a smaller plant, like a succulent or fern, that can be set on shelves or tables. Another great idea for greenery without taking up the floor space, fabrication hanging plants. Perhaps one or two strategically placed plants do.
Conclusion
If your living room feels tiny, what you choose to decorate with might be the reason. Tackle all the dark tones, monstrous size units and piles of mess to make your space open, breezy and welcoming. Think light colors, reasonably sized furniture, and intelligent lighting. Use mirrors, declutter, and get a bit minimalistic in your décor.
By following these straightforward guidelines, you can upgrade your lounge into a roomy, relaxing area where you will want to spend more time.
