Making the living room the heart of your home
People may gather in the kitchen, but your living room is where friends and family really go to relax and unwind. So making it the best space it can be for everyone is really important.
These 5 steps can help you design a living room everyone will love
In this blog we will give you practical tips and advice on how to make this space perfect for your needs. From the flow and creating zones and how to utilise awkward spaces. Whether you’ve just moved into a new home or it’s a home you’ve been in for years, we have some brilliant living room ideas that we can help you create a beautiful space.
Let’s get into some design considerations to help you get started in your living room.
Step 1: Create zones for relaxing, working and more
Your living room can be cleverly designed to suit everyone. Simply by creating zones, your space can flow together while still feeling separate.
Doing this can be easier than you think. There’s the option to incorporate fitted furniture to partition between areas or clearly mark out a use for a specific area like a workspace or bar. Then there’s small design hacks like laying rugs in different areas or mixing flooring materials to create more defined zones visually.
The important thing here is to keep the space still feeling open. So using transparent material such as glass fronted display cabinets and glass shelving can keep the light moving around the room and not close in the area.
Step 2: Incorporate design elements and decor that make you smile
With the ever-growing interest in self-care and wellbeing, carving out an emotional escape in the home is another step in designing wellness into your lifestyle.
The latest interior trend is about creating emotional spaces. This involves designing your surroundings with things that make you happy or connect positive associations with. So think about incorporating sentimental objects, artwork, paint colours and collections of your favourite things. A fitted media unit, bookcase or display cabinet for example gives you ample space to display your beautiful things while adding storage for those things that are best put away.
Let’s not forget to incorporate plenty of plants to conjure a calm and collected mood. You can also carve out a cosy corner for your pet’s bed and all their toys so they can enjoy the space with you too! After all, experts in psychology have proven that pets increase positive emotions and bring calm to any environment.
Step 3: Add mirrors to create the illusion of space and more light
Smaller spaces will thank you for adding mirrors. After all, it’s a well-known interior design hack that mirrors create the illusion of more space and light.
They bounce light beautifully to create an inspiring and inviting space.
And it’s not just about hanging a mirror. Mirrored doors on furniture are a brilliant way of creating the illusion of space while incorporating storage too. Alternatively, bringing metal touches into the room will also help to reflect light.
Using handles, in brass or chrome is a great way of doing this while giving you flexibility to easily change your look when you are ready for a style refresh.
Step 4: Create the ultimate entertainment space
Especially these days, tech can easily take over your living room! But there’s no reason why it has to take over your space and be the main feature or activity of the whole room.
We’re talking about the TV, music and gaming systems and even remote controls that either get lost or create clutter. All this can be perfectly stored away (while always being on hand) with clever storage and fitted furniture like a media unit or even just some extra drawer space.
The ultimate living room is a space for everyone to enjoy and use how they are most comfortable, so think about how people would use the space. You could create a quiet corner to read a book or play computer games, or add a good sized coffee table for a game night. Maybe even build a bar area for nights in and having friends round.
Step 5: Picking a theme can help you to design the space
Natural living and all things green continue to be two of the top trends for living spaces. While plants bring life, there is a surge in interior design for incorporating a range of dried flowers, moss, straw and wild bushes. This wilder approach to bringing in nature is reminiscent of decorative features around cities and raw decorations on antique buildings.
Whether you choose to go green with your furniture, decide on a bold green feature wall or simply add a few pops of green with your cushions or decorations, it will certainly createa calm and connected space to enjoy after a long day at work.
Are you sitting in the living room right now and looking around thinking “I’d love to do more with this space”?
At Sharps, we can help. We’re experts in maximising living room and spaces of all kinds, including turning one room into a multifunctional space.
And we do it with beautifully designed bespoke fitted furniture.
