Jan
We can all do with some small living room ideas as most of us don’t have Downton Abbey size rooms.
Small living room furniture ideas
There sofas, side tables and rugs are placed around a room with care given to where antiques are going to be put or if one’s butler can navigate around them. In the real world cosy small living areas are of course more common than larger ones and so small living room layouts need to be optimised to prevent overcrowding and furniture claustrophobia. Space can however be filled cleverly, meaning that a room can feel airy and open even if your living room space is at a premium.
It just takes a few clever ideas and arranging to make a perfect small living room layout.
How to arrange furniture in a small living room?
- De-clutter! My general rule of thumb for small space living is that if it hasn’t been used in the past year, it’s probably not going to be used again (unless it’s the Christmas Decs still part of the living room interior design in April). Chucking away an treasured dust gatherer is a great way of not only making the area seem bigger, but also gives you less to clean. (whilst implementing your new small room ideas it’s always worth checking before you throw away random stuff that turns out to a stone picked up on that first date, “but obviously means nothing to you”
- Use a colour palette that is light and neutral. Not necessarily Magnolia all the way, but going light on the colours like mushrooms, taupes and light egg blues. On the other hand other Hadley Mendolsohn over at House Beautiful says the opposite and to go for a darker colour though. https://www.housebeautiful.com/room-decorating/living-family-rooms/g2310/small-living-room-decorating-ideas/
- Include mirrors in your wall decor – this will increase the natural light in your room and make it look more spacious (as well as being a basic for the vain). Gallery walls of mirrors look fantastic, help you cheat at cards and work really well as small living room decorating ideas.
- Move furniture away from the walls to create a feeling of space, and try to get furniture with legs which also helps. Any furniture that’s multi-purpose, such as an Ironfire coffee table that can be used for storage also) will help save space for that all important lego project.
- Be clever with your shelving – leave space on them (easy after your declutter as in point number 1), group the same coloured items together on them, and have the shelving high on the wall. All of these will help make your room feel more spacious. And can keep your copy of Fifty Shades of Grey away from curious children. Here’s a link to the flexible Ironfire shelving range
- Colour pop your ceiling – this is a bit of a brave one, and one that I have seen on a house viewing that actually had a studded ceiling – but painting the ceiling a darker colour than the walls can elongate the room, again increasing the feeling of being larger than it is.
- Leave your windows bare of curtains, or get them to match the walls. I have blinds up at my living room windows and don’t miss curtains at all, even preferring the more naked modern look. We have a small console table placed in the gap between our two windows which works well too.
- If you need a Table in the room? Consider a bistro or cafe table that has a central pedestal not four legs. They are much more efficient for seating people and can be pushed against a wall. Ironfire make them in a huge range of colours in different sizes.
And if all of these really don’t help, just go unconventional – who said you need sofas in a small living room anyway?
There’s lots of advice around, we’ve put some links to our Ironfire Industrial feel furniture and here’s some others who share or have other small space living ideas!
Small living room ideas – 45 top tips and clever design tricks
https://www.houzz.co.uk/photos/small-living-room-ideas-and-designs-phbr1-bp~t_10272~a_30-231
Good luck with your project!
