Update your living room to keep up with your family.
Living rooms are formal, informal, used everyday or only on special occasions. Their size ranges from a small room off the entry room to hundreds of square feet. Whatever your type of living room, changes in your family and lifestyle call for rethinking the design.
Extra Storage
Very few homeowners think they have enough storage. When designing your living room, add in storage wherever possible. Use built-in cabinets between windows to take advantage of otherwise wasted space. An ottoman adds comfort to your seating arrangement. Find one that flips open to reveal a compartment to store blankets. Place hinged baskets underneath the entryway table to hide magazines, games and reading material.
Create Activity Areas
Think about who uses your living room and for what purposes. Create areas that fulfill those purposes. Television and movie watching require comfortable seating, tables to put a drink on and enough distance between the screen and the seats for appropriate viewing. A large-screen TV needs to be viewed from a greater distance than a portable, small TV. Set up an area for game playing with chairs and tables. A reading nook requires lighting that won't interfere with the rest of the people in the room.
Lighting
Lighting is often overlooked as a design idea. Living rooms require ambient light. That's light that fills the room, like sunlight coming through a window, but isn't for any specific purpose. Task lighting is lighting that's required to complete a task, such as a reading lamp or lighting for a game table. Focus lighting brings the eye to an element within the room. It could be on a painting, piece of artwork or a plant. Lighting, no matter what kind, should not create harsh shadows. Turn on the television and lighting within the living room to see if the TV is reflecting any light back to the viewer.
Seasonal Changes
Think of the living room walls, rugs and major pieces of furniture as a blank canvas. Keep them in neutral tones. Change out the accessories with the seasons. Let's say your color scheme is green and blue. Keep the sofa and chairs in shades of beige, taupe and off-white. In the spring use light green toss pillows, cornflower blue accessories and bring in a touch of yellow. When summer comes take out the green and add darker blue accessories. In the fall bring the green back in and remove the yellow. Substitute burnt orange, russet and golds.
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