13 Design Takeaways From This Small Living Room Makeover
As an interior designer nothing excites me more than exploring the design potential a room has to offer. If you’re new here, I provide virtual interior design services through my venture “Pristine Home Interiors”. In this post I will share my thought process as I worked on this living room makeover.
A room from reddit caught my eye and I could not help but visualize how it could look like if a designer worked on it! Throughout this blog post you will also understand the do’s and don’t of designing a living room and design lessons that can help you if you’re aiming for a designer look.
The first thought when we look at a small living room is ‘How do I fit the furniture here and still make it look nice?’. Every space has design challenges, regardless of the size. As a designer I love the challenge of designing small spaces, it just means having to explore my own creativity and coming up with ingenious solutions.
1. Open Layout For Small Living Rooms
Especially when working with smaller living rooms part ways with the idea of having a traditional layout. You have to be even more creative with the space and add furniture such that it doesn’t close out the seating area, while still providing ample seating opportunities. I like to coin the traditional layout as a ‘3-2-1-1’, a 3 seater couch, a loveseat which seats 2, and two 1 seater accent chairs. For a smaller living room stick to a ‘3-1-1’ layout - a 3 seater couch and a pair of 1 seater accent chairs.
If you look at the BEFORE picture of this living room, the 3-2-1-1 traditional layout isn’t working for the space. Yes, there’s ample of seating but the room looks closed off and there’s not a lot of pathway around the furniture. Instead, in the AFTER picture I redesigned the room to have a 3 seater couch along the longest wall and added a pair of accent chairs, that’s it! To provide additional seating, I added another accent chair next to the fireplace. This not only opened up the space but also makes it easier to walk around and access the area.
(To make up for the 1 seat that we lost in this process, I’ve added two ottomans under the console table. Keep reading to see how you can make this happen too!)
2. Say NO To Angled Accent Chairs
A common mistake I see in a lot of living rooms is accent chairs placed at an angle pointing each other in a V shape. For some reason this placement is perceived as a luxe look and while placing furniture in angles is certainly a good look, it has to be done very thoughtfully. To achieve the designer look rearrange your accent chairs to be parallel to one another, side-by-side.
A thing to note here in addition to the placement angle of the accent chairs is the layout I’ve chosen. Had I placed the couch in place of the 2 accent chairs, it would have obstructed the view, once again closing off this area of the room. Remember to place the couch along the longest wall and add accent chairs in the longest ‘open’ space of the small living room.
3. Shape Of The Coffee Table
For small living rooms stick to a round shaped coffee table. The reason for doing so is a rectangular or square shaped coffee table takes a lot of space. Imagine a big rectangular shaped coffee table instead in this room; it will obstruct the pathway, be too big for the space and make the room look packed. By choosing a round shaped coffee table we’re allowing the room to feel airy and spacious, there’s ample pathway to walk around and get to the other furniture pieces and the round shape adds a nice variation to the overall design.
4. Right Size Of Area Rug
No matter how small the room, placing a proportionate area rug can really make a big difference. I cannot emphasize on the importance of the size of the area rug enough. Swipe through the BEFORE and AFTER pictures below and you’ll see what I’m talking about. It grounds the furniture that otherwise feels afloat and squares off the seating area while keeping it open and flowing.
Here is a good rug size guide developed by Studio McGee that you can refer to.
5. Entryway Decor Is Still Possible!
Yes! An entryway decor is still possible in a small living room! You might think otherwise because it’s a small space and there’s no dedicated entryway but think again. You don’t really need a dedicated entryway to set up an entryway decor.
In this living room, I used the space next to the arch opening to place entryway decor. You can opt for console table, a bench or a cabinet. Check out my post to learn how to set up an entryway like a designer. I opted for a console table for this space to store a pair of ottomans underneath. This way, whenever there’s a need for extra seating, the homeowner can easily pull up these ottomans and put it to use.
6. Appropriate Window Treatments
Window treatments are an overlooked design element. Right window treatments are important in any space, no matter the size. Move away from the typical white blinds for your home. It is dated and gives a very workspace vibe, which I’m sure none of us want at home! This homeowner did a good job in opting for drapes for the big window. Curtains are the best choice and every designer’s favorite! They add the softness a home demands and a cozy vibe while adding the luxe element.
In the redesign I simply changed the placement of the curtains by moving it above the window frame. I also added shades on the two small windows next to the fireplace. Follow this 7 step guide I created for hanging curtains the right way to get the designer look.
7. Less Clutter
One luxury I would say that small living rooms don’t offer is the freedom to leave clutter around! Clutter is the enemy of good design in any space, but especially in a smaller room where there is limited capacity to conceal it. If you’re working with a small living room, make sure you have plenty of cabinets and storage space to hide away the clutter. Try your best to maintain a clutter free living room, reset the room each night and you’ll thank yourself in the morning as you walk into the space!
In this design I opted for a console table but if you have a lot of stuff to store that lives in your living room, you can opt for a cabinet with multiple drawers and shelves.
8. Runner Rug To Elongate The Space
A visual trick that can work like a magic in small living spaces is a runner rug near the front door. Runner rug is rectangular in shape with a longer length and shorter width. The length of the runner rug helps in elongating the space and instantly makes it feel bigger.
9. Lighter Colored Walls
If there is one element that I had to pick to make an impact in any room, it’s the color of the walls. Especially when working with a smaller area, it is crucial to stay in the neutral color palette when it comes to choosing a paint color.
In this living room, as you can see in the previous pictures, the color of the walls was dark. It was making the room feel smaller, darker and uninviting. Changing the color of the walls in the virtual design opened up the space, made it feel airy and helped bounce around the light - both during the daytime and night time.
10. Beams To Elongate The Width
Another trick similar to the runner rug to heighten the dimension of the room is adding beams. I added beams in this living room redesign and it instantly elevated the look! The warmth of the wood matches with the floor and it gives the entire room very warm, inviting and cozy vibe. Consider adding beams to your ceiling as a ceiling treatment to elongate the width of a small living room.
11. Lots Of Ambient Lights
A key feature that impacts the ambience of any room is the lighting. Lighting of any form, table lamp, floor lamp, ceiling lamp, plays a huge role in swaying the look of a space on the design spectrum.
There was no ambient lighting in this room before and they were missing out on a huge design element. Not only did I add a table lamp on the console table, floor lamp next to the couch and a picture light above the frames at the entrance, I also added a bunch of ceiling lights spread across the room in the redesign. A well lit room goes a long way in making the space feel bigger, no matter it’s footprint.
When adding lighting in your space, remember to stay in the warm and warmer bulb temperatures and make sure you don’t put cool temperature bulbs. It’s a lighting 101 and warm bulb temperatures do an excellent job in adding ambience to a room.
12. Add More Accent Pieces
Even if you’re decorating a small living room, there is still opportunity to add accent pieces throughout. In addition to the accent chair next to the fireplace, I placed a couple of accent tables. The idea is to have a surface to place your drink without having to get up no matter where in the living room you’re sitting. I added a side table next to the couch, a side table near the accent chair in the corner and a coffee table that’s equidistant from all the furniture around it.
When adding accent furniture like this in your living room make sure the height of the tables matches the height of the furniture seat around it. Too tall or too short tables can visually imbalance the look, not to mention the functionality challenge.
13. Add Indoor Plants & Greenery
How can we talk about designer style decor and not talk about greenery! Adding an indoor tall plant, a vase on the coffee table, another one on the side table and the console is a great way of bringing the nature inside creating a homely vibe. It’s easy to go overboard with this especially if you love plants but if you love a designer-style space more, do it thoughtfully!
How did you like this redesign? And which design lesson did you resonate with the most?
