I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m watching any series, or browsing through home décor magazines and articles-
Or even watching those clips where the celebs are interviewed in their own homes,
I have this unhealthy obsession with concentrating on the pristine and luxurious living rooms more than the main characters.
But I always conclude that while the bigger ones look aesthetic, I shall continue leaning more towards the smaller yet cozier living rooms.
They are the ones where I would love snuggling on the love seat with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my hands- and let’s not forget the abundance of marshmallows on top.
I would sit there with my loved ones on wintery nights and laze around on Sunday mornings, sharing funny stories or even doing mundane household chores.
Whenever I’d feel stressed from the city life, I would open the windows to let some sun rays in, allowing the fresh breeze to caress my face gently,
As I bask in the bliss, maybe read my favorite novel as others are indulged in their work or leisure- their sounds acting as the hushed background music, oh, my favorite lullaby.
Oh, or when I have my friends over, all huddled up on the couches, sharing embarrassing stories, complaining about our bosses, or enjoying movie nights.
That is just a small chunk of the effect a serene and lively living room has on me- all of us.
Tranquil and Snug Living Rooms – A DIY Guide on Small Living Room Ideas
You know, it’s funny how so many people don’t truly understand the importance of a homely living room. It is the heart of your home- the feature that makes a house turn into a home.
Your living room doesn’t need expensive accessories or that air of grandness and massive shiny furniture or a classical piano.
It’s astonishing how it’s the bare minimum efforts that turn your living room into an elegant and picturesque yet comfier space.
I shall talk about a list of such creative small living room ideas that work wonders and,
Transform your living room into an airy and majestic space that draws your family together and helps boost that family bonding time we crave oh-so-much.
1- Install Smart Lighting in The Living Room
Suggested: Fancy it up With Smart Lighting.
Simple lights are no fun. Add a humming harmony in your living room by installing some fancy lights. You can either opt for those that hang from the ceiling or the ones attached to your wall- whatever you think best suits your small living room layout.
Fancy lighting also highlights your walls, makes them seem taller and broader- giving a feeling of wider space.
Ensure, though, that the color of your smart lighting goes well with the color scheme of your living room. That helps make your small living room look presentable and less clustered.
Plus, no one wants a mismatched living room that doesn’t suit your lifestyle and looks unappealing and haphazardly designed, eh?
Also, while lighting makes your interior enchanting, too much of anything is something you must avoid. Having a number of smart lights in your living room might take away that decency and beauty of your sitting room and, instead, might make it feel stuffier.
So, before buying and installing your smart lighting, know how much is ideal for your space to maintain your living room’s beauty and snugness.
2- Swap a Sofa for Club Chairs to Make the Best of Small Space
Suggested: Club Chairs are Chic
If you are like me, who is in absolute awe of snuggly yet sophisticated sofas that beg you to relax your backs on them, but oh well,
You’ve got a small sitting room. Fret not, though,
Let go of sofas for now and buy some club chairs. They are super cozy and offer a pristine contemporary look to your charming living room. This is one of the best small sitting room ideas and indeed does work its charms.
Place the armchairs in front of the windows; don’t forget to place a vintage coffee table in between them to enhance the overall breezy appeal without making your space look overcrowded.
If you’re more into chic interior décor rather than classic and vintage, you can always go for more modern coffee tables that go with your equally as contemporary armchairs and,
Transform your small living room into a glamorous and charming space.
3- Create Space Using Mirrors to Make the Small Living Room Look Bigger
Suggested: Mirrors for a Spacious Look
It’s no breaking news that mirrors work wonders in offering the illusion of spaciousness. That is what makes them one of the most ingenious and stylish small living room ideas.
You can decide from a vast collection of mirrors- varying from their sizes, shapes, and even framed and frameless ones.
Selecting them essentially depends on their placements. A horizontal frameless one works if you want to place it on top of your shelf, while small squared and framed ones look amazing besides your living rooms’ windows.
To enhance the artistic aura of your small sitting room, you may even create a mirror-tilled wall. They would not just multiply your space but notch up the serenity and brightness of your interior.
Nothing sounds better than a wall dedicated to a collection of squeaky-clean mirrors of different shapes, all boosting the overall fine aura of your sitting room, eh?
4- Layer Coffee Tables
Suggested: Layer it Up using Coffee Tables.
Hoarding coffee tables might be an issue, but if you’re unwilling to give them up, layer them!
Offer your living room a luxurious touch without taking up a lot of space in your small living room. Transparent coffee tables are perfect choices for layering.
Though opaque ones have a beauty of their own, adding class and innovation to your living room as well.
The way they open in layers and even act as storage units where you can keep some trinkets or to-do notebooks,
You basically get to invest in a coffee table that acts as a multi-purpose asset. Oh, the joy!
Place them in front of your couches or between your armchairs, and see how soft and sleek your living room looks.
5- Take Advantage of High Ceilings to Make Small Living Room Look Spacious
Suggested: Get High Ceilings to Work in Your Favor
If you thought the high ceiling of your living room wouldn’t work in your favor, think again. The high ceiling is blessings in disguise. Think of it this way- while your floor area might be less, you get a more vertical area to decorate!
To streamline your numerous possibilities, you can highlight your windows by installing curtains or big hanging lights or cover the wall with wall hangings and frames.
You can even mount cubicles towards the top of your high walls and increase your storage space. So, while yes, you are a bit tight on your home space and probably have a lot of stuff to keep. But why should you compromise when you can improvise?
Also, a cherry on top,
If you plan on selling your house, offering more storage is proven to be very beneficial, boosting your space’s financial value in the eyes of potential buyers in an instant.
6- Replace Living Room Curtains with the Blinds
Suggested: Blinds are the New “IT”
Yes, curtains come with their unique frilly and flimsy appeal, but when it comes to more versatile ways to decorate a small living room, blind roles win the race.
They are much better alternatives in making the interior look more prominent and your walls taller. It’s partially because blinds occupy lesser space than curtains and so, in a way, reduce the occupied space near windows.
That helps your living room get more exposure from natural light and hence, look neat, poised, and soothing-
Precisely the kind that draws you and your loved ones to spend more time in it and bask in the freshness and airiness.
There is a wide range of blinds you can choose from. Be it the wooden ones or leather ones that add a timeless touch to your interior,
You can select whatever type that suits your lifestyle and matches your sitting room’s overall interior décor.
One thing’s for sure; blinds take the pacific and gentle coolness of your room to a new height!
7- Build-In Shelving
Built-In Shelves are the Real Deal
Building shelves is the best way to utilize space when searching for ways to decorate a small living room.
While the last shelf can also be used for sitting, the upper shelves are the best spaces for decoration ornaments and storage areas. You can even make a mini library to display your well-adored collection of classics.
This way, your floor space wouldn’t change, yet you still will be able to decorate your small living room in a clutter-free way. Plus- who wouldn’t love more storage area when we’re tight on space in the first place, right?
You can build these shelves on any of your spare walls that remain empty, and you think they aren’t being utilized properly. Or you can even utilize a corner or awkward nook in the corner of your living room where no matter how much you try, nothing would fit, no furniture or a couch or a sofa.
I say this with such eviction because I know the pain of having such awkward corners. Ugh, the frustration I suffered!
Luckily, this hack worked in my favor- and hopefully does for yours as well!
8- Use Stools as Seats
Even if you have a small sitting room, you still need enough seats to make sure you all get enough room to sit, right? But then, having couches and sofas mean cramping up your interior- which is a big no-no.
Let’s not have any meltdown, though, eh? Avoid all the big furniture and use your stools as seats. Because they can also be moved easily, so you can always place them in other rooms when you don’t need them for the sitting room.
So, your sitting problem gets solved all the while, making sure your living room looks less stuffy and more commodious.
See, you get to kill numerous birds with one stone. If you’ve got guests over, you can use the stools for the living room. And for the rest of the time, you can use the stools in the rest of the house, from kitchen counter stools to dressing table stools. Clever, right?
9- Invest in multi-functional furniture
Suggested: Getting Some Multi-Purpose Furniture Certainly Pays
When it comes to small room design tips, investing in multi-functional furniture is essential.
That helps amplify your storage space while ensuring your living room feels and looks presentable, extensive, and light.
Match the furniture with other small living room essentials like coffee tables and fancy mirrors with the same or contrasting color schemes.
It’s best to keep the color blend towards lighter hues to have your sitting room look roomier and not suffocated. Basking in the bliss without feeling like everything is in your face sounds appealing, no?
10- Focus on Low Seating
Lower seating arrangements offer an illusion of your room having higher walls and ceilings. That, in turn, gets your interior to feel open and vast in size.
Add in your creativity and see in awe how it has your small living room enhance its peaceful and placid vibes. You can place low cushioned stools in front of your couch next to your window.
By adding some snuggly cushions you can make the room more inviting and homely. On top of that, you can also place a high lamp beside the couch to further accentuate the walls.
It’s the art of scaling and placement of your furniture that affects how highly high-ceilinged your living room feels.
11- Paint Your Walls White or Light to Make the Small Living Room Look Bigger
Walls painted with lighter and softer shades always offer a visual effect of the area being more spacious, pleasant, and open.
Pastel colors are some of the most effective ones to go for if you want to boost the refined flair of your small living room designing.
To blend with the lighter walls, you can go for darker and more vibrant colored furniture and balance it out and give your living room an air of exceptional finesse.
As an alternative, if you love utter serene vibes that ooze nothing but dainty finesse, you can go for equally as soft and pastel-colored furniture and decorative pieces as the walls.
Even your coffee table, lighting, and lamps can be of shades like camel brown. Now that is what you call the epitome of excellence and impressiveness.
12- Take Look Inspiration from Decor Stores
If you’re collecting small living room design ideas for your upcoming renovation, taking a look at contemporary trends never hurts.
See what’s in the market, and chances are, you will find valuable small living room ideas that work magic for you. For this, the best place to begin is visiting home décor stores and taking inspiration from their setting.
Observe the color schemes or the kind of furniture they are promoting and assess if similar designs would work for your interior and space as well.
All such inspiration really helps you plan where to start your renovation and what things about your small living room you can transform to alleviate its picturesque feels.
13- Don’t Block the Sun or Moonlight
Your space must always have high exposure to natural light- be it daylight or moonlight. Your large windows can play a significant role in making your small living room look wider and roomier than it is.
Sure, if the light gets too much or you are in the mood for some quiet and dark environment, you can always use the curtains or blinds to cover the windows for some time.
Also, even if you don’t have tall or wide windows, then too, you must make sure to make the best of them to let as much light and the crisp breeze in as possible.
Speaking from my own experience, I know how vital this tip is. As you sip on some hot coffee or tea for early birds like me, stand and enjoy the morning rays as they gently touch your face. Nothing overpowers the relaxation you can receive at that time.
14- Use Double-Duty Furniture
When it comes to different ways you can arrange furniture in your small living room, double-duty furniture becomes very useful. It saves your much-needed floor space while getting numerous jobs done at the same time.
There is a wide variety of double-duty furniture that can help alleviate the spaciousness of your snug living room. For starters, a sleeper sofa is a great choice, acting as a stylish sofa as well as a cozy bed when you want to lay down and enjoy movie nights.
Similarly, storage stools and folding chairs are quite handy for smaller living rooms as well. The stools can be used to keep your possessions, and you can always fold the chairs when they are not needed.
Summing up
I do hope now that all through this guide, I helped get your creative juices flow. Start mind mapping for your small living room ideas.
Allocate your budget and then head on to decorate your small living room. Decorating small spaces is fun; indulge in some small living room furniture shopping and design your interior to ooze those hospitable, warm, and dreamy vibes.
Refurnishing might take a chunk of your savings, but in the end, the pleasantness and quality family bond time it leads to makes all these efforts worth it.
Happy Snug Living Room Designing!
Leave a Reply