The living room or dining room is one of the most important rooms in your home. It is the place where you can relax after a hard day’s work, where you can meet with friends and where you can enjoy family cinema sessions.
If you start thinking about how to decorate your living room or dining room, you may feel overwhelmed as you try to fit all the pieces of furniture together to make your space look neat and tidy. You also have to think about what colour to paint the walls, what living room furniture to use… But don’t worry, we are here to help you.
Before you start you need to find out what your ideal decorating style is, on our website you can find out in less than 5 minutes by taking our style test. We’ll wait for you to complete it and we’ll move on… That’s it? Great, let’s move on then.
How to design your living room?
1. Take the measurements
The first step in decorating your living room is to know the measurements of your living room. Your room decor might not look right if you don’t take into account the position of windows, doors or built-in wardrobes, as these areas limit the design of the room. Make sure you take this into account when you go shopping, because you don’t want to have to return it because you bought a piece of furniture that is too big.
2. Visualise the design
You don’t need to be an interior designer or an architect to imagine how you want the decoration of your living room to look: the sofa will be placed here, the coffee table will go there, on this wall I will put a painting… This exercise will help you to know what furniture will fit in the available space, and how you will distribute it.
You can use our online interior design tool to make this task easier for you. We have already selected the best furniture to suit you, according to your style and budget.
3. Combine different colours and textures
Now that you know what furniture you need, and how you are going to place it in your living room, it is time to think about the colour palette and textures you will use to make the design.
Depending on the style of decoration you came up with in our test, the colour base will change to one or the other. But as a general rule, the trendy colours for the living room are white, grey and black. They are very simple tones that go great with everything. They will also help to make the room look more spacious.
You can also take advantage of this and think about the contrasting colour you will use. If your ideal style is Coastal you will use a navy blue, if it is Farmhouse you will use turquoise, if it is Art Deco you will use a golden tone… Find your decoration style and you will have half the work done.
Don’t forget to play with different textures, they will help your living room feel cosier. Combine soft textures that make you want to touch, such as wool and cotton, with harder textures that add contrast, such as leather.
4. Choose your living room sofa
The first piece of living room furniture we will choose will be the sofa because it will be the most important element in the design, so it makes sense to start there.
Find the sofa that you like and that best suits your needs and get it. Think about whether you have or will have pets, whether you will be sitting for long hours, how many people will use it… You can take a look at the living room sofas that we have in our shop, you are sure to find the one you need.
5. Now it’s time for the carpet
Choosing the right carpet for the living room can be difficult if you don’t know what you need. For this room you should look for a carpet large enough to fit all the furniture, leaving between 25 and 50 cm distance between the edges of the carpet and the walls of the living room.
If the room is large, you will need a large rug, and if the room is small, you will need a small rug. Otherwise your design could look really bad.
You can also use several rugs in different positions in the living room to combine their textures and beautify your space. Visit the rugs for the living room that we have in our shop and you will find the perfect one for you.
6. Getting the best lighting
For a living room to look neat and comfortable it needs three types of lighting: ambient light, task light and accent light. To achieve this you should combine ceiling lights, wall lights for ambient lighting, table lamps and floor lamps next to the sofa for accent lighting.
Choose those lamps that look best for your design, as with all other design elements, knowing your decorating style will help you make sure you don’t make a mistake when choosing the lamps that best suit your living room. In our shop we have made a selection of the best lamps for the living room.
7. Lightweight elements
Sometimes you have guests in your living room, or you have to host family parties or events. That’s why we recommend buying lightweight tables, chairs and stools that you can move easily when you need to. Imagine moving a 100 kg table by yourself every time you need more space in your room… It would be a bit stressful, wouldn’t it?
8. Art for your living room
Let’s face it, empty walls don’t look very nice, and they give the impression that the room is incomplete. We don’t mean that you should fill every inch of the room with paintings, but decorating them with art is important.
Paintings for the living room don’t have to be expensive, in our shop you can find a wide variety of paintings at very different prices. Let your instincts guide you and buy the one you like the most.
9. Painting the walls of the living room
Now it’s time to choose the wall colour, many people get it wrong and decide on the paint colour first, but painting is relatively simple and fairly inexpensive. So once we have chosen the most expensive furniture for the living room, let’s choose a colour that matches the furniture and your decorating style.
10. Últimos retoques
Finally, it’s time to add the last decorative elements to your living room. A blanket, a vase, some greenery, some baskets… Be careful not to overload the design too much and above all enjoy the process.
I hope we’ve helped you achieve the most stylish living room in 2023. See you in the next article!
