You can have a small living room that can look absolutely phenomenal and you don’t have to have all white walls and a minimalist approach.
1. Choose a Sofa with a Small Profile
Start with the most important item: the sofa. This can make or break the space. You don’t want it to be chunky. Avoid thick arms, avoid high arms, and avoid a high back.
Also, make sure it doesn’t hit the ground. You want your sofa to be on thin legs, with air flowing underneath. Timber or metal legs 15cm off the ground will work.
2. Use Round Ottomans as Extra Seating
Round ottomans are great when decorating small living rooms because they’re so multipurpose. Pop your feet on them when you’re watching TV. Have guests sit on them or put a round tray on top and use it as a side table.
3. Use a Side Table as your Coffee Table
The thing with a round coffee table is that they’re not made very small. Most that are classified as small are still around 90cm in diameter. And if you’re in a small living room, you need every inch of space you can get your hands on.
4. Define the Space with a Larger Rug
When decorating a small living room, one assumes a small rug is the way to go, but it’s actually the opposite – especially if you have floorboards or tiles in the space. By rolling out a small rug along the length of your sofa, you trick the eye into thinking the living room doesn’t go beyond the border of the rug.
By rolling out a larger rug, you will look at the border of the rug and assume that is the edge of the living room.
5. Draw the Eye Up the Wall with Tall Art
What you want to do is to create balance and draw the eye up the wall to the ceiling. Choose a piece for the main wall in your living room and let it be the focal point in the space.
In this instance, tall art works really well. The same goes for tall sheer curtains if you wanted to install those. You would install them from the ceiling all the way down to the ground. You could also install an eye-catching ceiling light to take your eye up to the ceiling as well.
6. Introduce a Mirror on Another Wall in the Room
Placing a mirror on a wall in your small living room helps bounce light around the room. More light in the space equals a sense of more air and room.
Something else you can do is place a mirror on a wall near a window to reflect what’s going on outside. And if you have something gorgeous outside, it’s another opportunity to draw the eye away from the small footprint of the space.
7. Opt for Lamps with no Shade, on a Thin Leg
Lighting is really important to get right when you’re decorating a small living room. I’ve already mentioned drawing the eye up to the ceiling by installing a feature light on the ceiling, but mood light is important too.
Rather than fill up your side tables with table lamps, opt for a floor-standing lamp instead. Because it’s tall, it will once again draw the eye up. And if you go for a lamp with just one thin leg as opposed to three legs that taper out, you’ll save a lot of space.
The other thing to avoid is a large lampshade on a floor lamp, go for an exposed bulb instead.
8. Choose One Wow Moment, and Pare Back the Rest
You don’t have to have a bland, empty, all-white space. When it comes to how to decorate a small living room, you can abandon all of those urban styling myths.
Rather than feeling you have to strip back colour, or interest, it’s more about choosing your moments. You can’t have a bright red sofa, with bright yellow artwork above it, with a leopard print rug. Sure, all of those things could look amazing, but it’s too visually overwhelming in a small room.
Instead, choose one ‘wow’ or ‘loud’ moment. I’d suggest it be the art, followed by lighting on the ceiling. Then introduce colour and pattern in smaller details like in cushions.
Over to you…
Leave a comment below and let me know what you’re doing in your small living room. I’d love to hear from you!
