Shopping in the living room
Here’s the honest truth: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What looks beautiful to me will look different than what looks beautiful to you. We all have different tastes. Early on, I realized that it’s not enough to look at something and say, “I love this.” I want to know why I love this. Whether it’s on Instagram, in movies, in tabletop books, on Pinterest, or in hotels, I save a lot of images. And I don’t save them just because I love the image; I study it.
The lesson is: Write down or keep a mental note of the things you don’t know how to format, because those things will start to pop up as you search for them.
Find your problem areas
I remember once having a circular coffee table. It was kind of hard to style. I thought, “How am I supposed to do this?” Well, I studied a lot of pictures on Instagram and Pinterest. Once you start focusing on your problem areas, like my circular coffee table, you’ll find that almost every picture you see from that day has a circular coffee table. This phenomenon is actually a cognitive bias called the frequency illusion.
Seeing those sleek round tables helped me put together the elements I wanted to include in my round coffee table, like something green (faux succulents), something for height (candlesticks), something layered (coffee table books), and then something fun or meaningful (a small white elephant figurine). Having an intentional grouping of things made the coffee table feel complete, not cluttered.
Think about surface area and flow.
Leather Chairs | Blue Velvet Sofa | Linen Sofa | Coffee Table (Similar) | Jules Lagoon/Brick Rug | Armless Floor Lamp (Similar) | Table Lamp | Floor Lamp | Tree Art Prints | Leather Cushions
Fact: The room above was my absolute favorite! When it comes to designing living rooms, think about the surfaces available to you. This includes coffee tables, as I mentioned, but also bookcases, fireplaces, pillows, sofas, or chairs. It also includes rearranging, which is part of the design.
Is your furniture arranged optimally to encourage conversation? Sometimes you may have a living room with a sofa facing the TV. What if you had just one chair in the corner facing the sofa? This can create an attractive circular flow to the room. Leave enough room for a path around an ottoman or bench. Also, make sure to use a rug that is the right size for your space.
Convert private storage to public storage
Arched Cabinet | Boucle Swivel Armchairs | Linen Sofa | Double Arm Floor Lamp (Similar) | Polly Slate/Ivory Rug | Immigration Artwork | White Vase | Wood Base | Candle Holders | Large Grey Vase
You could also consider displaying items you may have been storing previously. My closet in my living room currently holds all of my vases. I used to carry them all the way to the attic to store them when I was done with them, but one day I realized, “Oh, they’re beautiful! I’m storing them here!” I can take them out, use them, and put them back inside.
This is one of those design triumphs where something practical turns into something beautiful too. Look around to see how you can try this in your home.
Think seasonally (year-round!)
I think we see a lot of living rooms that are very stylish in the fall and winter. But in the spring and summer, you want to feel light and airy. We have a dark velvet sofa that can feel “cooler months,” but you’re not going to buy a new sofa just to match the season! So how do I style it? I usually put away my light blankets in the summer or switch to a lightweight throw with fringe, almost like a Turkish towel. Even in other areas, I tend to pull out a lot of the textiles in the summer months and simplify it that way. I’ll also have fewer pillows or lighter weight pillows.
For surfaces, I like to do stems of flowers for summer, focusing more on coffee table books than pillows and textiles. Fireplaces and mantels are great opportunities to design according to the seasons. I like to simplify my fireplace—I have candlestick holders on it that look like they last all year. But then I’ll put a single green stem in a vase instead of something with a richer color.
Don’t forget that a scent like a candle or diffuser can really help a space seasonally!
As for our plan for today using our design formula, here are the elements I used to design the living room.
Shopping in the living room
Things I use to decorate my living rooms:
Shiny: Candlesticks, mirror, gilded frame, art. Texture: Rug, pillows, throws, lampshades, footstool, curtains, coffee table books. You: Art, tabletop frames, collectibles (e.g. matchboxes, antique nutcrackers). Lighting: Lamp, lantern, candlestick holders, wall lamps. Sconces, picture lights. Attractive: Candles, CD player or speakers, chairs. Essential (storage): Coasters, baskets, footstool, storage cabinet/drawer. Greenery: Large vase of stems or trees (faux or real), wreath.
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