1. Accessorize with Art and Collections

Living room walls come alive when you use them to display art or collections that you love. Group items for impact, and hang them low enough to relate to nearby furnishings or architecture. The most common mistake in hanging pictures is putting them too high.

This grouping of four large prints hangs low enough to connect visually to the sofa. The painting on the adjacent wall hangs at standing eye level and relates to the lamp in the corner.

2. Design a Media Center

If your living room is also your family room, watching TV may be the main use of the room. Whether you have the newest model or an older one, incorporate it into the room’s design so that it’s a feature but not dominant.

In this living room, the fireplace was designed to accommodate a cabinet for the television above. When it’s time to watch TV, the doors open and tuck back into the cabinet.

3. Dress the Windows–or Not

Although heavy window treatments are mostly a thing of the past, living rooms are the place for elaboration and luxury if you’re so inclined. This combination of relaxed shades and floor-to-ceiling draperies is understated yet elegant.

The elegance comes from the generous use of fabric in the draperies–they’re not fancy, but the thick folds and puddling ends communicate luxury. The shades block light and provide privacy when desired.

4. Plan for Inviting Lighting

Lighting in the living room should be geared toward creating a relaxed, comfortable mood. Aim for layers of light, and position light sources so they form roughly a triangle to ensure good distribution of illumination.

Table lamps that focus the light down will encourage people to sit down and relax. The overlapping arcs of light illuminate the seating instead of the upper walls, sending the message to sit.

5. Arrange Furniture for Conversation

Living rooms are gathering spaces, so use furniture arrangement to promote conversation and interaction. Pull seating pieces away from the walls and arrange them to face each other.

If you have a large living room, break it into two conversational groups for a more comfortable, intimate feeling. Chairs and ottomans that can be pulled into the group as needed allow you to expand the circle and still keep the intimacy.

6. Create a Focal Point

A focal point anchors the living room and helps draw you into the space. A fireplace is a natural focal point, symbolizing hearth and home, but in most living spaces, the television is the true center of attention. To keep them from competing, pair them up. A beautiful view or a stunning piece of art can also serve as a room’s focal point.

Here a large French armoire fills the corner beside the fireplace and holds the television. To balance it, a trumeau mirror and a painting hang over the fireplace.

7. Choose Stylish, Comfortable Flooring

In keeping with the function of the living room as a public space, choose a floor covering that provides comfort underfoot and makes a design statement as well. This vibrant wall-to-wall carpet lays the foundation for a refined mix of florals and stripes.

If you prefer a less bold floor, choose a solid neutral flooring that allows attention to focus on furniture or art. Hardwood floors with area rugs are one of the most popular choices for living room floors, but ceramic tile, stone tile, and full carpeting work too.

8. Add Character with Architectural Trimwork

Trimwork serves practical purposes, covering the seams where floors and ceilings meet walls and supporting the structure around openings. But these elements serve aesthetic purposes too. The style of trimwork helps give your home a distinctive look, whether classical, contemporary, old-world, or regional.

Projecting lintels over the door and windows, a deep cornice, and a paneled and beamed vaulted ceiling combine to give this white-washed living room a sense of place.

9. Finish the Walls and Ceilings

Traditionally, living room walls receive more elaborate or formal treatment than other rooms because the room is a public space. To make it a welcoming room that expresses your personality, choose wallcoverings or treatments that reflect your style.

The walls in this room are upholstered with linen and stenciled with white fabric paint. The effect brings warmth and texture to the walls and gives them a look of antiquity.

10. Set the Mood with Color

The colors you choose for your living room will affect how guests feel in the space. Colors can energize or relax the space, depending on how intense they are and how warm or cool they are.

A serene scheme of soft blue and white makes this spacious living room feel calm, cool, and collected–a gracious setting for elegant gatherings. A light tan carpet underfoot warms the space and keeps the cool tones in balance.

Eggplant, Moss, and Red

A bold scheme of eggplant purple, moss green, and red springs up from the custom-designed rug. The walls and ceiling are stark white, focusing attention on the furnishings and accessories.

While this threesome doesn’t match a prescribed color wheel scheme, it is satisfying because green and red are complements, intensifying each other, and purple and red are related hues. Combining them with lighter shades of the same colors produces a living room that feels lively and contemporary.

Space-Expanding Whites

An all-white scheme makes a small living room feel larger. Dark wood furniture, warm brown floors, and medium tan accessories ground the white scheme and give it richness and warmth.

Warm Neutrals

Inspiration for the living room’s color scheme came from the floral pillows tossed on the sofas. A range of neutrals from oatmeal to cream and taupe covers the walls, windows, and upholstery with quiet color. The result is comfortable yet restrained.

Coral and Brown

A coral orange hue gives this room a decidedly modern look with geometric patterns and color everywhere. Boldly patterned pillows add a bit of daring to the solid brown sofa and chair.

Orange is said to stimulate conversation, so if you like to entertain, an orange living room–even if it’s a softer shade, like this one–could help guarantee lively parties.

Butterscotch, Yellow, and White

Horizontal stripes of wallpaper and vertical stripes on the window treatment frame this living room in butterscotch hues. White trimwork and ceiling and a white band around the top of the walls balance the warm colors.

Red Plus Neutrals

The rich red of the library walls was achieved with a custom glaze over a red base paint. The vivid color is a striking backdrop to the art collection, which adds its own color elements throughout the room.

To keep the room from red-hot intensity, the soft furnishings stay cool with neutral fabrics. A creamy cotton covers the Bridgewater sofa, while armchairs slipcovered in an ivory-ground floral pull the room together with splashes of red.

Mauve, Gold, and Blue

Out of fashion after the Victorian revival of the 1980s, mauve gets a new look with a slightly metallic pink cast and some new partners–a muted yellow gold and a grayed blue. The unexpected combination was inspired by artwork.

Brassy striped curtains, a yellow Nepalese rug, and yellow cushions on the chairs balance the cool pink tones with a dose of warm color.

Citrus Colors Plus White

An exuberant color palette of fruity orange and yellow brings youthful energy to this condo. White furniture breaks up the saturated color palette and stays true to the light, bright scheme. Touches of a chic accent color, in this case apple green on a vase, add visual interest and enforce the dominant color scheme.

Color Blocks

In this midcentury modern ranch house, blocks of color create focal points and help move you through the space. A warm yellow canvas on a deep blue wall in the living room grounds the space, while the red door draws you toward the hall, which is entirely white.

When using color in large blocks, pair warm and cool hues to take advantage of the push-pull effect that results. Warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) seem to come forward while cool colors (blues, purples, greens) appear to recede.

Navy and White

Navy walls in this living room make it a favorite spot for cozy nighttime television watching. White slipcovers and a light berber carpet keep the dark walls and area rug from making the space too dark.

Garden Greens

Evoke the serenity of a garden with cream-and-green-toile fabrics and soft green walls. Soft greens are calming and easy to live with. A painted yellow table adds a warm accent.

Cream with Mulberry and Sage

Walls, floor, and upholstery share a similar creamy hue in this living room. Color accents come from the green leaves on the upholstery and the sage green draperies, whose floppy header sports a mulberry pink lining. A pink lampshade picks up the color of the header lining.

Take the hue of furnishings into account when planning your color schemes. Use high contrast to call attention to important furnishings. Here the settee’s dark wood and the antique screen’s leather contrast sharply with the fabrics and wall color, ensuring that you notice the pieces.

Blue and Tan, Plus White

Soft robin’s-egg blue, sea-grass tan, and white produce a relaxed, I’m-on-vacation feeling in this living room. Blue walls and a white vaulted ceiling provide the cool, restful backdrop for light tan furnishings. Woven grass chairs, the upholstered sofa, and the window blinds share the same hue.

Layering a blue accent rug over the sisal carpet brings the wall color to the floor. White draperies, accessories, and table breathe freshness into the setting.

Maize, Gray, and Avocado

After a 40-year absence, avocado green is respectable again, but for a modern look, it’s paired with maize yellow and lavender gray instead of harvest gold and brown.

Pairing the muted yellow with this shade of lavender gray smartly combines complementary colors–yellow and purple lie opposite each other on the color wheel, which means they intensify each other when used together in a color scheme. The mix-and-match patterns in the pillows add accents with retro-inspired yellow, rust, brown, and shades of green.

Yellow, White, and Blue

Yellow and white with touches of soft blue make a no-fail combination for living rooms. In this hall and living room, a saturated yellow on the glazed walls repeats in the draperies, while white trimwork repeats in the sofa upholstery. The armchair brings the three colors together, and blue and white china provide cool accents.

A sea-grass rug provides a neutral ground for the scheme, pulling together the seating pieces without calling attention to itself.

Chocolate and Lime

Brown is back but it’s not the earth brown of the 1970s. The dusty chocolate of this faux-suede sectional communicates a sophisticated attitude. The ottomans wear soft yellow green linen velvet that brings the color of the pear painting into the room. A canvas color rug and chaise and oatmeal-hued walls create a light neutral backdrop.

Cocoa Brown and White

To give your living room quiet elegance, consider neutral colors, which include brown, white, gray, and black. Cocoa and white bring sophisticated warmth to this light-filled living room. Color cues come from the woven rug, with its rococo scrolls, and play out in stripes on the chairs and a solid on the ottoman.

Choosing white upholstery rather than striped for the largest seating piece ensures that the scheme doesn’t overwhelm. Ivory draperies soften the architecture but don’t distract from the view.

Butter Yellow and White

Pale butter yellow on the walls gives this French-inspired living room gentle warmth–not the hot sun of Provence, but the aged pastels of a Paris apartment. White upholstery, painted furniture, and trimwork enhance the atmosphere.

The pale blues and greens in the antique rug repeat in the draperies, antique Italian buffet and trumeau mirror, and vintage fabrics on accent pillows. The rug’s touches of red repeat as accents on book covers and pillow trims.

Shades of White and Gray

Shades of white, cream, and pale gray create an airy feeling in this living room.

To keep the color temperature fresh rather than chilly, warm and cool colors balance each other. Creamy walls and bright white shutters play off of cool blue-white and silvery gray upholstery and table. Warm gold tones in the rug and stone balance deep blue accents in the antique trumeau mirror and decorative pillow.

The Sunny Colors of Provence

Sunny yellow and warm red team up to evoke the countryside in Southern France. The proportions in this room are nearly equal: Glazed walls, draperies, and upholstery fabrics splash the yellow of mustard pots and sunflowers around the room, and the carpet and upholstery supply a balancing amount of red.

In this setting, the moss green sofa and ottoman work as a cooling neutral. Bright green pottery on the mantel is a lively accent.

Maybe it is more suitable to those who are bachelordoms, if they don’t feel lonely. Anyway, people who like it well and live in it must have good taste. You know, something you like could reveal you in some way.

Look at the first picture, we can guess the master of the house may be artistic for the design of fireplace and the place of two body sculptures. He/She may does’t like being disturbed. The wooden stairs are connected to the second floor, which is a not too bad detail.

I find more and more houses are put a carpet in the living room. There is a theory that carpet in the living room could increase wealth. If you believe it, it may come true. Anyway, it has its actual funtions, including reducing noise and decoration as well.

This kind of living room design is so soft that I think I will always want to sleep if I live in this house. What about you?

Generally, red is not taken to match the green as the two colors are contrast colors. The combination of two will not look harmonious. Do you think this design could be used to deny that opinion?

The design of this living room is a little similar as the second picture, bright and gentle as well, which has great sense of “family”.