Home Decor for Living Rooms: A How-To Guide

Shopping for home decor for living rooms can be thrilling or daunting, depending on how well thought out the design plan is beforehand. A well-planned living room can be fun and exciting to decorate, while haphazard efforts to style a room can be stressful and exhausting. Planning home decor for living rooms prior to shopping and decorating can also save a lot of money. When you know what pieces you need, you won’t waste money (or time) shopping for furniture that ultimately won’t work in the space.

If your next project home decor project focuses on the living room save yourself time, money and headache by streamlining your design objectives. Below you will find tips on styling your living room.

Tip #1: Home Decor For Living Rooms Starts With The Essentials

Home decor for living rooms can get out of hand quickly, but if you start with the most basic element of a living room—a couch—and build from there, you can keep your decor in check. Find your basic pieces first: couch, side table(s), coffee table, and a loveseat or armchair. Lock in these pieces before adding ottomans, lamps, plants, artwork, and other additional pieces.

Tip #2: Don’t Skimp on the Big Stuff

When planning home decor for living rooms, sometimes splurging on certain pieces is a good thing. Investment pieces like solid wood furniture or steel framed pieces will hold up longer and won’t need to be replaced as often. Less expensive elements can be updated numerous times to refresh home decor for living rooms, while the pricier pieces can remain static and at the foundation of the design scheme. Simple styles will complement a variety of design changes for decorators who plan to redecorate often.

Tip #3: Go for High-Quality and Durability over Style

Home decor for living rooms offers a vast array of options for materials and textiles, but not all are made to sustain the wear and tear living room furniture is destined to endure. Luxurious fabrics look great, but they aren’t practical. Silk and chiffon feel amazing but aren’t forgiving to spills and everyday use. Additionally, couches with cushions that are wrapped in foam tend to outlast other fills like down or stuffing. Foam is durable and comfortable and won’t break down as fast as other materials.

Tip #4: Stick to One Style

Home decor for living rooms should be congruent, and the design style should be consistent across furniture pieces. Each piece of furniture needs to compliment the other pieces in the room and should, furthermore, be within one uniform style, whether it be modern, contemporary, traditional, casual, old world, etc. An “eclectic” theme is hard to pull off and may end up looking thrown together as if the design style of the room was an afterthought. This is what you want to avoid; hence, why preplanning is so important.

Tip #5: How to Optimize Small Spaces

When styling home decor for living rooms, sometimes space is an issue. If this applies to your living room design woes, opt for smaller sized furniture, such as a loveseat instead of a full-size sofa. This is of course not practical if you have more than two people in your home who share the sofa. Another space-saving piece is a storage ottoman that can even double as a coffee table if it is the right size. These pieces are also useful when additional seating is needed. Stylish accent trays can be used to transform a soft cushion top or leather ottoman into a flat surface that can hold drinks. This option, however, may not be practical for use with small children, though a storage ottoman can hold a variety of items that are not conducive with home décor for living rooms such as blankets, toys, or baby items.