Revamping Your Living Room

For many of us, the living room is the heart of the home: and where we spend most of our time in it… awake, at least! This means that renovating your living room needs to be done well and every detail needs to be immaculately planned to ensure that everything is taken into consideration for a happy, healthy, comfy home. So what do you need to consider when you take on your new living room project? Fear not – we’ve got the ultimate tick list for you, right here.

People

How many people need to fit into your living room on a regular basis and how many during special occasions? The former should be your standard capacity and is what your seating arrangements should comfortably facilitate. However, you should also think of how many people you’d like to be able to comfortably extend seating to during the likes of parties or when you have friends around. Even if you do the age old ‘shipping in mismatched chairs from all of the neighbours’ routine when the time comes, will your furniture layout still fit these all in? People are the heart of the home and so should be the first consideration in the renovation of a living room.

Seating

Once the number of people you wish to accommodate has been factored in, you can make decisions about the type of seating you’d like to include. Most family homes include a sofa as well as an armchair or two for solo seating, but not all properties have room for this. If space is at a premium, beanbags and poufs make for great additional seating – and many include hidden storage that can be used to save on additional cupboard and shelves. Small side tables and nesting tables also work as a great way for guests to perch drinks or snacks without taking up too much room. 

Laying Out Furniture

Smaller living rooms often require furniture to be placed against walls so there’s space for those within to move about freely, but this isn’t always the case. Moving large pieces of furniture away from walls and inward can create a cosy seating area and helps ‘zone’ one area of the room from another. Rugs can also help differentiate between areas of use and need not be bang in the middle of the floor – try resting front legs of chairs and sofas on them and mismatching for a modern aesthetic. Most people with a TV position seating to face the television but if you don’t have one (or just don’t use the room for watching telly all that much), another focal point can be created. Don’t feel that your TV has to become the focus of your room just because it always has been; get creative!

Storage

As mentioned above, storage space can be easily in living rooms to help save floor space and indeed remains imperative in the consideration of living room renovation to prevent clutter. Coffee tables with drawers and hidden shelves work to make sure everything has its own place, but open solutions work well for books and ornaments that lend to the aesthetics of the room rather than make it look messy or overcrowded. Drawer storage is also useful as laptops and more valuable items you may not wish to have out on display can be tucked away. For cupboards, cabinets and drawers, don’t forget to allow plenty of space for doors to open and be easily accessed.

Colour Schemes

Interior design and the way you wish your living room to look is obviously a key consideration in your room’s renovation, but don’t get too carried away and feel that you must go with something overly bold just because it’s currently in fashion. Rather than adopting a trend in interior design because you’ve seen it, like it and find everyone else is doing it, instead consider adapting it to better suit your living space and the long period of time you intend to spend in it before decorating again. You can’t go far wrong with a muted base and then adding in colour pops of something more current. Pinks and greens appear to be most popular for 2021 and accessories can be easily added in reflecting these tones until you decide to move on colour-wise.

Lighting

There’s a lot more to think about than simply what colour lampshade you’d like to opt for when it comes to lighting your living room. The multifunctional nature of living rooms means that they often need more than one lighting solution to cover each task the room needs to perform. For example, a ceiling pendant light will give a full illumination at darker times of the day when you still need complete visibility, but wall lights and table lamps work well for times when mood lighting or less light is required. More formal parlour-style living rooms may benefit from statement or decorative lighting, whereas something more industrial or modern will suit more minimal styling. Dimmer switches can also lend an additional air of sophistication to a room’s illumination. Electricity sockets should also be considered throughout the room – not just for plug-in lights but also for the likes of tablets, laptops and phone chargers.
Living rooms are a huge part of any home and so project planning is key in any renovation effort. Don’t feel that you have to take on the whole thing at once; instead split the project into manageable parts to help make it easier to achieve and more affordable bit by bit. Renovations by no means have to be done quickly and indeed in managing it over a prolonged period you can keep your living room usable throughout – a win win for both comfort and design!

Get in touch!

If you’d like to find out more about how Refresh Renovations can help you to transform your living space, get in touch today for your free no obligation consultation with our renovation specialist.