If you have a small living room, you can decorate it so it doesn't feel cramped.
There are many ways to make a living room feel more spacious than it actually is.
Here are a few interior designer secrets to use when decorating your living room to make it feel bigger. The editorial team at InteriorDesignInfo.com has tested these space-expanding tricks in real small living rooms, not just on paper.
Small pink, blue, and yellow living room - AI-assisted image | Human-editedSmaller Furniture
Much of the furniture sold today is oversized to fit in to newer larger suburban homes, so avoid large overstuffed furniture if you have a small living room.
Many companies sell apartment or petite sized furniture #ad that is a more standard size, and the shape is more streamlined to take up less room.
Avoid furniture with bulky wide arms. If you want arms on your furniture, make sure they are skinny so they don't take up too much precious seating space.
You might choose to use a sectional sofa instead of a sofa with a chair to be able to seat more people.
Don't forget that you can always pull in a dining room chair, a floor cushion, a folding chair, or a seat from any other room in your home if more seats are needed for special events.
Small living room with a green sofa - AI-assisted image | Human-editedFurniture with Legs
Sofas with skirts, skirted tables, and other furniture that extends all the way to the ground hides the floor underneath, making the room feel smaller because less empty floor is visible.
In order to make your living room feel bigger, decorate with furniture that has legs instead of extending all the way to the ground. The legs allow more visibility of the flooring underneath, giving the illusion of a larger floor space.
An exception to this rule is if you need to use the underneath space for storage. In that case, you can use furniture with skirts to disguise hidden storage containers under your furniture.
Blue and red small living room with a huge mirror - AI-assisted image | Human-editedMirrors
Decorating with mirrors is one of the most effective techniques to make any room appear larger.
Mirrors give an illusion of the room extending beyond the walls, thus making your living room appear to be larger than it actually is.
Mirrors also reflect light, making the room feel brighter.
Decorate your small living room with an oversized mirror (or multiple mirrors) to make it feel bigger. This technique is especially effective if the mirrors extend high on the wall to accentuate the height of the room.
You can even cover an entire wall in mirror.
Modern cozy small living room - AI-assisted image | Human-editedLighting
Use several sources of lighting in your living room to avoid dark shadows in areas that will make a room feel smaller.
You can have a general overhead light, but also supplement with table lamps, floor lamps, art lights, wall sconces, and/or light coming from a window.
Remember that a floor lamp takes up less space than a table with a table lamp on top and a wall sconce also takes up less room than a table lamp.
Consider adding dimmers and dimmable light bulbs to your overhead lighting so you can control your lighting level depending on your activity.
Layering your lighting makes your room feel more professionally decorated and more polished as well as more spacious.
Small feminine living room - AI-assisted image | Human-editedWindow Coverings
When covering your windows, make sure to consider your natural light levels.
Hang your living room curtains towards the ceiling, not just above the window, to make the ceiling appear taller thus making the room feel bigger. One client's home felt so much bigger just by hanging the curtains higher on the wall.
For a designer quality result, your curtains should be 2-3 times the width of your window. If your window is 50 inches wide, you should use 2 curtain panels that are a minimum of 50 inches wide each.
Your curtains should mostly cover the wall and barely cover the window when fully opened.
Avoid dark and heavy drapes that block light, but opt for lighter colored curtains or sheers instead. Even blackout curtains are available in light colors. Many designers believe that curtains should always be the color of the wall, but feel free to add color if you desire.
Small living room with tall ceilings - AI-assisted image | Human-editedConsistent Flooring
Decorate your home using the same flooring throughout your main living areas of your home to make your living areas feel like one large room instead of many smaller rooms.
Consider using one flooring throughout your entire home or one flooring throughout most of your home but a different water resistant flooring in wet areas, such as your bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry room.
A general designer rule of thumb is to only change the flooring in locations where there is a door.
Using different flooring in different rooms makes your home look choppy and your rooms feel smaller. If you want to differentiate certain areas of your home, use an area rug in each section of your home that coordinates with your decor.
Small living room with rust colored sectional sofa - AI-assisted image | Human-editedColors
Neutral colors that are light (such as white, ivory, taupe, cream, and light gray) work well in smaller rooms as well as lighter toned wood since they don't demand too much attention.
Most designers believe that you should decorate your small living room with mostly light colors to make it feel larger, however some people crave color and would be bored with a neutral room.
Having some color in your small living room is good, but be careful not to add too much else it may make your small living room feel even smaller.
Also avoid using too many bold patterns or colors that may make your living room feel smaller since it is overstimulating.
Bold colored small living room - AI-assisted image | Human-editedClear Furniture & Accessories
Consider decorating your small living room with clear furniture and accessories to make it feel larger since clear items nearly disappear.
Your furniture and decor can be completely clear or partially clear, such as a coffee table with a metal frame and clear glass top.
You can decorate with clear crystal candlesticks, a glass bowl, a translucent lamp, or a Lucite table #ad.
Be careful using clear furniture so that people don't hurt themselves by accidentally running into it because they don't see it, especially since glass can break causing damage to the furniture as well as people or pets.
Small modern living room with green sofa - AI-assisted image | Human-editedShiny Metallic Items
Items that reflect light make a room feel bigger.
You can decorate with a metallic lamp, furniture with shiny chrome legs, a metallic curtain rod, a gold coffee table, or most anything that coordinates with your decor.
Keep in mind that spray painting items is an easy way to transform things that you already own (but don't love) to be the colors you want in your home instead of having to buy new items. You can spray paint decor, picture frames, lamps, sculptures, small pieces of furniture, and most anything else.
Consider spray painting items in gold or silver, mirror spray paint, or even looking glass spray paint #ad that looks like mercury glass.
General Tips
The designers at InteriorDesignInfo.com have been to many homes and know that the primary reason why people's homes feel small and cramped is because they have too many things that over fill the space. Before decorating your small living room, declutter it and decide whether you need all of the pieces of furniture in that room or if it would look better if a piece or two was not in there. Find a home for the clutter so it is not visible. Clean and tidy almost always looks more spacious.
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