Getting the Most Out of Your Living Room

On average, we spend 4.4 hours of each day in the living room, making it the second most used room in the average home.

For the amount of comfort we get out of our lounges, we spend relatively little time thinking about improving them – but a little can go a long way, and any of the following four suggestions could help you achieve even greater satisfaction with your living room.

Ceiling fans are a great way to cool off your home in the summer and provide a nice ambiance for your living room. The ceiling fan’s blade moves air in a circular motion, and it’s great for getting hot air out of the room. It’s a great way to get a breeze without having to leave the house.

Layout

Sometimes the simplest approaches can have the biggest effects on a living space. Changing up the layout of your living room can drastically affect your relationship with it, and indeed its feel; a simple re-arrangement can refresh the space, even if the relationship between furniture items remains roughly the same.

More considered changes can add new utility to the space, however. For example, the sofa can be brought into the centre of larger, open plan living spaces to partition them off, creating a new space which can be used for a number of purposes from working to relaxing.

Storage

Your next port of call for revitalising your living space should be storage.

Different kinds of storage solution can confer different benefits to your space: living spaces which directly adjoin the front door could benefit from under-stairs fitted wardrobes, which enable shoes and coats to get stored out of sight and away from spaces reserved for relaxation; smaller living spaces that lean into maximalist décor could use open shelving to display items for additional dimension and texture.

Either way, storage offers a way to organise items and belongings, giving structure and space to living rooms where there may not have been before.

Décor

For a complete shake-up of your living room, nothing can quite beat addressing its décor. A simple lick of paint can work wonders for a living space, especially when taking into consideration new trends for colour schemes and the effect they can have on mood.

Lighter colours can have the effect of increasing the perceived size of a space, while bringing a sense of lightness to proceedings. Darker, richer, bolder feature walls can bring the walls in a little, but also create an arresting draw for the eye – especially when coupled with bespoke frames and personal effects.

Multifunctional Furniture

Lastly, replacing your living room furniture can fundamentally alter your relationship with your living room – especially if you make the most of multifunctional options to provide yourself and other members of the household with a versatile space.

Footstools and futons can double as storage options for throws, while coffee tables can make clever use of the space they take up to hide storage and even additional seating.

Drop-leaf tables are an excellent way to create maximal surface space in smaller rooms, and ladder-design tables can fold up into the wall to create shelving in particularly small living spaces.