Designing a comfortable and relaxing living room should be a foremost concern when moving into a new home or updating your current one. The living room is a common space that should accommodate all family members and guests. Also, aside from perhaps the bedroom, the living room is an oasis, a tranquil place to engage with a book or movie, or game and escape everyday chores and obligations.
Several furniture pieces for living room spaces are essential to achieving these ends. Quality seating, lighting, tables, and floor coverings that marry form and function are just a few of the things needed in a living room. Let’s take a closer look.
How to Choose Living Room Furniture: 5 Things to Consider
Before you begin to shop for a new sofa, rug, coffee table, and other living room furniture types, consider your family’s needs and the limitations of your space. Here are some things to keep in mind.
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1. The dimensions of your living room
The size of your living room will of course inform the quantity and type of furniture you can furnish it with. If the room’s square footage is limited, a wide area rug or deep, long sectional sofa may not be appropriate. Conversely, a compact media console might look ridiculous in a large and airy room.
Use a tape measure to measure the length, width, and height of your living room. Keep these dimensions handy as you shop for furniture. When you find an item you like, you can use painter’s tape to mark the item’s footprint in your living room. This will give you a good visual indication of whether the piece is appropriate for your space.
2. Your seating requirements
Ideally, your living room should be able to accommodate everyone in your family at once. If you have a small household, a three-seater sofa may suffice. Larger households may require larger sectionals one or more additional armchairs.
Also think about how often you entertain. If you have friends and family over frequently, you may want plenty of seating even if few people live in your home.
3. The quality of your living room’s natural lighting
The amount of sunlight your living room gets can inform your lighting choices and window treatments. If you have broad windows that face west, you likely get a lot of intense sun in the late afternoon and early evening. If this time coincides with when you or others want to watch television in the living room, you could install opaque or semi-opaque blinds to control the natural light and reduce glare. If your room is naturally darker, sheer curtains may be more appropriate.
Natural light may also influence your color scheme. Light-colored furniture makes a room appear brighter. You may prefer furniture with darker tones if your room has multiple windows or skylights.
4. Your wall space and layout
Windows, boxed-out walls, vertical supports, baseboard heaters, in-wall access panels, fireplaces, electrical outlets, and other architectural features and quirks of your home are important to think about before you make any furnishing decisions.
Map out beforehand where you envision your television, sofa, lighting, and so on. Pay attention to outlet placement to determine how your appliances will receive power.
5. Your home’s design aesthetic
A well-designed living room must have a coherent design aesthetic. A dark wood media console might look awkward beside a chair with light wood. Some color or style contrast can be chic and interesting, but it must be intentional. A thoughtless mishmash of furniture will make a room look cluttered.
Essential Living Room Furniture: What You Need to Buy
1. Sofa
A sofa or couch usually functions as the most prominent piece of furniture in a living room. Tasteful design and quality fabric are important, but don’t sacrifice on comfort. An uncomfortable or overly fancy sofa makes a room feel cold and uninviting.
L-shaped sectionals can give a room some dimension and framing while providing ample seating. If you don’t have a television or want to encourage social engagement in your living room, matching long sofas on either side of a coffee table make for an elegant look.
2. Coffee table
A tabletop of some kind is a living room necessity. A coffee table has a functional purpose as a space for board games, beverages, and smaller furnishings, but it also contributes to a room’s overall aura. Often set in the centre of the room, coffee tables are liable to draw the eye.
Consider how a coffee table’s material and shape will interact with your overall design scheme. Wooden tables with a natural finish are timeless, but tables that incorporate marble or bronze, or gold can make for modern and trendy statement pieces. Nesting tables are also worth considering, especially if your living room is tight.
3. Rugs or carpeting
A quality area rug can be expensive, but it’s a worthwhile investment that will last you decades. Every living room needs some kind of rug or carpeting underfoot. It absorbs sound, brings comfort, protects your floors, and gives the opportunity to introduce some engaging patterns and colours.
Choose a rug or carpet that pairs nicely with your sofa. You can highlight your rug or carpet by decorating your room with pillows and throws of matching or complementary colours.
4. Lighting
You can’t always rely on in-ceiling lighting in your living room. Floor lamps give you more control over the amount of light at any given time, and they flesh out a room’s overall aesthetic. Functional task lighting is important too. Consider a reading lamp to set behind or beside your sofa or armchair.
5. Shelving and storage
Any living room needs space to hold entertainment equipment, books, and various small furnishings. Fortunately, there are plenty of options. If wall units are too bulky, consider some sleek floating shelves. A classic media console beneath a wall-mounted television can house all of your entertainment needs and hide unsightly wires.
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