Home Arcitect: Design Living Room Layout

Inside your home, the living room is the busiest area. This is where your family and friends spend a lot of time, so you want to create a very comfortable and relaxing environment. In order to do this, there are certain steps you should follow.

Your living room design should depend primarily on your lifestyle and your taste. If you enjoy the warmth and comfort that a fireplace brings, you may want to rearrange your furniture around the fireplace to make it a focal point. Or if you enjoy the soothing music that comes from the piano, you can put your prized instrument at the center of your living room. Make sure, however, that the new placement of your furniture does not clutter up the room or disturb foot traffic in your house. Arranging your furniture in an off-square angle is highly recommended. Instead of placing the back of the sofa directly against the wall, you can move it a few feet forward and place a lamp or potted plant behind it.

Colors can be an inexpensive way to add warmth to a room. Depending on the colors you choose, you can inspire feelings of boldness and creativity or relaxation and serenity. Evaluate what mood you want a certain room to project. Play around with different shades and intensities of color. Don't be afraid to experiment.

If you have a small living room and want to create an illusion of size, you can hang a mirror on one wall to generate a sense of depth. This makes the room look much more spacious than it really is.

You can also add elegance to a room by placing statues-especially those with marble finishing-on tabletops. If you don't fancy statues, you can use lamps instead. They can keep surfaces from looking too bare.