Living Room Decor Ideas

Using these four designer secrets and small living room decorating ideas can make all the difference between feeling cozy or feeling cramped in your space.

When you have only one room where you relax, watch TV, read and entertain it can be quite challenging to decorate to maximize the space and accomplish all these goals.

There's great news for you. When you use these decorating solutions you won't need a lot of space to create a functional and stylish room. The trick is to enlarge your small room by using design techniques that fool the eyes.

#1: Furniture Arrangement

Multipurpose furniture designed to fit the space helps you maximize the limited square footage.

Sleeper sofa sectionals are more practical than a sofa and a bed when your small living room is in a studio apartment. You get a stylish living area by day and a comfortable bedroom at night...all in one room.

Furniture elevated on slender legs and armless sectionals and chairs help make your space feel more open and airy.

#2: Color Ideas

Outfitting your room with furnishings in a color similar to the wall color makes the space feel larger. Adding colorful and textured accessories creates a sense of breadth.

Borrow space from an adjoining room by visually connecting the rooms with similar materials. Using one flooring material or wall color creates flow from room to room and makes your living room feel more spacious.

#3: Lighting Ideas

Use light creatively to make your small room feel more expansive.

Hang colorful curtains on the windows or create wall cutouts into other rooms to draw the eye outside the living room.

Add materials such as mirrors, glass and metals that reflect light to give the illusion of more space.

Make the room appear taller by painting the ceiling a very light shade of blue reminiscent of the sky or paint the ceiling with high gloss paint to give the impression of height.

Add a skylight to create a sense of depth or install recessed lighting to bring more light into the room without taking up a lot of space.

#4: Decorating

Free up floor space and tabletops by using vertical space. Line the walls with shelving and bookcases where you can store ornamental and functional home decor objects.

Stow portable furniture in closets and bring it out when more seating is needed for guests. Dress up the chairs with decorative slipcovers that complement your decorating style.

Just because you may have limited space doesn't mean you must have limited style. Try a few of these designer techniques for decorating with furniture, lighting, color and home accessories to make the space feel larger. Using these small living room decorating ideas will create a big impact in your room.

An effective decoration of a room largely depends on its size and shape and mainly the purpose for which it is going to be used. Living room decoration can be either a simple task or a complicated one depending on the people that are going to use it. Simple if it is going to be empty for most of the time except when the family is at home; complicated if a lot of entertainment is going to take place. But that does not mean that it should not be the opposite also. It largely depends on the person who is going to decorate it. Another complication would be if a constant stream of children and pets are going to be traversing the room.

The shape of the room also has a big say in the kind of décor that it can take. In a large room with plenty of space, it can be segregated into some definite functional space. A small office space beneath the stairs or a formal dining area in a separate place by itself. The use of colors also has a telling impact on the atmosphere of a room. If not judiciously used a large room may look small and cold; if judiciously used a small room can be made to look larger and warmer. The wall art and other accessories in the living room sets its ambien. The more uncluttered the room the more comfortable it is to live in and spend time.