Apartment Living Room Decor

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.

Whether your living room is a 21 foot length with a large picture window at one end or you live in a tiny apartment and the living room is bijou to say the least, there are living room décor ideas to suit you and your budget. You can go for cozy chic and warm up your living space or go for open-plan with vaulted ceilings and an expanse of herringbone hardwood floor. At the end of your project you will have ended up with a space that you can live in comfortably, decorated according to the space you have available. Are you aiming for a peaceful retreat, full of serenity and harmony or a more user-friendly, basic living space where you feel comfortable slipping your shoes off and putting your feet up.

If I was choosing a color scheme for my living room I would go to the cooler colors on my color wheel chart - the blues and greens which can be used in different shades to achieve a 'joined-up' look of cool elegance. I always make sure that, when I paint my ceiling, I use a light shade of the room's main color on my ceiling so, if my color scheme was blue, I would use the lightest eggshell blue I could find for my ceiling and then a slightly deeper shade of blue for my walls.