Designing a Small Living Room

Tara Miller
Feb 15, 2017
3 min read

Designing a small living room is a larger task than I had envisioned.

Fact: It is the main room of the house

Fact: It is the first room seen when entering the house

Fact: It is small but bright. Needs to be pretty, comfy AND functional

All of these facts combined mean all of my furniture need to do double duty and nothing permanent can be too bright, bold or busy. In a small space too many small, busy or bright patterns/colors can be jarring to the eye and mean the space feels less comfortable and welcoming. This is the room where you gather, put up your feet and relax after your day (while you yell at your kids in the next room to get back in bed). So I settled on white/light with hits of navy and a few bold colors on pillows (which can be easily changed seasonally).

Here is the floor plan (after drawing and before finalizing. You can see this is before I changed the front door swing. This living room doesn't look big enough for a couch!

Most of the furniture shown I already own which is a good start. When I was done drawing the house plans but before I finalized them, I began filling each room with our furniture. I wanted to maximize space and to know where each piece would fit so we wouldn’t haul in furniture that would not work in our small house. The sofa, side table, lamps (similar & similar), art and pillows are already mine. The floor will be stained soon. The black chairs are a representation of chairs I would like for the space. I need two chairs that will work as dining chairs but also as comfy living room chairs because of space. The sconces are coming soon and I will share the link below and I hope to make the roman shades.

Here you can see the room fits a couch, a floor lamp, two chairs and 3 tables, all full of storage! Plus room for traffic and an entry now that the door swing has changed. WOW!

However, the real secret for making this living room into every thing I need it to be is size and function. The sofa is small so on the days I need more seating I have the comfy chairs that also serve the dining room and a few folding chairs under the stairs. The 2 chairs are also stack-able and can be used outside. The round tables also serve as seating while storing blankets and toys. There is storage in the round tables and the side table which can be fitted with drawers or pull out baskets for movies, coasters, remotes and games. There is plenty of lighting from the sconces but also task lighting from the table and floor lamp. The floor lamps also has storage or can be used as a side table. The foot print of the lamp is smaller than a table so there is a place to rest a drink without losing space. The table lamp is small and there is only one. The pillows bring color to the room without permanence and can be tossed aside if more seating is needed.

The room is really brought together by a blending of like colors and shades but also with different textures. Different textures give more comfort to a room that is too small for layers of colors. The soft sofa, the tufted rug, the ship lap walls and the varying patterns on the pillows all work together to create a space that feels filled without being overwhelming.

Sources

Sofa: Ikea

Floor Lamp: World market

Table Lamp: Pottery Barn

Pillows: Wayfair

Bookcase: Ikea

Round Table: Ikea

Rug: Pottery Barn

Wall Art: Pottery Barn

Sconce: Lowe's

Roman Shades: Pottery Barn

Rug: Pottery Barn