How To Decorate My Living Room

“How to decorate my living room to reflect who I am?” is a question interior decorators often hear most. More than any room in your home, your living room serves as a calling card for visitors. Though they may not see your bedroom or basement, it’s the living room that you will entertain them and grant your visitors a more rounded view of who you are. So, if like so many others you are asking, “how to decorate my living room uniquely but comfortably?” consider the following decorating principals that combine easy-living with grace, while leaving you a wide range for self expression.

1. Choose your living room decorating style. To decorate your living room with character, first choose a decorating style to guide your choices and make the style a reflection of who you are. If you love modern decorating and using your own taste rather than rigid rules, decorate your living room in the modern eclectic style that combines wrought-iron tables with leather sofas and whimsical grandfather clocks. If you revere the past, decorate your living room in the traditional English style, with plush velvet or corduroy sofas, heavy wood tables and bookcases rich with leather-bound volumes. If you admire Impressionist paintings, decorate your living room in Shabby Chic or Vintage style, covering sofas in country style slipcovers and gracing simple wood tables with lace tablecloths and porcelain vases.
2. Choose your living room decorating palette. To decorate your living room with a mood setting purpose, choose your color palette carefully. Cool hues like blues, grays and blacks create a formal, airy feel, and will help a small living room feel larger. Warm hues like reds and yellows will give your living room decor the brightness of a summer day. For a soothing mood, decorate your living room with faded versions of the spectrum you prefer, choosing periwinkle blue over navy blue or peach over orange. For a more masculine look, decorate your living room with dark earth tones like hunter green, burgundy or dark brown. For a gender-less, modern feel, decorate your living room with moss, sand or sage.
3. Choose your living room illumination spectrum. Light comes in many shades from full-spectrum white to blues, reds and greens. To set the mood to your liking, decorate your living room with light fixtures that will paint ordinary light in different hues. Choose Tiffany glass or plastic lampshades to fill your living room with a spectrum of warm lights. Choose white or sand cloth lampshades to keep your living room bright. Choose Japanese lanterns to decorate your living room in Oriental harmony. Or choose dark cloth lampshades to give your living room a sense of intimacy.
4. Choose your living room furniture placement. For a cozy, warm feel, decorate your living room around your fireplace or electric hearth, positioning your armchairs or sofas to face the mantelpiece.  For a modern look, decorate your living room sparsely and spread your furniture well apart, avoiding bulky furniture altogether. For natural serenity, decorate your living room around wide open windows that face a beautiful view, clustering the furniture in groups before each window. For a roomy feel, decorate your living room with furniture gathered at the center on a beautiful rug and leave the walls free.
5. Choose your living room art. Tie the final bow around your living room decorating by choosing art to compliment your other choices. Choose Renaissance art or English country paintings for a living room decorated in the traditional style. Choose modern art for eclectic or modern living room decor. Choose water colors or Impressionist paintings for Shabby Chic or Vintage style living room decorating.

Let these five principals guide you when you wonder “how to decorate my living room?” The way you implement each principal will impart a personal touch to your living room decorating, creating a space that’s uniquely you.