How Playing with Layering Can Make Your Living Room Pop

Hello World! Welcome Friends! Look up over your laptop and take a gander at your living room. What are three things you can say about the space that makes it visually interesting? Are you readily able to name three, or are you having trouble coming up with even one just one thing to remark on?

Our living spaces should reflect our interests and passions. Our living spaces should feel cozy, warm and relaxed. A poorly accented living room is like walking into a barren landscape; there’s no color, no voice, no life.

Get excited about your home again with a living room redesign! Perfect for on budget, you can revamp your most-used space using simple layering techniques and applying a few splashes of color here and there. In Dr. Phil’s Texan drawl: Are you ready to change your life? Here’s how!

The Foundation: A Rug

A successfully layered living room combines and juxtaposes texture and color. According to The Inspired Room, “The key to a beautifully warm and comfortable home is adding layers of texture in every room. You can vary the colors and patterns as you add texture…[Combining] different layers is what makes a space interesting, no matter what your personal style of decorating is!”

The first place to start in the living room is with the floor, think of it as the foundation of space’s design scheme. Whether you have carpet, wood or tile flooring, a vibrant or muted colored (but textured!) rug will immediately sharpen the space. In an interview with HGTV, designer David Scott said that area rugs are “the soul of your room, [and the] color scheme, furniture placement and accessories should all connect back to it.” Because your furniture and accessories will reflect the colors and textures of the rug, make sure it’s one you can live with for a while.

Window Treatment: The Drapes

Take a look at your windows. What’s the blind situation? Are the blinds dusty and brittle with age? Are the pull strings knotted and finger stained? No matter how beautiful you make your living room, your window treatment (or lack thereof) can wreck the visual message you wanted the space to share.

“Window treatments add softness and texture which are two things every room needs,” writes Ann Drake of On Sutton Place. Drapes will help you to reflect the texture or color of the area rug and will guide the eye from the walls to the floor back to the walls again. Not only will the drapes bring in textured fabric for a visually stunning feature, but they’re functional for blocking out the sun or the wandering eyes of your teenage neighbor!

The Furnishings: Furniture Arrangement

Ah, now to the good stuff! Perhaps the most fun in redecorating a living space is arranging new furniture pieces! To really make your living room pop, mix up the designs of the furniture pieces. Going with the same tonal, square stretched linen sofa and armchair is boring. Mix and match design styles to create a room that no one else can copy.

For example, as a substitute for the loveseat couch, get an upholstered velvet fainting couch and pair it with a modern coffee table. Accessorize your Mad Men styled sofa with faux fur throw pillows. Set your lighting fixtures at different levels for a more natural lighting effect. And above all, make sure the room’s accessories, from the throw pillows to the hanging mirror complement and each other and the functionality of the space at large. What good is a room if people can’t figure out how it’s supposed to be used?

Now you’re ready. Get out there and design a living room you can happily sit in for hours!

As always, I’m glad you stopped by! Have a beautiful day/night depending on where you are in the world! Go with God and remember to be kind one another!

Toodles,