How To Design Your Living Room Like A Pro in 7 Easy Steps
Your living room is where you relax at the end of a long day, hang out with the fam over the weekend, and entertain your best friends in the evenings. It’s a multipurpose room that needs to be mega comfy and functional while staying super stylish. It’s a big job, but one that can be done — and we’re here to help.
Whether you want to DIY your living room design or just touch a few things up while you wait to bring in an interior designer, this post will walk you through creating a pretty and practical space.
Buckle up, friend. These are our top tips for designing your living room in 7 easy steps.
1: Start With A Mood Board
Get all the inspo you need!
First, start by gathering all the inspiration you need. We personally love using Pinterest or grabbing inspo from Houzz. And no, we totally won’t judge you for sipping on some wine in your track pants while you do it (that’s the secret to our best work).
Then pick your faves!
Once you’ve found what inspires you, look to see what is consistent in your images. It might be a color, a pattern, or even a specific texture. You will pull together your top 4 to 6 images featuring your favorite colors, styles, furniture, decor, and textures to create your mood board. With the help of Canva, you should end up with something similar to our inspo for Project De Mayo.
Now that you are all excited about what your space will look like, we’re on to the next step.
2: Consider How You Use The Space
You may need to bring in the fam for this discussion for some input on how the room will be used. You’ll all want to chat about how you currently use the space and what you might want to change in the redesign. For example, could the kids use a work area so they can stop doing their homework on the coffee table? Maybe your pup needs a big bed of his own in the living room so he doesn’t take up the whole sofa.
Whatever the case, talk about the activities done in the home remodel and how that will inform the design. We hate to break the news, but you’ll have to talk about the boring (but very practical!) stuff a bit, too. Think about where outlets are to determine where your lamps will go. Consider the glare of the window on the TV.
Okay, now we’re back to the fun part. Once you’ve gathered your intel, write a list together. Your list should contain the essentials (sofa, coffee table, the usual suspects) along with the “wants”, aka the things you want in the space but technically can live without.
Including the whole family in this list-making process is great, since everyone will be using it. But if you want to go rogue and design a bar for your annual Oscars Party or turn half of the space into your workspace, we fully support you.
3. Measure
Now we’re getting serious! Measuring is so important (and will also tell you whether you can buy that new couch you’ve fallen in love with). Measure the size of the room and sketch out your space. This doesn’t need to be anything fancy. A squiggly drawing is all you need. You can have some fun with this, too. Throw around some ideas for the location of your sofa and, who knows, maybe even built-in cabinets or a media unit.
Then you’re going to shift all the furniture out of the room, grab some painter's tape, and tape out pieces in their new locations. This not only helps you figure out where to put the new furniture but also helps you verify what size you need.
We know that measuring and figuring out where things should go can get a little overwhelming at times, so we’ve listed some pro tips below that will guide you along the way!
Pro Tips
Leave 12-18” of space between your sofa and coffee table,
Make sure you have a walking space of 24-36” around your sofa,
If you are not handy, hire a handyman (or woman!) to help you,
Get your rug size right (don't worry, we've got a guide that answers all your rug-related questions),
Make sure your TV is placed at eye level while you are sitting down,
This handy guide will help you figure out the right sized TV for how far away your sofa is.
4. Select All Your Furniture Pieces + Order
This is where you can finally complete your cart and start ordering furniture. It’s always a good idea to shop around and try to shop both in-person and online to find the best deals on the pieces you adore. It's also worth noting that there may be a slight difference in color and texture between what pieces look like in photos and what they look like in person.
Keep referring back to your mood board as a reference guide. Make sure you only pick items that fit your aesthetic; don’t just pick them because you love them. Again, use an app like Canva to curate your pieces and see how they look together. It’s an easy way to see what’s working — and what's not.
Insider Tip!
Get a sample of fabric, paint color, or wood if you can. Take these home and see what the finishes or materials look like in your home and your lighting. This is a great way to know if you're on track to make all the right decisions!
5. Don’t Forget About Your
Walls + Ceiling
Sometimes it’s so easy to focus on the furniture that you can easily overlook what to do with the walls and ceiling. Before your furniture arrives, paint and install wallpaper if you need to. You could even pick one color from your mood board and create an accent wall!
You want to bring in some of your personality and a few homey touches. This can be done with family photos, accessories from your travels, and/or artwork. Decide where you want to place items on your walls by using kraft paper to cut out sizes and tape them up. It’s a fabulous hack that will eliminate making holes in your walls before you’re ready to commit.
Insider Tip!
If you’re repainting, paint your ceiling the same color as your walls! This gives your space the illusion of being larger than it is. If you’re working with medium to dark colors, make sure you have enough natural light so you don’t get the opposite effect of your space feeling smaller.
6. Light It Up!
Let there be light! Having great lighting in all parts of your home is critical. Not only do you need it to see, but it also sets the mood.
You want to vary your lighting and have it in layers. So for ceiling lighting, have it recessed and on a dimmer. Add lighting that revolves around task-oriented things, such as floor or table lamps, for a dedicated reading corner. Test out a lamp in one spot; if it doesn’t work, then try another. It’s all about trial and error!
7. Style To Your Heart’s Content!
This is where the fun part comes in! You can begin styling once all the walls have been painted and the furniture has been placed. Styling is all about bringing in your personality.
Here are a few of our favorite tips:
Whatever you regularly use in the living room should be close at hand. For example, why not style the coffee table with board games and puzzles the kids can use on a Friday night with their friends?
Add in plants: real, faux, or a combo of both (we promise no one can tell the difference between the two).
Stack some of your favorite (or prettiest) books, then add candles and other objects on top.
We love including candles in the living room to give it warmth.
When grouping items, use odd numbered groupings for added visual interest.
If you've got a bookshelf to style, this blog post will be your go-to guide.
Hide all the messy stuff behind cabinet doors.
Less is more, so keep it simple.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it — that’s how you can design your living room in 7 easy steps! We know that along the way, there may be a hiccup here or there, so check out our other blog posts for more juicy details. But if you need more of a hand, get in touch with us to book a design therapy sesh, and we can talk all about your living room (plus the rest of your home custom decorating, too)!
