75 Beautiful Small Living Room Ideas and Designs - March 2024 (2024)

Looking for Small living room ideas? Whether your living room is lacklustre, your lounge is limited in space, your sitting room is suffering from outdated decor or your front room is full of clutter, there are Small living room ideas and designs that will inspire you to breathe life into your living space. Discover small living room ideas to help maximise tiny spaces or layout ideas that will work with awkward shaped living rooms. Perhaps you’re struggling to decide on living room colours? Read on for help with colours, layout and design ideas, or find inspiration from the millions of living room photos on Houzz.

Living room wallpaper ideas

A good place to start when it comes to redesigning your living room is with the walls. While paint may seem the simplest choice, and easy to change, don’t discredit the design opportunities of wallpaper in living rooms. There are tons of great living room wallpaper ideas, from modern geometric patterns to traditional florals, and loads of ways to use them – you don’t have to cover the whole room or go for the ubiquitous feature wall. You could wallpaper only above the dado rail (if you have one), either side of a chimney breast, or behind a shelving unit to give your displayed items a stylish backdrop. Discover more living room wallpaper ideas or if paint is more your style, there’s plenty of living room designs to discover when it comes to paint ideas; just browse through the huge selection of living photos and search for the specific paint you’re after if you really want to narrow it down.

Small living room ideas

When it comes to our living room design, we want it to feel as welcoming and personality-filled as possible, but that can be a struggle when we’re working with a small space. But not to fear, there are small living room ideas to help you make most out of what you’re working with. A couple of small living room ideas can include: working with the height you have – installing floor-to-ceiling bookshelves or drawing the eye to the top of the walls with wallpaper; choosing space-saving or storage-incorporating (or both!) furniture, such as corner sofas with storage space under the chaise longue section; and keeping things symmetrical – a central fireplace with seating opposite, or seats facing each other, can give the illusion of a larger, more grand room. When it comes to the best decor for small living rooms, you can either choose to keep things light and airy to open up the space, or embrace the cosiness of the smaller area you have by going for warm colours and filling the room with your favourite accessories.

Living room layouts and choosing the right living room furniture

When it comes to the layout of your living room, it will depend on what pieces of furniture you have – but how do you choose what living room furniture to add, whether you’re refreshing your living room design or starting from scratch? The best place to start is with the seating – one corner sofa will usually seat three to four people, and if that’s all you think you’ll need, then you can leave it at that. Placing your sofa along the longest wall helps to make the most of the space, but think about where you want the focus of the room to be, too. If you need more seating, look at armchairs that offer comfort but don’t take up too much space – cramming a room with too many large armchairs is something to avoid. But armchairs and sofas don’t have to be your only options – go for bean bags and floor cushions for an eclectic feel, pouffes and ottomans if you’re more traditional, and smart design chairs for contemporary living room ideas. Coffee tables are always handy, but you can always add a couple of side tables if you don’t want to clutter the central space in front of seating with anything. If you centre your living room design around a fireplace or TV, then you might want storage and shelving to feature around the focus of your room. There are plenty of style options when it comes to TV units, and you can even go for bespoke living room storage units to make the most of the space if you want a sleek, built-in look. Keep reading below for more living room storage ideas. Discover a huge range of living room furniture, as well as living room accessories, to help you finish your room design.

Living room design ideas

Struggling with what living room colours to choose, or what style to go with? While a grey living room design is popular at the moment, you might not want to go with the ubiquitous colour. Although, if neutral and contemporary are the living room ideas you’re after, a grey sofa or grey walls will give you a good base to work on. If you want to stay neutral, beige is not your only other option, either. Light yellows, taupes and soft greys will work. Why not try adding simple but plush cushions to your sofa and a rug in these colours to achieve a modern-traditional look? For contemporary living room ideas, dark blues and greens are on trend, but if you don’t want to dive straight into the dark wall trend, you could opt for a couple of pieces of furniture, or go for dark-hued living room accessories instead. Whites, woods and pastels could work well for Scandinavian living room designs. If an eclectic living room is what you’re after, you could go for large print wallpaper, a statement lighting piece, vibrant rug and lots of colourful book or ornament displays. For a country feel, rustic carpet, stone hearths, comfy armchairs and traditional patterns in creams, greens and browns will give you that cosy cottage feel.

Living room storage ideas

It’s natural that our living rooms tend to attract lots of items and belongings seeing as they act as multipurpose living spaces. Whether you love to read a book; watch a film; let your children play with their toys; practise a craft like knitting or drawing; play a musical instrument or play video games in your sitting room, there will always be a need for a few extra living room ideas that can help you with storage. Apart from the standard bookcases, side tables and TV units, there are a few other handy living room storage ideas you can invest in. As mentioned before, if you have the room and budget for it, a built-in storage unit could be the way forward. With a well-built unit you could hide your TV, DVDs, players, books, video consoles and all sorts away in one place. If you don’t quite have a large enough area for one, you could look at shelving – either side of the chimney breast is a great place to install shelving if you have one in your living room. And don’t forget living room furniture such as sofas, benches and ottomans that lift up to reveal hidden storage; providing seating and storing space at the same time. With the right storage solutions your living room design could open up and feel so much more spacious and stylish. Discover more living room storage ideas by browsing these photos. Once you have your living room storage, colours, design, layout and furniture sorted, all that’s left is to browse the millions of living room ideas on Houzz and save your favourites to an ideabook. If you’re still searching for specific living room ideas, check out the popular pages below:

  • Living room lighting ideas
  • Cosy living rooms
  • Grey sofa living rooms
75 Beautiful Small Living Room Ideas and Designs - March 2024 (2024)

FAQs

How to decorate a living room with simple things on a budget? ›

Here are 10 budget-friendly living room decor ideas for you:
  1. Adding 'green' to our living room: ...
  2. Lighting: ...
  3. Re-arranging or modifying the existing furniture: ...
  4. Adding a TV cabinet in your living room: ...
  5. Rugs and carpets: ...
  6. Paint and texture walls: ...
  7. Adding wall hangings and artefacts: ...
  8. Curtains and throws:
Dec 15, 2023

What is the best color to paint a small living room? ›

For an instant refresh of a compact space, bright white always works well. If your living room receives very little natural light, it's an easy way to open things up. If your living space is particularly small, a coat of Brilliant White will work particularly well.

Which type of sofa is best for a small living room? ›

In any small space, it's crucial to invest in pieces that can do double duty. A sleeper sofa with removeable seat cushions does just that. Sleeper sofas are multi-functional and are excellent for saving space. If you want to use your living room as a primary bedroom, try a sofa bed with built-in storage units.

What makes a living room look modern? ›

High ceilings, layered lighting and minimalistic furniture are all essential aspects in creating a modern living room for everyday enjoyment and relaxation. Of course, furniture plays a key role in designing a modern living room and there are a number of essential pieces that no living space can do without.

How do you make a small living room look less cluttered? ›

Our brains often perceive contrast as clutter. By matching your furniture to your walls, you can minimize contrast and help keep it from looking like clutter. Light-colored furniture that matches your walls is also a good choice since darker pieces tend to make small rooms feel more cramped.

What do you start with when decorating a living room? ›

Start With a Big Piece

"For ease, it's helpful to start with a large one—like a sofa. That lays the foundation and helps to inform the furniture layout." You also should consider the color and material of the sofa's fabric. "Use these elements as a jumping-off point on where to go next!" Gage says.

How do I arrange my small living room to look bigger? ›

Make a small room appear larger with these 7 visual tricks
  1. 1Paint the entire room the same color.
  2. 2Hang oversize art.
  3. 3Add reflective surfaces.
  4. 4Draw the eye up.
  5. 5Choose the right scale — and right amount — of furniture.
  6. 6Don't shove all your furniture against the wall.
  7. 7Keep sightlines open.
Feb 7, 2023

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