Setting up a small living room seems like a difficult task initially. However, following some rules, you can visually enlarge the room, without having to resort to hammer and chisel. Let’s say you have just moved into your new apartment and are wondering how to cope with the little space you have in the living room. You could also be looking for inspiration to transform your living room to look bigger. Do not worry; this task is achievable! With these simple tips, you can optimally set up your small living room to appear large.
A small living room can be extended in different ways. A good trick is working with stripes. As with clothing, employing vertical stripes in furniture, accessories, and wallpaper stretch the look of the room, while horizontal stripes widen it. So, to make a room appear longer, you can lay out a long rug with vertical stripes. Lay the carpet so that it runs parallel to the longest wall of the living room. Conversely, a carpet with horizontal stripes can make a narrow space appear wider.
The same principle works well with wallpapers. If you want to make your quilts look higher, get a wallpaper with vertical stripes. This pulls the wall visually up. On the other hand, horizontal striped wallpaper can make a wall appear wider than it really is.
In addition, if you want to neatly set up your little living room, you should try to pull up the glances of your visitors to the ceiling – making the room look bigger. Therefore, a striking ceiling is a good way to distract the eyes from the small size of the living room. Paint your ceiling in a different color than the rest of the room, or reach for wallpaper that catches the eye.
A brightly designed room looks larger than a dark room because dark colors absorb light rather than reflecting it. This makes a room smaller than it actually is. Keep the walls and floor of your small living room in light colors – the brighter, the better.
Daylight works wonders when it comes to making a small living room look bigger. The more light you allow to enter the room, the stronger the effect. For that, you should leave your windows as uncovered as possible. This opens the room and gives it more depth.
If you do not want to go without curtains, pay attention to two things: The material should be translucent and hung as close to the ceiling as possible to visually stretch the wall.
You can set up your small living room also very cleverly. The light the mirrors reflect lightens the space. It’s best to place a mirror across from a window – and your room will shine! Big mirrors have even more to offer: if you place them correctly, they trick the viewer into a passage to another room and thus create more space. It is best to place a large mirror behind a dresser or opposite a door.
Metallic accessories reflect light like mirrors and help your small living room to look bigger. With gold and silver vases and candlesticks you can easily widen the appearance of the room.
Be tough. You know that you have little space available. So, if you want to set up your little living room effectively, you’ve got to clear out! Everything that just stands around and robs space must go. Everything else needs to be stowed well.
Multifunctional furniture is your salvation. A coffee table with additional shelves or drawers and stools with storage options help you to stow everything that you want to have in the living room at hand, without taking away the already small space.
Look around your walls. There are places that usually remain unused: the corners, the space above the door and the wall surface above the windows. Here you can attach shelves to stow anything that does not fit elsewhere. A floating shelf near your couch is also a good storage space if you have no room for a coffee table. Behind an open door hides mostly unused space; it is the ideal place for an ajar rung ladder. It does not take up too much space and can serve as a wardrobe.
Above all, you can set up a small living room sensibly if you keep the following sentence in mind: Less is more. Too much small stuff makes the room crammed and chaotic. Try to create a minimalist overview. Put into action that means: a large painting, instead of a small-scale picture gallery, a tall vase instead of many smaller ones, and a big couch instead of single chairs and chairs.
Another trick to avoid the character of a lumber-room is to create a colorful structure. For example, if you think white is too boring as wall paint, and you prefer to use magenta, make the accessories or furniture pieces near that wall, not of the same shade but a gradation of it. You do not have to go looking for a sofa in magenta. A throw or pillow, for example, is enough. Color-assorted books on a shelf achieve a similar effect.
With seats that can be seen with their legs, you can set up your small living room to be more spacious. The less space a piece of furniture conceals, the less restrictive it looks. Even more effective are transparent glass or plexiglass furniture that simply seems to disappear in the room. Even shelves without a back wall well-suit a small living room.