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Styling Your Living Room

Your living room introduces the vibe of your home before you do yourself.

By Klaudia HubbardPublished 4 years ago 4 min read

As soon as a person enters your home, your living room is the first thing they come across. The decor of your living room speaks volumes about your own personality and choices. Right from Vintage classics to a Bohemian style, it represents your spirit and your taste in aesthetics. A living room can be styled in a zillion ways but the most tricky part of it is, if it reflects the true you.

A living room is that part of the house which also receives the highest footfall. You spend most of your time there be it alone or while hanging out with other people. Therefore, it also deserves the most amount of attention. Many times, the artist in us takes over and we start styling our home on a whim. We start believing that we don’t need any advice on it and we fill it with everything we like. The outcome - place gets full of items that neither align with a particular theme nor stick to a color scheme. The whole decor ends up looking all over the place.

Does this mean that you always need to hire an interior designer? Not necessarily! All you need to style your home is a vision and a step-wise breakdown of how to go about it. For the latter, read and absorb the steps below:

  • Know your space and consider your needs and preferences for it.
  • Right from the theme to the color scheme, you need to get everything sorted in your mind and more preferably on a paper.
  • Once you are certain about a theme, do an extensive research on it.
  • Design a tentative layout for yourself and try sticking to the same.
  • Plan a budget and try to accommodate your preferences accordingly.
  • Start with the furniture to give a base to the room.
  • Use curtains and rugs that compliment the decor to add texture to the room.
  • End the process by adding accent pieces while making sure that they are in coordination with the basic theme and layout of the room.

Most Popular Living Room Styles for Inspiration

Traditional

Inspired by the 18th and 19th century, traditional decor uses rich colors and vivid imagination. Elegance and sophistication being the basic attributes of traditional home decor, it tends to maintain the perfect balance between minimalism and maximalism. While elaborate woodwork and finely crafted furniture are at the core of the traditional decor, traditional rugs can also be added to make the living room warmer and welcoming.

Contemporary

Often mistaken with Modern Design, Contemporary decor bears an ever changing style with high adaptability towards emerging trends. Contemporary decor is one of the most popular styles of decor as people tend to get bored of the same theme over time and contemporary theme gives them the liberty to improvise as per convenience. It is just a marvelous mesh of various designs incorporated in one. Usually characterized by wide windows and plain aesthetics, contemporary style uses nude colors in curtains and modern rugs to add texture to its versatile appearance.

Coastal

Not the same as Nautical, Tropical or Mediterranean, if anything, Coastal can be described with the vibe of a beach. Adorned by the shades of blue and white, Coastal theme embraces abundant sunlight with subtle tones and refined aesthetics. They are characterized by jute textures and earth tones to appease your love for beaches.

Rustic

Rustic style follows a nude base color scheme with brown, beige and warm white shades. Characterized by the vigor of nature, it is embellished with wood, stone and other organic accent pieces. Unlike other styles of decor, it is less about structure and more about character. Every piece in the room is supposed to stand out. It is also centered around being comfortable and inviting, therefore, White linen and abstract rugs in nude shades would be a perfect fit for an authentic Rustic look.

Eclectic

If you like to experiment with your decor from time to time, Eclectic is your style. From a wide range of patterns to diverse colors, Eclectic style accepts the artist in you. A global influence being its main characteristic, it is best suited for travelers who are fond of collecting souvenirs from wherever they go. From Vintage accent pieces to contemporary carpets, eclectic style is full of unexpected elements of decor.

Industrial

Rather than focusing on being perfect, Industrial decor bases itself on the center of imperfections. With exposed pipes and ducts, Industrial decor prefers keeping things raw and revealing. While the dark color scheme and exposed brick walls are its key features, it also plays with vintage and antique pieces. With an open layout, it also uses distressed leather for sofas and chairs.

Old World

Heavily inspired by the European style, the Old World decor revolves around comfort with dignity and class. Marked by oversized furniture and a rich color palette of deep and dark colors. Handmade pottery and artisan handcrafted accent pieces are one of its distinctive features. You can easily find Old World themed rugs online to add texture to your living room.

Scandinavian

Scandinavian decor derives inspiration from the modest style of Nordic regions. It uses a neutral color palette with splashes of Black, Blues and Greys on a white base. Distinguished by minimal adornments, Scandinavian design prefers artworks and rugs for living rooms that are inspired by nature.

Every style tells a different story. Choose the one that reflects yours and get inspired. You can also explore accent pieces and carpets online and follow the steps mentioned to create the living room of your dreams.

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About the Creator

Klaudia Hubbard

I am a marketing consultant and content writer. I also work as a freelance journalist, travel writer, and social media strategist. When not dabbling away, I enjoy reading, hiking, and doodling.

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