Gorgeous Statement Pieces For Your Living Room
As the name suggests, your living room is where you’ll most likely be doing the lion’s share of your… well… living, when it comes to time spent at home. So more so perhaps than any other room in our homes, it needs to be able to reflect our lifestyles and personalities, whilst also being a comfortable place where we’re happy to unwind after a long day at work or over a lazy weekend. Whilst a sleek, modern, ‘sparse’ living room might be alright for some, the more bohemian and creative amongst us might like our living rooms to ‘say’ something about us (without necessarily shouting from the rooftops) and for them to feel like our own unique and individual spaces. Whilst our choice of furnishings can go a long way towards accomplishing that, there’s only so much you can say with a 3-piece suite and a coffee table. So we’re here to discuss just a few ideas for exciting, bold and unique ‘statement pieces’ that will not only improve the look and feel of your room but will make it feel that much more like your room. A statement piece is just that, a piece of furniture, an accessory or an installation that makes a statement and becomes a conversation piece. Statement pieces are becoming more fashionable now that the 90’s trend for dour, ‘neutral’ living rooms has been and gone so here are just a few examples you might want to consider if you want to make an impression in your living room.
Rugs
As his ‘dudeness’ once said, a good rug can really tie a room together and as far as we’re concerned, truer words have never been spoken. Rugs are especially useful in a living room with hardwood floors as wood can often come across as a little ‘sterile’ and a nice, comfortably looking rug can go a long way towards injecting some rustic ‘warmth’ into an otherwise quite cold and clinical room. If you’re looking to make the rug a statement piece, consider one that stands out with a bold colour, pattern or unconventional material.
Artwork & Mirrors
Art is often subjective, so when displaying a piece in your living room it’s important to get something that you personally like. Try putting an incredibly bold, vibrant and colourful piece on a comparatively plain wall. The contrast will really help the piece stand out:
If the artwork is more subtle and considered, however, maybe hang it above the fireplace or in the most ‘lively’ corner of your living room where it’ll create a different kind of contrast. If you don’t really have the taste for art though, a fine mirror can be just as striking, in fact, a well-made mirror can be a work of art in an of itself. A clock could also be viewed as a work of art in the right context. Take this gorgeous, large steel design for example. Not only is it attractive and eye-catching, but it’s also legitimately useful!
Lighting
How your living room is lit and what it’s lit by can have a dramatic and deceptive effect on its overall ‘vibe’. Conventional overhead lighting might ‘get the job done’, but by going with a lighting source a little more unique, you’ll be able to change the whole atmosphere of your room with very little effort at-all.
Take for example these colorful ‘balloon’ lights. Wired into your ceiling like any other light, these hand-blown glass balloons will give your living room an incredibly unique vibe of childish wonder, especially apt if you have children or are just a big child at heart yourself. If you don’t want to be so drastic you could just try an interesting lamp or maybe neon signs behind the sofa? The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Furniture
Whilst every living room will (presumably at least) be centered around its furniture, there is no reason why your furniture needs to be ‘run-of-the-mill’. Of course, not all of your pieces of furniture need to be more attractive than they are comfortable (you want somewhere cozy to do the Sunday crosswords after all), but having just one piece of ‘quirky’ furniture can really help to bring life to an otherwise rather ‘generic’ living room. Try a chair with an incredibly daring (perhaps even jarring) color combination that will really raise the hackles on your color coordinated friends or perhaps a more elegant, ‘throne like’ piece that puts across an almost imposing presence.
On the other side of the coin, a defiantly ‘post-modern’ idea could be to buy an older piece of furniture that acts as a nice juxtaposition with the rest of your heavily stylized, modern furnishings. An old chest, for example, could make a great coffee table or an old-fashioned rocking chair would certainly lend a certain amount of ‘vintage’ glamour to your room. Even if people don’t like it, they’ll have to admit it has ‘character’.
This article has been written by guest contributor Philippa L. Philippa often writes about Interior Design and she believes that including a few statement pieces throughout the home can really modernize and bring the house together. Philippa often sources ideas from the Creatively Different site.
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