5 Stunning Living Room Makeover Essentials for 2014
As it’s the room where you’re most likely to spend your time in, the living room should be the ideal place to sit back and relax. Many homeowners seek a family-friendly style to encourage quality time with loved ones and friends and a space that’s able to stand up to the wear and tear of everyday life is essential.
You don’t have to have a huge area though to turn your living room into the ultimate space. By defining your room’s purpose and taking a fresh approach, you’re able to give the space an adequate level of comfort and enjoyment. The most important finishing touches can make a world of difference between a room that is decent, to one that oozes character and appeal. We check out some of the most striking living room makeover essentials.
1. The Perfect ‘Pop’ of Colour
By still leaving the bones of the space intact, a fresh coat of paint or splashes of colour can really transform a room. Experimenting with bold colours and vibrant patterns, you’re able to steer clear of the traditional decorating and truly put a stamp on your home’s style.
To avoid too many clashes or colour competition, use your colour confidence with cushions, rugs, plants, picture frames or other accessories. This way, your furniture and primary pieces can stay a neutral shade and complement the perfect ‘pop’ of colour beautifully. For a Moroccan style, brick red and earthy browns can work perfectly with exotic colours like turquoise blue, lush green or bright yellow. If you tend to stick to a certain style, now may be a good time to experiment with a different colour scheme. Radiant Orchid has been voted the 2014 colour of the year by Houzz and works wonders with contemporary colours like black, white and grey. Check out some more colour trends for this year here.
2. Window Treatment Must Haves
A room cannot be complete without showing your windows some love too. Window dressings are an easy and cost-effective way to transform a space and give your living room the ultimate ‘wow factor’. When choosing your window treatments, it’s important you bring the room together and consider how they blend with the wall colours, artwork, furniture and accessories.
Your window treatments won’t just bring the room to life style wise, but also serve as a control system for the amount of light that enters the room. Plantation shutters are one of the ideal solutions with a wide range of materials that can accentuate any space. If you’re attracted to the appeal of curtains opt for neutral tones with bold contrasting trims to lively up the room or patterned shades can make a striking focal point.
3. Create a Feature Wall
Whether you decide to paint a feature wall or create one through accessories, establishing an accent wall can really change the dimensions of the room. For many homeowners, the excitement of adding a new colour can make the painting process a fun one and the best part is – painting a feature wall is only a weekend job.
Depending on how adventurous you want to be, a bright blue feature wall can spark visual interest or opt for a softer chocolate colour with white accessories. The trick with painting an accent wall is to make sure touches of the colour you choose are incorporated into other parts of the room for example; a rug or light shade. If you’re not up for full paint job, you can still create a powerful impression with a collage of frames to add a focal point.
4. Plenty of Seating
A living room cannot be fully utilized without plenty of seating. Your choice of seating can easily make or break the look of your space, so it’s ideal to go for good quality pieces – it’s well worth the investment. When choosing furniture, opt for pieces that are visually lightweight. Lighter coloured furniture will open the room up if you’re working with a small area and create more visual space. Stay away from chunky wood coffee tables and replace with something softer like a glass and metal one.
Because the living room is used sufficiently, it’s important your seating choice is both comfortable and convenient. Choose furniture that’s an appropriate scale for the size of the room and invite the eye to move above and beyond eye level by introducing both vertical and horizontal dimensions. If you’re lucky enough to have a window sill, be sure to take advantage of the space and turn it into a mini window living area.
5. Lighting and Accessories
Lighting is the ultimate mood changer in a space so few tweaks and upgrades can leave your living room feeling brand new. Make sure the space has ample illumination with smaller or standing lamps near a cosy chair or bookshelf to create a separate reading nook and ‘task lighting’.
If you’ve dressed the area with accessories or paintings, match the light shades with the colours in both your window dressings and decorations. Use different levels of lighting to accent different parts of the room or create focal points with accessories. To really get the mood buzzing, create layers of lights to eliminate shadows from the corners of the space and really define an area. Use mirrors to help with this and twin sconces to offer softer accents.
Author Bio
This article is written by Jayde Ferguson, who writes for Sola Shade – an Australian owned business offering world-class quality blinds and shutters for your next living room makeover. You can catch her on Google+.
