If your small living room feels cluttered and oppressive, a few furniture refreshes and clever decorative touches could breathe new life into it. With our practical ideas for compact spaces, you’ll free up floor space, provide eye-catching focal points, and play with colour, light, and depth to create an inviting living room that proves small spaces can be sublime.
If you’re looking for small living room decorating ideas that create a brighter, lighter, airier ambience, try soft, neutral colours. These are the simplest way to open up your room and reflect light. Speaking of which, don't forget to hang mirrors for this purpose. You can continue the breezy aesthetic with a neutral-coloured design for your largest furniture pieces, such as the sofa or sectional.
There is also the potential to work with cosier dimensions to create a warm, cocooning space where you and your loved ones can spend snug evenings. To nurture this style, put away with cream matte paint and embrace rich, earthy tones that bring warmth and intimacy to your space. To prevent this look from becoming oppressive, think hygge, introducing plenty of ambient lighting with floor and table lamps and layering your furniture with textural treats like blankets and throw pillows.
Mess is always distracting, but its effects can be amplified in a small space. One of the best small sitting room ideas anyone can adopt is to introduce multifunctional furniture. Storage benches can be used as slimline seating while also keeping your magazines, little one's toys, or extra throws neatly stowed away. A media console gives you somewhere to place your TV while keeping all your media devices and other bits and bobs neatly tucked away in the cupboard compartment.
Even your most treasured possessions have the potential to make a small living room feel busy and cluttered. Consider a bookcase or shelving to keep a sense of stylish order and to display decorative pieces neatly.
If you don’t want the bijou size of your living room to be the first thing someone notices when they enter, give them something else to focus on. Small sitting room design can still be bold, even if space is at a premium. Who will notice a room's dimensions when you've got a chic Italian design sofa in your eyeline? And, even if you have to choose a two-seater sofa to fit your space, who will think about that when you've styled the living room with sculptural coffee tables in concrete or marble and modern accent chairs?
Use wall art displays on your back wall to draw the eye and place your statement furniture pieces as far back as possible to create a sense of depth.
Small sitting room ideas don’t have to feel restrictive and uncreative, instead, they can help you celebrate artisanal design and even play on the bijou space to create an intimate, homely atmosphere. Find all the sophisticated small space inspiration you need at CB2, allowing your furniture and décor to define your space rather than its size.