Living room ideas
Living room ideas to inspire your scheme from the House & Garden archive
Living room ideas
There are so many elements involved in decorating a living room. Starting from the beginning, there are paint colour and flooring to decide on, which will set the tone of the space. It’s essential to make the most of any architectural features, from joinery and bookcases to fireplaces.
At that point, it’s time to consider how to choose your living room furniture, taking into account how you use the space, what kind of sofa you prefer, how many armchairs you can fit in, whether you need a sofa bed, and the importance of small tables to put a drink on.
Finally you can get to the really fun bits, the textiles and accessories. The size and shape of your window might dictate your choices when it comes to curtains and blinds, but almost every living room will be in need of a good rug, and what’s a sofa without some beautiful cushions?
If you’re in need of inspiration, we’ve gathered the best living room designs from the House & Garden archive here to help, from country houses to stately homes, studio flats and London townhouses.
In the open-plan living room of a Berkshire house by Nicola Harding, the seating area has a sofa from Sofa.com and vintage armchairs reupholstered in a striped fabric from Tissus d’Hélène. The walls are painted in ‘Tracery’ and the woodwork in ‘Normandy Grey’, both by Little Greene. The furniture here is deeply comfortable; for advice on choosing sofas, armchairs, tables and much more, see our guide to how to choose living room furniture.
The sofas in Guy Tobin’s south London house were made for the space; a sensible investment in a small living room. They have been covered in cotton velvets – the yellow one is in Lelièvre’s ‘Cosmos’. The coffee table is topped with Lumachella antica; this stone also features on the fireplace, combined with a mid-eighteenth-century carved pine surround. To the right of this is a Lucian Freud etching.
The living room of decorative artist Bridie Hall’s house–one of the more stylish grey living rooms we know of–includes many of her own designs, including the cowhide and beech ‘Trav’ chair, and her ‘Roman Emperor Intaglio Cases’ which hang on the wall, working with the Ikat and Kelim cushions to add a burst of colour to the blue/grey scheme. On the mantle piece is ‘The Scholar Set’, also by Bridie – a group of shapes based on the Platonic solids. All can be found at Pentreath & Hall, the Bloomsbury shop started by Bridie and Ben Pentreath.
source: house garden
