Living Room Styling On A Budget

My sister’s living room is not a spacious space. Moreover, in one of the living room walls there is a door that leads to the basement as well as a small corridor leading to the powder bathroom and the mud room, so it really gets complicated to come up with a good furniture layout.

Her existing furniture was purchased based on the current needs of her family and, at this time, she did not consider changing the furniture or the layout, so this made the small room styling process even more difficult.

However, her living room needed some styling and I was prepared to take this challenge. In fact, my sister was saying that, her living room was begging for something to be done. She admitted that the lack of style in her living space was having a terrible effect on her mood.

This is an open concept space divided by an open wall, and it is adjacent to the kitchen which underwent a successful facelifting process just few days beforeI I started to do the styling of this room.

The first thing I considered before I started the styling of this room was to address the curve shaped design on the upper parts of the built in shelving around the fireplace, as these made the space feel a bit dated.

As an efficient fixing route I suggested that we should find a very thin wood board, paint it in the colour of the shelving and glue it on top of the area we wanted to cover up. This worked perfectly fine and the shelving instantly changed for better. It is all in small little details after all.

I used various existing decorative items and some books to style the shelves around the fireplace. Also, we purchased two huge clear glass vases in which I placed some branch clippings from a tree in my sister’s garden. This added texture and interest around the TV area. After I left, the branches were blooming fresh leaves throughout and my sister said the whole scene above the fireplace looked even better.

The next thing that I suggested was purchasing an area rug.

Because of the busy lifestyle of this family of five, which until recently they also had a beautiful and big lovely dog, and in order to make the house errands more manageable and efficient they went bare floors for quite some time.

However, in order to create style, add some texture to the space as well as to make the room feel larger, I suggested that the room will definitely need a large area rug so we got one Costco, and it instantly brightened up the room.

USEFUL TIP: While rugs are a must for a stylish living room, they should still match the size and style of the space.
Small rugs imbalance the room, so when purchasing a rug you should consider a rug that’s so big that the front feet of all your lounge room furniture are placed on it.
This provides balance and creates zones for your room, and will also make it feel larger too.

Luckily, there was an existing glass-topped coffee table in the living, something that I would suggest for a small living space

USEFUL TIP: Pairing a glass-topped coffee table with a patterned rug will create the illusion of space, while allowing the rug to shine in all of its glory.

And lastly fresh flowers always make the space feel crisp, stylish and happy, just like this living room looks and feels now.

Does your living space looks dull or outdated and you cannot afford a major renovation? Styling it differently, changing the layout of the furniture, a new fresh coat of interesting paint colour may do the difference without spending a lot of money on renovation. You can do this yourself or you may consider also consultation with a designer or stylist regarding the colour scheme, furniture placement, shelf styling and other tricks that may be used to bring an outdated and dull looking living room from drab to fab! BESA GM Interiors offers such consultation services so write us at besagmblog@gmail.com and we will take it from there!