Not every apartment has separate living rooms, so the tenants of the house are trying to somehow highlight this area, it is more interesting to equip it. Even in the smallest living room, there are many possibilities for interior design. In this case, some nuances should be used to expand the space.
Features of the
Modern design ideas for a small living room allow you not to be limited in the choice of colors and decor elements. Even in rooms of a modest size, you can make the interior cozy and comfortable in order to provide complete rest for every household. The interior design of a small room is distinguished by an abundance of light colors and filling in the form of compact furniture with transformation. An important feature of the interior is the fact that the environment cannot be overloaded.
A feature of the interior of a small living room is the presence of a large number of light sources. It must contain artificial lighting devices. What is important is the absence of sharp contrasts and contradictions. The lines should be smooth and concise.
If you want to apply several colors within the interior of one such room, it is better to give preference to a gradient. When decorating, it is important to avoid chaos and make the interior minimalist.
In small apartments, in which the living room area does not exceed 15 meters, the hall should not have unnecessary decor items. It is better not to cover the walls with paintings, photographs, as these details overload the interior. It is necessary to select only light and natural materials for furniture and window decoration.
To give the design a touch, you need to use some tricks (for example, interesting geometric patterns and abstractions). The smaller the print itself, the larger the room becomes.
When finishing, they use such methods that allow you to stretch the room up or in length, depending on its specific shape. A feature of the decoration of long narrow rooms is the use of narrow vertical stripes on the walls; square rooms are decorated with wallpaper in a longitudinal wide strip. However, the strips are capable of raising or lowering ceilings. The contrast between adjacent stripes should be subtle.
In small living rooms, it is customary to use comfortable and functional furniture, which will save space. … When dividing a small hall into zones, partitions and screens are not used. Installation of glass and mirror furnishings is possible.
Correctly placed mirrors expand the space and provide high-quality light reflection that will be beneficial.
It is worth using a large number of glossy surfaces, this applies to pieces of furniture and finishing materials. For example, flooring with tiles or the use of a self-leveling floor, installation of a stretch ceiling is used.
Styles
Carrying out repairs in an apartment or house, you can decorate the living room in almost any style, despite its small size. The interior of such a room is often recommended to equip in a classic style. It can be light, elegant, while not overloading the room, it will look neat. This is especially true for small rooms with an area of no more than 11 square meters. m.
Classic implies the use of neutral shades and calm colors without contrast. In this case, mainly natural materials are used. Although this does not interfere with complementing the living room interior with modern innovations from the field of electronics. It is better to choose a chandelier and wall lamps made of crystal or glass. The room should be filled with white light.
If you hang pictures or mirrors in your apartment, the frames should be gold.
Refined furniture on carved legs looks great. For its facades, it is better to choose a classic beige or ivory. Stucco moldings and graceful arches, ceilings with several levels can decorate the interior. This is the only option for the interior of a small hall that allows the use of heavy draped curtains and additional accessories such as holders or graceful ribbons.
One of the walls can be decorated with a beautiful work of art, it may not be a picture, but patterns drawn by the master to the full height of the wall. Everything in the interior should be beautiful and symmetrical.
The exact opposite is the design of the living room in a modern style. New stylistic trends imply the presence of graphic lines and functional materials, some of which may be unnatural. Living rooms in a modern style can resemble an office setting, albeit with simplicity. You can smooth out such an interior with soft pillows, a rug, and a home blanket. Such a room can be furnished with flat, but large-sized appliances, as well as transformable furniture.
The next popular style for small living rooms is romantic provence. It combines rustic and French styles. This is a fashionable interior, delicate in design, which presupposes the presence of lace trim on curtains and furniture upholstery, as well as a large number of floral and floral patterns. The room should be filled with delicate peach, pink, beige, gray furnishings and decor.
The interior is complemented by elegant chests of drawers, furniture on high legs, a fireplace with a light facade. Decor items are vases and porcelain dishes. Light colors expand the space and fill the interior with freshness. You can put fresh flowers in the room, which will become the highlight of the interior. This is a good option for a summer residence.
Modern living rooms are increasingly decorated in style loftdespite the fact that it assumes the presence of free space. In this case, the interior is simply not cluttered with a large number of furniture and storage systems. You can put only a small sofa, several soft pouf-bags, make light open-type shelves.
A living room in this style should have metal lamps or spotlights, black and white photographs and walls with abstraction.
The undoubted leader among stylistic trends for small rooms is minimalism … You can decorate the living room, saving space. The style for small rooms assumes a minimum amount of decor items, unnecessary details (there should be no decorations). All furniture for such a project has small dimensions and performs a strictly functional role.
As color solutions, two basic shades are chosen, with which they play up the room, practically without adding other tones, so as not to overload the interior. At the same time, gray, beige, blue colors and their not saturated shades are more often used.
The next style that is perfect for decorating a small living room is Scandinavian … It assumes the presence of perfectly white walls and ceilings that expand the space and serve as a background for the interior filling of the room. Accents are set with the help of bright and colorful elements in the form of paintings, lamps, unusual tabletops, large alarm clocks in a bright case, decorative pillows, clocks and figurines.
The living room should be permeated with freshness and air: it is better to fill it with natural daylight by increasing the size of the windows. Better not to curtain them.
For their decoration, Roman blinds or blinds are perfect, which can be kept completely open during the daytime.
Decor
Decorating the living room involves the use of high-quality and practical materials for decoration, which make the interior more neat and light. In this case, it is not at all necessary to use the most expensive coating options. You can decorate the walls with wallpaper, use ceiling tiles for the ceiling. Thin coatings allow you to save every square centimeter of space.
At the same time, it is better to choose all materials for decoration monochromatic or with small discreet patterns. A print that will overlap with furniture upholstery and other textile elements (curtains, cushions, a blanket) is perfect.
With the help of coatings, you can neatly divide a room into separate zones. It can be distinguished by using various textures and colors, a recreation area, a working, dining area. This way you will be able to avoid the use of fences and space crushing. Due to different coating options, conditional zoning can be made and the layout can be visually more convenient.
It is desirable to use smooth coatings. The use of a surface with a slight relief is acceptable. Such rules are due to the fact that, subconsciously, to a person, at first glance, straight and smooth objects seem larger than small colored ones with a volumetric texture. So some planes can be visually expanded or removed by focusing attention on a particular area or functional element.
Walls
The walls (especially the two side walls) should create the background of a small living room. When properly finished, they have a minimal amount of color accents and bright spots. Therefore, smooth wallpaper or paintable coatings are suitable here. Standard wall painting is acceptable. Thin plastic panels or artificial stone can be used, but not on all walls.
Coverings that imitate brick or masonry are perfect. The walls can have glossy or mirror elements, they can be additionally illuminated. You can independently equip a niche in a drywall wall by highlighting it with a contrasting color and placing some equipment or, for example, an aquarium in it. They also make a working corner in it.
The straight center wall is suitable for accents. It is customary to paste over it with printed wallpaper or an interesting coating with a 3D effect. Some patterns can deepen a room and make its interior more interesting.
Art painting or mosaics can be used on this wall, but the coating should not be too variegated.
Floor
It is better to make the floor in small living rooms light. The classic option is to use wood or natural wood flooring. It can be parquet or parquet board. The ideal analogue of these coatings for small apartments is a thin laminate. You can use a light colored carpet to make the room more comfortable, but keep in mind that it is difficult to maintain.
An excellent option for a modern small-sized living room is the installation of a self-leveling floor. It reflects other surfaces and makes the interior of the room interesting. This can be a bright and interesting solution, provided that the floor is glossy. You can create a 3D pattern with an effect of depth and infinity, which will visually expand the space.
In a small living room, stone and porcelain stoneware can be used for decoration, although these materials are cold. It is better if they are glossy or well polished: this will make the room taller. But such hard and traumatic surfaces are completely unsuitable for families with small children.
In this case, you should give preference to a sand or beige carpet with a small pile.
Ceiling
The ideal option for a small hall is to install a stretch ceiling. It is better if it is snow-white and glossy. Stretch ceiling can be selected with a mirror surface, this will make the space endless. An interesting option is the installation of a two-level plasterboard ceiling. Such a coating will conceal centimeters of height in certain zones, but it will look interesting and solemn.
At different levels of the ceiling, you can make a different type of lighting (for example, an elegant chandelier in the center and spotlights along the edges). For a more economical finish, the ceilings can be leveled and painted white. The surface must be smooth and even. Avoid panels and slabs no matter what they are made of (even if they are lightweight materials).
All patterns on such a coating will reduce the height of the ceiling and visually reduce the size of the room. Large hanging chandeliers should also be abandoned, replacing them with small flat counterparts.
Color solutions
A well-chosen color palette can make a small space more free, visually expanding its boundaries. To do this, you can give preference to the design of the living room in one monochrome color scheme, abandoning bright accents and sharp color transitions. You can give preference to white by decorating the walls, ceiling, floor. But a perfectly white room will seem sterile and uncomfortable, so you can choose bright accessories and furniture in a different color for it.
In a white living room, a mint, pistachio, beige sofa corner, as well as colored plastic tables and chairs will look great.
By playing with shades, you can change the boundaries of the space. A dark floor, light walls and ceiling make the room look bigger, white side walls and a dark front wall expand it to the sides. A light front wall and dark side walls deepen the room. If you do not want to decorate the living room in white, you can choose any tone related to pastel colors.
It can be beige, gray-blue, light green, pistachio and olive tones. They should be diluted with other warm shades. For example, a blue and beige small square living room looks interesting, this is a colorful design. It can be a baroque room or a stylish minimalist room.
The classic interior involves the design of the living room in brown coffee, milky, golden, sand tones. You can add accents using orange, rich olive tones. The design of the walk-through living room can be made more interesting by decorating one wall with dark, and others with light coatings, while hanging mirrors. This is how you can functionally decorate the hall.
Choosing furniture
Furniture is the inner filling of a small room; the amount of free space will depend on it. Furniture and appliances should be arranged in such a way that everything you need is at hand. In this case, errors are unacceptable, for example, large twin chairs cannot be installed. They are being replaced by transformable furniture, modular armchairs and sofas that can be combined, separated, supplemented with different sections. So you can change the interior at any time.
It is better to use folding tables and chairs. They allow you to provide additional guest space. Each living room should have a sofa. It is believed that it is the central part of the interior of the hall, in whatever stylistic direction the room is decorated. Therefore, it is better to place it in the central zone. You should choose a compact folding sofa. Its upholstery should be combined with other interior items, the color of the walls and floors.
A compact leather sofa fits well into such an interior. It looks elegant, and the leather upholstery is easy to care for. Light leather furniture fits perfectly into the interior. An interesting option would be to install a medium-sized red or brown leather sofa. It is better to put a table of medium height and one compact chair next to the sofa. If you install a small sofa in the room, the objects around it may visually decrease. This optical illusion allows you to expand the space in the room.
The furnishing of a rectangular living room involves the allocation of a dining area. It is better to install a transforming table in it. The ideal option would be a folding tabletop, which is transformed from a window sill. When it comes to cabinets, it is best to use built-in or modular storage systems, as well as shelving and shelving. However, not all storage systems need to be open.
The abundance of unnecessary elements that catch your eye overloads the interior. Therefore, it is better to remove unnecessary details from the eyes.
It is better not to put furniture near the window. This wall must be freed as much as possible. Such an interesting move will fill the room with light and expand it. All drawers and cabinets should be compact. As for the closet, it can be a convenient sliding door system. They save indoor space. Often, a mirror is inserted into such doors, which helps to increase the area of space.
A small bedside table can be installed near the sofa, under which a small pouf will be located. Such a piece of furniture can be easily hidden at any time and free up space. It is better to choose a light wooden or small glass coffee table. A lightweight version of a glass coffee table will look elegant and seem almost invisible.
Design Tips & Tricks
Designers recommend redeveloping a small living room, expanding it with a balcony. This design is a complete or partial demolition of the partition leading to the loggia. So you can additionally fill the room with light. Designers advise using corner furniture in the design of small living rooms, since it saves space.
To blur the boundaries of a room and make it spacious, it is necessary to use furniture with low backs, as well as compact storage systems. The exception should be small wall cabinets and lightweight shelves. Designers recommend abandoning standard walls and certain furniture models.
It is better to hang the TV on the walls of the living room, preferring more modern flat models. The sofa area should be located under the window, discarding the sides, as well as the backs. This design, according to the designers, will be very unusual and functional. Under such a sofa, you can organize a storage system.
Although the interior suggests the rejection of large details, you can put a fireplace in the living room. It should not be a large stationary model, but its mini-model. Decorative models with white facades are perfect.
Beautiful examples
One wall of a small living room can be decorated more interestingly by picking up photo wallpaper or a cover with picturesque images. These can be landscapes, as well as images of a metropolis that fill you with energy.
To decorate the living room, you can use coatings in natural wood shades. They bring you closer to nature and fill the interior with harmony. This design is suitable for the Khrushchev hall, a small living room of a private house.
Black shades in the interior can be applied pointwise, mainly in decor items. These can be thin picture frames, wall clocks or floor lamps. Gloss black will fit into almost any interior of a small living room. You can purchase a coffee table with this design.
For information on the design features of the living room, see the next video.