How to Decorate a Living Room - Home Décor - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Hi, my name is Hilary Unger from Perianth Interior Design in New York, and today I am here to talk with you about living rooms and how to plan your living room. I just want to give you a couple of tips on where to start. The first thing you should think about is what function you want to have in your living room. Do you want to have a play space for your children? Do you want to watch TV? Are you going to be entertaining a lot with guests, and so on. So, those are the things that you should consider. Also, if you want to have a workspace in your living room, and so on. So, once you know what functions you have, then you can think about what furniture you need and where to place it. Sometimes it is very obvious that you should place the sofa, which is typically the main piece of furniture in most living rooms. And do not feel bad that you are not doing something really, you know, crazy or outlandish. Sometimes it is just obvious, so you do not want to recreate the wheel. So, you put the sofa in the most obvious and comfortable place for you. Then you create the room around that. This is an example of a living room that has some traditional elements to it. There is a built-in bookcase. You need to think about, also, do you have a lot of books that you need to store and display? Do you have artwork? Do you have decorative elements that you need to put out? So, that would determine whether or not you need to have bookcases in the living room. In this living room there is a lot of pop color and it creates a very warm and inviting feeling to it. You have to determine if you like a lot of colors or you like muted natural colors. So, think about those things when you are designing. This is the other side of that living room. Here is a sofa that has two tones to it. The body is upholstered in one fabric, and the cushions are upholstered in another. It is not a standard type of configuration. You may be able to find it at your local furniture store or be able to specify it. If you work with a designer, you definitely could have that look if you like it, or you can even talk to your local furniture store about creating that. What that does is it just gives interest to a large piece in the room, just creates a little more dimension. It is just making it a little more custom to you, so when people walk into your home, it feels more custom and, “Oh. What did you do here? What did you do there?” Our living rooms are for living, and we spend a lot of time in them, and you really need to be comfortable in your space. It is amazing how our environment really affects us. So, consider what look you want. If you want it to be more dark and den-like, library-like, or if you want it to be very light and airy. Some people want to create more of a theme. This has kind of a Caribbean element to it. There is glass cloth on the walls, beautiful, rich velvet, chocolate velvet sofas, antique wooden coffee table. This creates a feeling. So, when you are thinking about planning your living room, look in magazines, look in books, and see what different pictures invoke different feelings for you. And, the ones that you like, you should study those pictures a little bit more and see what about it you like. And bring those elements into it, whether it is a pink color, whether it is a wood material, whether it is a fabric, or a style of a furniture. This is another living room. This is really a small space. So, depending on where you live, you can incorporate different concepts in your living room. An interesting feature in this room is that there are these little ghost chairs, which you can just buy on the internet. Lucite ghost chairs, you can search around. Since it is a small space, there is a lot of furniture in here, so putting another chair would have made it feel more cluttered. You can always use Lucite to make it disappear, so it is still there, but it gives it more space. So, that is a very effective tool. Also, again, in here, just when thinking about materials, this is a pop color, this orange color on the chair. So, if you took that away, it is still a beautiful space, but maybe it is a little boring and not as interesting as if you have a pop color. When you are looking at your fabrics, whether you are in the store, whether you are working with a decorator, think about having your base colors and then being able to have a pop color with it. It makes your space much more interesting. So, I hope those are very helpful tips for you.
