A Guide to Home Decor – Part I: Living Room
The living room is without a doubt one of the most on-display areas of the house. Not only is it the place that makes a first impression to guests, it’s where gatherings happen and memories are made. Staging living room decor to be both functional and fashionable might feel like a challenge, but there are plenty of easy ways to ensure you have both, and we’ll show you how!
STYLE
To start, you’ll want to determine what type of home design style you gravitate towards. Our Design Quiz is a great way to get an idea of what you like. There are so many options; from cozy to modern, minimalistic to eclectic, or you might combine elements from various aesthetics to create your own, unique style.
Pinterest is another great resource to nail down a style and explore what it entails. Make a board of things you like. Once you gather enough, you’ll probably start to see a common theme emerging. Saving ideas also means you’ll be able to reference the board later to emulate what you’ve seen that you like.
As we’ve already mentioned, this doesn’t mean you’re locked into things looking one particular way. Design is a fun aspect of homeownership where you can express yourself and create the atmosphere you want. If this includes pulling from various styles or breaking design rules—go with that! Even though it can be overwhelming with the amount of ideas out there, finding a general idea will be helpful, and you can readjust later (if you want to!).
Starting with the framework of what type of home design style you’re going for will help as you add layers to the room like furniture, artwork, and little details, which we’ll cover next.
FURNITURE
We’ve loved highlighting the furniture from our model homes because we know what a difference furniture makes in any room. Living room decor is a fun blend of fashion and function; you most likely want to impress your guests with the look of the room, but also provide a comfortable space for said guests and your family. This is easier than you think!
Take our Parkside townhome model, for example. This model was staged with a warm, eclectic design style in mind. The velvet moss sofa was one of the first items added to the space—it adds interest and charm to the room and is an eye-catching, conversation-starting piece. The eclectic aesthetic was brought to life by mixing and matching other furniture styles and details with the sofa, rather than keeping everything in the same vintage style. Selecting a core piece (like the moss sofa) might be a good way to get started on decorating your living room, then you can work out from there. In our Parkside model, you’ll also notice that greenery and other decor around the room tie in with the beautiful moss color. This leads us to the finishing touches of the living room.
FINISHING TOUCHES
While the aspects we’ve talked about so far are important, the finishing details can be just as important, especially when it comes to tying a room together.
One great example of this is rugs. Rugs have been a transformative addition to many of our model home rooms. The rug in our Vincent model on the hardwood floor makes the space cozier, pulls the furniture together, and still allows the flooring to stand out and be shown off. Or consider the printed area rug used in our Graystone model, which offsets some of the masculinity in the room for a more balanced look.
Other finishing touches include lamps, accessories, pillows, blankets, greenery, and artwork. We touched on how to make these items look luxurious in our blog here. Much like accessorizing an outfit, sometimes less is more, and if you think you can substract one thing without it affecting the big picture, try that!
WHAT’S IN STORE
As part of this blog series on home decor, we’ll be covering more areas of the house, including the kitchen and dining areas, and the master bedroom. In the meantime, see what you can pull together for your living room with the tips we’ve listed, and if you still need inspiration, check out our Instagram to see how not only our designers but our buyers have staged their living rooms!