COMMON LIVING ROOM DESIGN MISTAKES + HOW TO FIX THEM

Hey everyone .

Welcome back to my channel .

My name is Kristen and today I'm gonna be sharing with you some common living room design mistakes that you might be making in your home and how you can fix them .

I think if you can nail your living room design , it will drastically improve the look of your entire home , living rooms and family rooms are usually the most complex when it comes to decorating , styling and furniture choices .

So there's a lot going on in those spaces and there's a lot of mistakes that can happen .

So I hope this video gives you some ideas on ways that you can improve of your space .

If you enjoy watching and find this video helpful , make sure give it a big thumbs up and hit that like button and let's go ahead and jump right into it .

One thing that tends to make a living room look awkward right off the bat is when a living room rug is turned the wrong way .

I think your rug should flow in the direction that your space goes .

So if you have a long lengthy living room , your rug should be laid out in that direction as well .

If you turn it the other way , you might shrink the size of your space and you might end up with a lot of extra awkward space on the side .

Your living room rug should really fill out the majority of your space and anchor all of your main furniture pieces like your sofa , your side chairs , your coffee table and your side table .

So by working with the shape of your room and flowing that rug in the same direction , it's going to be able to pull all those furniture pieces together and make your space look complete .

You might even find that you need to size up in your rugs to be able to fill out that space .

And that would definitely make a huge difference as well .

If your space is looking a little bit awkward , this could be the reason and why another very common design mistake .

That kind of goes along the same lines is when your furniture is placed too far apart .

This tends to happen when people have larger living rooms and start dispersing furniture in every corner and everything gets very spread apart .

Living rooms should be cozy and allow for conversation and activity around essential space .

So that could be your coffee table , your fireplace , a TV , any kind of central focal point .

If your furniture is going off in different directions and a little bit too separated , it's going to make your space feel a little bit awkward .

So make sure that all of your main furniture pieces are brought together by your rug and at least the front two legs are on that rug .

So it really brings everything in and allows for a cozy living room space .

You might actually find that you have extra space in your large living room by doing this and that will allow you to create other zones .

You could have a little reading nook , a conversation area and your living space .

So you can really break up your space to make it work .

You don't to spread the entire layout out across the space .

Now , if you have a living room layout that you can walk all the way around and you can see the back of your sofas , the back of your side chairs and it's a very open space .

Make sure that you don't forget to decorate the back and the sides of your furniture pieces just decorating from one angle is a design mistake .

I think you should decorate your space as a whole .

So that every way you see it , it looks incredible and complete the back of your sofa can be styled in so many ways you can use throw blankets , console tables , benches , baskets , anything that's really going to finish off that piece .

You can also do this with your side chairs .

You can throw over a throw blanket just to add some texture and pattern and it will help bring together your space as a whole .

So don't forget about the back and the sides of your furniture pieces .

If you can see them walking through a doorway or entering that space , make sure that you complete them with some extra decor .

Now , I think it's a bit of a design mistake to have a lack of storage in your living room .

I think if you want a really beautiful looking space that feels comfortable and it's usable .

You need storage and I prefer closed storage always because it's gonna make your space look cleaner , more put together and less cluttered .

So you can hide things away behind doors , drawers , baskets , anything that really puts it all away .

So make sure that you have some form of storage in your living room .

If you don't currently have it , you can come up with creative ways like having Ottomans that open up that have storage inside .

You can even invest in sofas that have storage underneath or coffee tables that allow for storage as well .

Having those main furniture pieces also double as storage will absolutely help make your space look better because everything will always be tidy .

So consider small pieces that you can add to your space or consider investing in big furniture items that also allow for storage .

Now , something that every living room has is a coffee table , your coffee table is that central that ties together the room .

It really allows for entertaining and styling and functionality but if your coffee table is way too small for your space , it's going to throw off your entire design .

But large coffee tables are very expensive .

So I've always mentioned that if your coffee table is too small and looking a little odd compared to your sofa size or the rest of your room , you can double up on your coffee table to make it look larger , so you can get two affordable coffee tables , put them together and it's going to act as one large table .

If you have a small round coffee table , and it's looking a little odd in your space .

Add to the round coffee table with some side tables , they can be different heights , they could be all the same height , but by grouping them together , you're going to make your space look larger .

It's gonna add more functionality and really fit with the size of your existing furniture and the size of your room .

Now , a living room furniture layout that I think you should try and avoid is cornering two sofas , even if they're a full size sofa and a love seat , having two identical sofas just cornered up against each other and maybe having a side table between just is an awkward use of space .

And I think you can do more by either opting for a sectional in that case or flipping the layout completely and actually styling two sofas facing each other .

I find that cornering two sofas doesn't allow for the best conversation as well .

Since each sofa is faced in a different direction , I think if you're to create that kind of layout , you might as well do a sectional so that you have that extra seating and it really looks a lot more complete .

This is a little bit different if you're going for two different style sofas and it's a design decision to choose two different sofas , cornering them and also having side chairs and coffee tables and really creating a complete layout .

I just find that having two matching sofas pushed together looks a little odd and I think it would be a better choice if you have the space for it , try and flip them so that they're facing each other .

I think you're going to feel like your space is so much more cozy .

You're going to allow for more conversation , you'll have easier access to your coffee table and it will really help anchor and style your space .

I think it's always a design mistake to just rely on your overhead lighting .

If you are just relying on your overhead lighting , you're not going to be able to create a cozy , warm , comfortable space .

I've been in airbnbs before that don't include any lamps or any kind of low lighting and it's either stark or it's dark and that's not the most comfortable way to live .

So I highly recommend adding in lamps and warm lighting around your home .

So that you can adjust the feeling of your home and create an atmosphere that's really going to feel cozy .

I touched on this in my last video on how to create a cozy home lighting is such an important part .

Wherever you can in every single room , add lamp , lighting , dimmable lamps that are going to create a warm fighting space lighting can also be added to your space to make it more functional and create those zones .

So if you want to create a little reading chair or reading nook , make sure that you include a task light .

So it makes a very distinct space .

You can have soft lighting in your conversation area .

Having those distinct lighting choices is really going to make creating those zones so much easier .

And lastly , always remember to balance out your space when it comes to height and scale and weight of furniture , don't put all of your heavy large pieces on one side and barely anything on the other because your room will feel very slanted and it won't feel as comfortable as it would .

If you had everything balanced out .

If you have some large furniture pieces or a big large media unit on one side , make sure that you add some tall lamps , maybe some plants , anything with height on the other side of the room so that you can really balance it out .

So if you're finding that your space feels a little bit awkward , it might be that small reason just adding to it a little bit more with larger scale decor pieces , some taller pieces , it will help balance out your space .

A ton balance is one of the most important things when it comes to interior design .

So remember it in all areas of design , it's not always about the size and scale , it's also about color and light and pattern , make sure that you don't do too much on one side and not on the other .

It's all about really dispersing it throughout the room so that it looks complete balanced and just feels really comfortable .

All right .

So that's it for today's video .

I hope you guys enjoyed watching and I hope this gave you some ideas on ways that you can better your living space .

Let me know down below in the comments .

Which one of these design ideas do you think you need to start implementing into your living room next ?

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Love you guys so much happy holidays and I'll see you in my next one .

Bye .