Your living room is the place where you’ll entertain your guests, relax after a long day at work, talk with your friends and watch television. Naturally, this space in your home needs to make you feel at home. To achieve this, you should follow the 10 tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room. You don’t want there to be too little room for walking around, or to have too few seating areas, so let’s cover some basics of choosing the perfect furniture.
1. Decide on a focal point and put furniture around it
A focal point could be a window, a fireplace, or even a TV. Regardless of what you decide to be the focal point of your living room, you need to arrange your furniture around it. The focal point of the room will be what people will be looking at when they sit on your furniture, so make sure to choose a window if you have a beautiful view, but don’t forget that you will probably often watch TV in this room.
2. Create conversation areas
When your guests come over they shouldn’t have any difficulties with talking to each other. This means that they shouldn’t have to shout or strain their necks to have a conversation with someone. If your living is pretty large, you should create a few conversation areas and make them different from each other. This way, people will be able to separate into groups instead of getting crowded in one space.
3. Keep in mind the traffic flow
One of the most important tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room is to keep in mind that people will want to walk from one side of your living room to another. Naturally, this should be easy for them, and there should be plenty of room for them to walk around. If you don’t follow this tip your room is going to look cluttered and messy, so always leave space for walking around, even if your living room is quite small and you have to sacrifice some pieces of furniture.
4. Place the furniture away from walls
A lot of people make the mistake of placing all their furniture so near to the walls that it’s touching them. Place the furniture away from your living room walls and put the pieces close together. This is one of the best tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room because it will create an intimate setting, and you should also show off the backs of the furniture, not just the front.
5. Take measurements of the room
You might think that this is one of the tips for choosing the right furniture that you could have thought of yourself, but a lot of people neglect taking measurements, and it creates huge problems. You could even create a floor plan so that you could visualize your new living room. Think about where your guests will walk, which spots in your room need easy access, as well as where the windows and doors are. Choose a nice coffee table that you can sit around and make the TV your focal point if you don’t have an interesting existing feature like a fireplace or a great view.
6. Measure the furniture
Again, there are tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room that you just can’t ignore. You have to consider the scale of the living room and think about the dimensions of the furniture. A large sectional isn’t perfect for a smaller space, and you don’t want a big room to look empty either. Think about how the furniture is going to go into your room as well, because you don’t want to buy something that would require you to tear down the wall just to bring it in.
7. Create enough seating areas
The way you’re going to use this space will determine how you’ll arrange the seating. For instance, you can use a sectional for group gatherings with a pair of armchairs a little further away for intimate conversations. Armchairs are a great solution because you can always move them closer to the sectional when you’re having a party.
8. Take durability into consideration
You don’t want to go back to these tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room only a year after purchasing furniture pieces. The durability of your furniture is important, especially if you have a family and pets, so choose durable fabrics that will last for years to come. Find stain-resistant materials such as leather and take cleaning into consideration before purchasing furniture.
9. Comfort comes first
Don’t choose furniture that looks great but feels awful when you use it. Comfort should always come first, so choose furniture that you’ll like using, not just looking at. This is one of the tips for choosing the right furniture for your living room that you must keep in mind when you see a beautiful, modern, but very uncomfy couch in the store.
10. Find your style
Your living room should be an expression of your style and your personality, so choose the pieces of furniture that make you feel happy. Would you prefer a luxe look or a rustic look? It’s all up to you, just pick the pieces that speak to you and fit in your style.
Learn more about choosing furniture and home appliances because this is a big and important investment!