Steps to Achieve a Light and Spacious Living Room

The great majority of people dream of being able to enjoy a light and spacious living room, such as those seen in idyllic retreats on the covers of glossy interior design magazines.

Fortunately, you can go further than just dreaming, and bring to life what you really desire with the help of some tricks. To achieve your ideal living room, optical illusions can be your greatest allies.

With a little intuition, you can create the impression of a much bigger living room, with high ceilings, and what appear to be big picture windows where natural light filters in. To help you, we’ve got some tips and tricks on how to do this, step by step.

1. Lighter colors for a spacious living room

To make the rooms of your house seem light and airy, especially the living room, you will need to resort to using a color palette of light and clear tones, preferably warm ones. One example of a color palette you could use is a combination of ivory, vanilla, and beige.

Does the use of clear warmer colors exclude vibrant and darker colors? No, and neither does it exclude the use of cooler tones. In reality, the end result you should aim to achieve is to make the most of the clarity that natural and artificial light can give using warm colors.

Try to avoid using just one light color as much as you can, for example, white. If not, the walls, as well as the furnishings and other accessories, will just give a cold and flat effect, like a block.

One additional recommendation when choosing colors is to try playing around with matte and gloss paint. Using both will help you to generate a more interesting visual effect.

If you put matte paint on the main part of the background and use gloss on closer items, you will make the background fade out, and maximize the sensation of depth in the room.

2. Go for horizontal lines

Another way to achieve a balanced and efficient use of the characteristics of the living space is to include or even create the greatest quantity of horizontal lines possible.

Horizontal lines help to promote the idea that the living space is much taller than it really is. How can you apply this trick? You could hang a long horizontal shelf. This type of furnishing appears to take up less space and allows the eye to travel through the room without being broken up by obstacles.

When the eye travels horizontally in a room, it can give you the impression of being much more spacious than it actually is. Making the eye travel up and down should be avoided.

Using furniture with a horizontal layout and little height also helps to direct the eye toward the outside. This way, greater importance is placed on what is outside the home. At the same time, you gain points for using illumination and space. This is one of the fundamental points in the decor of living rooms.

3. Multiple points of light

Avoid creating shadowy corners, since these definitely reduce the impression of space. For this, try to include extra light sources. Don’t exclusively delegate the whole task of lighting the room to the ceiling lights.

Incorporate floor lamps in places that are normally a little darker. That way you can maintain the sense of a light and airy and of course spacious living room. Additionally, lamps will help you to divide different sections of the room and help to create a decorative outline that’s much more visually dynamic.

It’s fitting to point out that it’s not necessary to resort to super powerful light bulbs to achieve a spacious living room. In fact, diffused light bulbs will be your best allies. They avoid making the living room seem over illuminated and shallow.

4. Take note of the details

To make your living room seem more spacious and brighter, you should think about the accessories that you want to include. It’s worth making the most of materials that reflect light easily and that give a visual richness. Some of these could be objects made of crystal and various metals. Here are some options:

• Glass demijohns
• Mirrors (with or without a frame)
• Jars, plates, sculptures or other objects made from copper, silver, bronze, zinc, etc
• Light textiles such as linen and cotton

Remember

Creating spacious interior decor doesn’t mean you need perfect rooms to achieve ‘magazine’ results. On the contrary, it means creatively and ingeniously working with what you have, in the best way possible, to produce a lively and stylish home.

Remember that the steps mentioned above are just a guide. You don’t need to completely apply each suggestion in every case.

What if in your case it’s not possible to change vertically oriented furniture (such as bookcases) for horizontal furniture? If you apply the above tricks, the result will still be appealing and comfortable.

You should also make sure you pay attention to the distribution of lighting and lamps, and accessories to maintain the sense of a light and spacious living room.