Your home’s living room is a central gathering point where friends and family come together to watch movies, play board games, or chat. The right living room furniture can help you make the most of this space, ensuring a practical setup that’s visually appealing.

5 Steps for Setting Up a Functional Yet Stylish Living Room

Modern living room arrangements have come a long way from the traditional couch-and-television setup. Today’s consumers have a larger variety of furniture to choose from, allowing for greater versatility and design creativity.

Follow these steps for creating a unique living room you will love to lounge in.

1. Consider Your Floor Plan First

Before you start buying furniture, examine your living room floor plan. You can use floor plan measurements to determine how much living room furniture you need and decide on the size. You don’t want to overstuff the room with enormous pieces.

It’s also important to consider traffic flow. You want to ensure people can pass through the room quickly without tripping over coffee tables or bumping into chairs. For instance, you want to leave a couple of feet of space between the coffee table and the couch.

A floor plan can also help determine appropriate dimensions for living room carpets and rugs. These floor coverings will protect your flooring materials and create a cozy atmosphere.

2. Select a Central Focal Point

Before you buy any furniture, it’s also smart to decide on the room’s focal point. Traditional focal points range from a flat-screen television to a fireplace with a mantel. You can think outside of the box, however. Other options include artwork, a chandelier, or a beautiful bay window.

Whatever you choose, this is meant to be the “main attraction” in the space. Once you’ve decided on the focal point, you can arrange the living room furniture you get around it.

If you want to take your living room makeover up a notch, you can even invest in some light home remodeling to create a gorgeous focal point, like a big bay window. When you renovate old homes and add these aesthetic touches, you also increase home value.

3. Choose Adaptable Multipurpose Living Room Furniture

If you have a small space, it’s essential to select adaptable living room furniture that can serve multiple purposes and maximize functionality.

For example, when choosing a coffee table, get something with drawers for added storage. If you have frequent houseguests, you may want to invest in a sleeper sofa, so you have an extra bed. Also, look for pieces that can double as seating. An ottoman can serve as a footrest or a chair, for instance.

You may be surprised to see how much extra square footage you can gain with such multipurpose items. If you’ve thought you’d like to remodel or sell your house due to space constraints, merely upgrading the furniture is sometimes all you need.

4. Think Outside the Box When It Comes to Colors and Fabrics

Many people opt for muted tones like beige, white, and tan for their living room furniture. However, you aren’t restricted to these colors, and adding some more vibrant hues can make the place look more stylish and unique.

If you’re worried about matching, use a color wheel. You may be surprised to find that specific colors you wouldn’t expect to complement one another do go together well — like dusty pink and grey.

Similarly, don’t restrict yourself when it comes to fabrics. From leather to vinyl, cotton, wool, and nylon, modern furniture comes in various fabrics. There’s no need to pick one fabric and stick to it. Pair sleek textures, like leather, with softer materials, like silk, to create a pleasant visual contrast.

5. Arrange Furniture to Create Conversation Areas

As you start browsing living room furniture, focus on creating spaces that bring people together. So-called “conversation areas” should be set up so that people can comfortably talk to one another without having to raise their voices.

For larger spaces, you may want to create multiple such social nooks. Make sure they are arranged in a way that won’t interfere with the television, if you have one.

For example, you might get an L-shaped sectional couch that allows people to cluster in one corner. On the other side of the coffee table, you could then set up a couple of loveseats to create a second intimate space.

Make Your Dream Living Room a Reality

Before you start buying living room furniture, you need the perfect space to put it in. Oberer Homes offers customized home building services, allowing you to choose from 23 floor plans. Once you’ve chosen a suitable plan from our offering, we work with you to personalize it precisely to your needs.

We serve the areas of Bellbrook, Centerville, and Dayton, Ohio.

Contact us to get started.