Furnishing your home with pieces you love is already challenging, but it's even more so if you have an open concept home. Having an open floor plan means that your key rooms, like the living room, dining room, and kitchen (or even the bedroom), blend together, so how can you create a cohesive design?
It's easier than you think! With these essential steps, you'll have your dream home in no time!
1. Furniture Boundaries
The first step in outfitting your open concept home is creating boundaries with your furniture! These boundaries will help separate your home's distinct areas and make it more visually interesting. So, to do that, you'll need to do the following:
- Place furniture behind your sofa, like a console table.
- Move other furniture away from the walls.
- Create conversation areas with your furniture to create a cozy space.
- Break up long walls with bookcases or large items like an armoire or China cabinet!
2. Scale It!
One mistake that is easy to make with your open concept home is accidentally buying different-sized furniture. This is completely understandable — you want to fill up your home with furniture you love! But getting mixed-size furniture can make your space look cramped or messy.
So, to avoid that, measure carefully and keep the height consistent. For example, if you want a coffee table make sure the table height is equal to or lower than the sofa seat height. And if you have side tables, make sure they're equal to or lower than the arm height on your chairs or sofa.
Pro Tip: Don't overflow your space with too much furniture — look for what works in the area instead!
3. Repeat Colors
Another vital step to furnishing your open concept home is by repeating colors. Of course, this doesn't mean it needs to look like someone grabbed a crayon box and exploded it all over. Instead, choose one or two colors you'd like to repeat throughout each space and keep it consistent, but it doesn't need to be matchy-matchy — you can change up the material, too!
And if you don't want your furniture to have repeating colors, that's fine; you can pick a consistent color for key architectural details like your front door, kitchen island, and back wall.
4. Use Rugs for Zones
It's incredible what the smart use of a rug can do for your space, which is especially true for open concept homes! Not only will a rug ground the area, but it'll create a natural division between each "room." So, find a couple of distinctive rugs and place one where you'd like your dining table to be and the other in your living area — you'll immediately see the difference!
5. Repeating Patterns
As with colors, you'll also want to repeat patterns throughout your space. The right patterns and textures add more visual interest and personality to each zone, but with an open concept home, you have to consider how these patterns work in the space as a whole.
So, pick one or two similar patterns or textures for each space. They don't have to be identical, just similar enough to create a theme!
Bonus: Create a Focal Point in Each Area
A bonus step you can take to create the sense of individual rooms is creating a focal point for each area. This way, you'll have something that draws the eye to that space. And you can decide what the focal point should look like, whether it's a colorful gallery wall, a large painting, or an ornate mirror — the choice is yours.
And if you want to follow a theme, go for it!
Looking Good!
There you have it — the essential steps to furnishing an open concept home! As you can see, there are plenty of options to help you create your ideal home design — especially with your furniture! And would you look at that — Downs TV & Appliance has plenty of in-stock living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture to transform your home completely.
Have any questions? Don't hesitate to give us a call or stop by!