As anyone knows, creating a stylish living room takes work — and lots of it! But if you make a few mistakes, the whole process takes longer. If the living room is too jumbled, it’ll look messy and confusing, but if it’s too empty, it won’t look like it has personality.
Unfortunately, making living room arrangement mistakes like these are too easy — unless you follow our guide! By avoiding these mistakes early on, you’re that much closer to the home of your dreams!
1. Not Planning Ahead
A beginner’s mistake that many people make is not planning your living room arrangement ahead of time. Getting everything done the second you move in or finish remodeling can be tempting, but without a plan, you’ll be less likely to succeed on your first try.
Instead, take the time to refine what décor style you want, plan your furniture needs, measure, and consider your layout! By brainstorming what seating you need (like a sectional for lots of seating), you’ll be better prepared for future activities!
2. Out-of-Scale
Another common mistake people make when arranging their living room is when they have out-of-scale furniture pieces, like pairing a tiny table with huge seating. The best way to figure out furniture scale is by relating the furniture to the size of the room and each other — meaning you should scale the furniture size to the room measurements and the other pieces you want.
You should try placing the largest piece of furniture in the middle of the room and asking yourself: is it too big or too small? Make your adjustments from there, and you’ll have your pieces closer in scale to each other!
3. Clutter Clutter
Too much clutter can ruin the aesthetic of a room quickly! Even if there isn’t a ton of junk everywhere, sometimes too many accessories can make your space look busy and cluttered. Think of the golden rule: less is more (unless you aim for an eclectic design style!).
To avoid creating a jumbled mess with your accessories, try grouping them in strategic spots like in a bookcase or on a cocktail table — it’ll make a huge difference!
4. Less Furniture is More
Similar to accessories, having too many furniture pieces can overwhelm your living room space in a hurry — especially if the room is more compact! While you might be tempted to add all the interesting furniture you’ve picked up here and there, it’ll leave your space feeling chaotic and crowded.
You should choose a handful of quality pieces that relate to each other in style or size and leave plenty of open space between them for good traffic flow! And if you have a small living room, keep to low-profile furniture pieces!
5. Furniture Against the Wall
You might not think it, but keeping all your furniture against the wall is a big no-no. It might seem like you have more space, but it makes your living space impractical — too much space between your furniture!
Placing your furniture away from the wall by at least a few inches will create a sense of space and cozy intimacy. For example, If you bring your sofa closer to the fireplace or entertainment center and other chairs, you’ll have a comfortable conversation area everyone can relax!
6. No Secondary Lighting
When it comes to lighting, having just one source isn’t enough. Usually, generic recessed lighting is too harsh, making your living room feel cold and washed out. It can even negatively highlight your design and create a less-flattering environment!
So, it’s essential to look for secondary lighting like floor lamps and table lamps to add focus to your living room arrangement! Depending on your chosen fixtures, you can even create cozy reading nooks or productive zones!
7. Where’s the Focus?
Another arrangement mistake people don’t know they make is not creating a focal point! Without a focal point, your eyes will naturally wander and take away from the effect that you want your living space to have. So, it’s essential to highlight places where your eyes naturally go, like interesting architectural details, arches, or large windows.
It’s essential to arrange your furniture to face the focal point or cover up eyesores so only your design style remains!
Pro Tip: You can also fake a focal point with interesting furniture pieces, décor objects, accent walls, built-in shelving, large-scale art, or a large mirror!
8. No Traffic Flow
A beautifully designed living room isn’t enough; you also need good traffic flow! When you don’t consider the traffic flow, it’s too easy for people to stumble into each other or the furniture (ouch!). So, try to keep some of these considerations in mind when you think about how the furniture pieces should relate to one another:
- Where do people enter, exit, and navigate the space?
- Add more space around the seating to avoid awkwardness from going around the coffee table or side tables.
- Plan a clear path between each point so the pathways look natural!
9. Only Single-Purpose Furniture
The last furniture arranging mistake people make is selecting single-purpose furniture only — these will severely limit your storage space! And they won’t account for all your activities in the room, like crafts, exercise, game nights, etc.
So, look for multi-purpose furniture like tables with a lift top and drawers to hold games and other essentials, sectionals, sofas with sleeper mattresses in for sleepovers, and so on. And you can also look for furniture that can do double-time, like an ottoman as an extra coffee table or poufs as stools for game night!
Bye, Bye, Blunders!
There you have it — the most common living room furniture arranging mistakes people make! As you can see, some of these are too easy to fall into, but hopefully, you can plan better with this guide! So, if you’re ready to look for beautiful living room furniture in your home, Downs TV & Appliance has you covered!
We have a wide selection of styles to make your living room shine! And if you have any questions, call our team or stop by today — we’re always happy to help you create your dream home!