Our first home! But how on earth to decorate the living room?

9 years ago

Hi all, my boyfriend and I have finally got onto the property ladder! It's so exciting but also a little daunting... What if I make it look terrible!?

I would love to hear your thoughts on how we could decorate our living room, pictured here. Please ignore all the boxes and rubbish, still early days! I love grey tones paired with brights so I'm thinking of adding some colour pop cushions and maybe a shelf with framed artwork pulling out key colours.. We also have a big Broadway star lamp (you can see in the 2nd pic.. Pls ignore scary Eastenders character on TV!) which I'd like to place on the wall in the right hand corner of the room above the sofa.. Will it go ok?

Completely lost on curtains/ blinds conundrum.. Coloured? Plain? How does it work with the corner?..

On the wall where the TV is we need some pretty big bookshelves...

All suggestions welcome and very much appreciated!

Oh and ideally I'd like to avoid doing any painting for now.. As long as my living room has a cool, fun, light and airy feel (whilst still being a nice spot to cosy up) I'd be happy for now!

Featured Answer

crowley48

9 years ago

Sure you can do a rod. Check out The Ikea website. They have rods that can go around a corner (tho I don't know the dimensions of the rid you need). I'm sure many other websites and stores carry them too.

What color is your woodwork and windowsills? I can't tell from the pic. I have a new home with a long window on each side of my sliding glass door and tho windows are bronze, my woodwork and windowsills are white so we opted for white textured faux wood blinds on the two windows and nothing on the sliding glass door. We'll put up decorative drapes and will be able to pull those shut if we need to ( we aren't concerned about privacy).

One thing I've learned during this process of building a home is NEVER let anyone tell you something is impossible. :).

I heard Verticals are "out" and even the guy from the blind company told me he rarely has an order for them anymore. There are a lot of other options, too. But, who cares whether something is "in" or "out". Please yourself first and foremost. :).

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

lcgrcondo
9 years ago
Great house. Love the windows and all the light. Depending on privacy issues I would not put up blinds. Instead I would put some curtains to frame the windows....and ones that can slide across a rod easily if you do need to close them. You can get rods that are bent to use on a corner window like yours. A black metal rod would be nice.....make sure it is large enough in diameter. Also Make sure the rod is long enough so that the curtains pull back completely off the window so it looks like the window is even larger.
Also, do not push everything up against the wall. I realize this is your moving in photo, so you probably know this already but sometimes people push all of their furniture up tight against the wall....do not do this...let it float away from the wall a bit ...a few inches at least. A rug will tie things together. I am a huge fan of hide rugs.....cow hide comes in many different colours and is pretty funky looking as well as being a bit cleaner as it does not trap a lot of dust as it is very low pile. I have one, and can actually sweep it clean with a broom when I sweep the rest of the house:) I think it would look very contemporary with your broadway light.
lcgrcondo
9 years ago
On top of the rug, you could put some sort of ottoman that can be used to put your feet up, or as a coffee table, or as extra seating when you have guests.
J W thanked lcgrcondo
Related Discussions
Need help decorating and arranging our living room!
Q
Comments (5)
Hi. How about this attempt for layout assuming the fire is boarded up? The sofa would be about 8ft from the tv. (There is leg room between the sofas and I drew the coffee table too far away but ignore that!), Tv can go on the wall or on a cabinet or on the wall with a console underneath and art and decorative pieces around it. Personally I wouldn't put the desk by the bay as you'd be blocking light with a screen. Would it work where the table currently is with a desk lamp?If you need storage, I'd put bits away in a cabinet or get a desk with drawers. Cafe shutters would be good or if on a budget wooden blinds can look good or voile blinds. In terms of style, what do you like? Maybe scandi or soft industriał with white boards or a mix of the two or??
...See More
How would you decorate this living room?
Q
Comments (21)
Hi everyone! He's been living there over 20 years now and completely revamped the room when he first moved in (adding in the fireplace, dado rail, adding the fan design to the ceiling!). It all looked very fresh when it was first done but 20 years is a long time. The ceiling is just standard, the holes you can see are from where he's having spotlights put in. I've searched Egyptian Cotton and agree that this is a lovely warm neutral, thank you for the recommendation I will definitely let him know to check it out. I love the idea of viewing the outside window as a feature wall and incorporating these natural elements into the room, my dads house backs on to woodlands and is surrounded by trees so it's all very green out there.
...See More
Decorating our living room
Q
Comments (5)
I personally would have thought that if you have limited natural light coming in, then to maximize it indoors you would first need natural daylight white bulbs in the lighting that's on during the daytime. ( Ceiling lights and spots ). You can have warmer lighting at night by the use of lamps etc with warm white bulbs for a cosier feel. Keeping surface light and airy would involve the lighter cooler colours such as cool whites, cool greys, pale blues or yellows. Once you start going down the warmer natural tones, the light will start getting zapped out. Add some soft furnishings as contrast colours, mustard and white work particularly well with grey. Put down a rug. ( have a tidy round and de-clutter ), I think the soft furnishings are lacking and it just needs an inject of colour and life. Once you turn off the Chandelier lights in the illustration above and put on the angled Standard lamp, or lamps on side table for instance, using the warm white bulbs, the yellows will become warmer and cosier looking.
...See More
No idea on how to furnish our living room! Help on layout needed :)
Q
Comments (10)
In some ways it’s good to have such a large TV. Let’s face it you are sitting a very long way from it in your lovely big room! You are wondering how to make the door end of the room look used. I think we are talking trade offs with the design here, in terms of cost and layout. If you can spend a bit of money it might be worth investigating how to design a new fireplace that incorporates the TV. Sounds horrendous I know, but because you have a large tv it might work, though you’d have to be VERY careful about balance in the positioning and get specialist advice on insulating the tv from the heat from the fire. You also need to consider how much time you spend watching tv and if the upwards angle of view might give you a stiff neck from where you place the sofa...BUT... this would enable you to bring Carolina’s room layout back towards the door, making the room look more occupied, you could then also use celery girls idea to put a sort of separate more intimate seating area in the bay window - two statement chairs and a little table, maybe flanked by a pair of enormous table lamps in front of the curtains to fill the corners and highlight the curtains at night.
...See More
J W
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks so much lcgrcondo, really appreciate your advice. We had a guy from a well known curtain and blinds provider come to the flat today and he said that we wouldn't be able to have a pole for the curtains (tbh i didn't fully understand why?) but instead recommended curtains on a bendy track? Our one concern with curtains is that we'll make the area feel heavy and material dense, and get rid of that lovely light.. There's not enough space between the recess and the windows/ doors when open, so we need to hang curtains/ blinds on the wall above. What are your thoughts on vertical blinds that could also be pushed to one side, from a stylistic point of view? (From a practical point of view they kind of work for us.. a bit of privacy, wouldn't lose too much of the wall space, wouldn't drown out the light..)..

Also yes totally agree with your comments re. rug and coffee table, will add them to the ever-growing shopping list! ;)
J W
Original Author
9 years ago
Hmm you're right, sounds like the guy who came over wasn't quite as all knowing as he inferred! The blinds.. I know.. I don't really like vertical blinds as a concept (remind me of 80s offices!). What I might end up doing is getting the curtains for the bedroom first and leaving the living room for a bit whilst I have a proper think.

The woodwork is white and the windowsills are black. Your blinds sound cool, I would love to see a pic if you have the chance to share.
makaloco
9 years ago
You can definitely have poles that go around the corner. Mine are the wood kind with rings, and all it took to piece them together was a hinged corner connector from Lowe's. Sorry, no pics because the whole setup is down for painting.
J W thanked makaloco
groveraxle
9 years ago
Vertical blinds are out, as they should be because, frankly, they're ugly. I think curtains will look too fussy with your very spare, modern windows. Besides, you'd pretty much need them custom made if you plan to use them for privacy. The skimpy panels you buy ready-made look horrible when closed, sort of like you covered the windows with sheets. I think your answer is shades: silhouettes, roman, bamboo or woven wood, top-down/bottom-up, whatever suits your fancy and your budget.

I assume when you say you want the TV "in the right hand corner above the sofa," that you mean you will move the sofa to make room for it? I wouldn't put it in the corner, though. I'd flip the sofa 180 degrees to take advantage of the view and put the TV and console flat against the wall centered on the long leg of the sofa. And I wouldn't put it much higher. The height it is now is good for viewing.
groveraxle
9 years ago
Bali Natural Shades · More Info

Hunter Douglas Provenance® Woven Wood Shades · More Info
crowley48
9 years ago
Cool pix, groveraxel!
Jessica, I'll post pics when they're installed next week. :). I know I'll love them because I used the same company in my old house ten years ago and the same textured faux wood white blinds. They still look like new!
One hint...the rep told me that the textured faux wood gathers less dust than the flat faux wood. I don't know whether they do or not because my old blinds were textured (look like wood painted white versus just a flat blind). I got the same because I've been so happy with the old blinds.

Our first home! But how on earth to decorate the living room?

crowley48

Comments (9)

lcgrcondo

lcgrcondo

Related Discussions

J W
Original Author

J W
Original Author

makaloco

groveraxle

groveraxle

crowley48

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Our first home! But how on earth to decorate the living room?

crowley48

Comments (9)

lcgrcondo

lcgrcondo

Related Discussions

J WOriginal Author

J WOriginal Author

makaloco

groveraxle

groveraxle

crowley48

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

J W
Original Author

J W
Original Author