Contemporary Living Room Ideas and Designs

"The interior design throughout has this extravagant, inordinate interior design style with varied textures, colours and patterns that work together in harmony to create a luxury home that still has a level of comfort and homeliness."

Soho Square

Fully Interiors

Design ideas for a contemporary living room in London.

Bay Point

Phil Kean Design Group

Michael Lowry Photography
Inspiration for an expansive contemporary living room in Orlando with a ribbon fireplace, a stone fireplace surround and a wall mounted tv.

Find the right local pro for your project

Find top design and renovation professionals on Houzz

Portland Modern Tudor Living Room

risa boyer architecture

Lincoln Barbour
Medium sized contemporary enclosed living room in Portland with grey walls, medium hardwood flooring, a brick fireplace surround and a standard fireplace.

A Place to Relax

Adam Coupe Photography Limited

Adam Coupe Photography Limited
Medium sized contemporary enclosed living room in Berkshire with beige walls and medium hardwood flooring.

POOL HOME REMODEL IN PALM SPRINGS CALIFORNIA

STEVEN CHEROSKE DESIGN

Megan Keane Photography, Palm Springs California
Contemporary living room in Los Angeles with beige walls, medium hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace and no tv.

east 2nd avenue

mango design co

this old house in the garden park neighbourhood in east van was divided into 3 suites when my clients purcahsed it. with a growing family, they bought the fixer upper with the intention of taking over the upper suite and opening up the main floor. in the process, the whole house has been gutted & refurbished. there's a lovely & legal suite in the basement, a beauitiful open concept main floor plan and 3 bedrooms upstairs with a gorgeous vaulted ceiling in the mezannine. it's been a pleasure replanning this home and helping select finishes & furnishings. GC: pierre PHOTOS: after photos by eric saczuk www.spacehoggraphics.com

Cottonwood Heights Remodel

Shearer Designs

Design ideas for a medium sized contemporary open plan living room in Salt Lake City with white walls, laminate floors, a standard fireplace, a tiled fireplace surround, a wall mounted tv and beige floors.

гостиная

Anna Pavlovskaya Interiors

Photo of a medium sized contemporary living room in Moscow with white walls, medium hardwood flooring and brown floors.

The Teare Family Residence - La Calle

Art of Construction Inc

Photos Courtesy of Paul Dyer
Design ideas for a medium sized contemporary formal open plan living room in San Francisco with white walls, medium hardwood flooring, no fireplace and no tv.

Mews House refurbishment in London Fitzrovia

TG-Studio

In the first floor living room the oak floorboards continue up the end wall and finish at a lighting feature which adds to the illusion of height. Two of the windows were replaced by French doors. A window casing out of solid oak was fitted to emphasise the new thickness and solidity of the external walls. The TV unit is a TG-Studio bespoke design made for the client. Photographer: Philip Vile

Living Rooms

Mark Nichols Modern Interiors

Photography by Rick Seczechowski
Large contemporary formal open plan living room in Los Angeles with white walls, no tv and beige floors.

Sundown Pkwy Kitchen

Twelve Stones Designs, LLC

Christopher Davison, AIA
Design ideas for a medium sized contemporary formal open plan living room in Austin with white walls, light hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace, a plastered fireplace surround and a concealed tv.

Contemporary Living Room

Design ideas for a small contemporary living room in San Francisco.

Studio Marcelo Brito

photo: Gui Morelli
Design ideas for a contemporary living room feature wall in Other with beige walls.

Alpine Court

Karly Kristina Design

This fireplace was designed to be very contemporary with clean lines. The dark grey accent tile helps bring the focal point to the fireplace, highlighting this as the main feature. Builder: Hasler Homes

Dovecote Barn

David Butler Photography

David Butler
Inspiration for a contemporary living room in London.

Latest projects

SCH Interiors by Design LTD

A beautiful corner group upholstered in the most luxurious vintage aniline leather that is so soft and warm to the touch this comes with adjustable back head rests, available in many combinations as well as 2, 3, 4 seater sofas as this a modular unit any size can be achieved.

Norris Lake House

Sanders Pace Architecture

Denise Retallack
Photo of a contemporary living room in Other with concrete flooring and white walls.

Contemporary Living Room Ideas and Designs

Looking for contemporary living room ideas? Whether your living room is lacklustre, your lounge is limited in space, your sitting room is suffering from outdated decor or your front room is full of clutter, there are contemporary living room ideas and designs that will inspire you to breathe life into your living space. Discover small living room ideas to help maximise tiny spaces or contemporary layout ideas that will work with awkward shaped living rooms. Perhaps you’re struggling to decide on living room colours? Read on for help with colours, layout and design ideas, or find inspiration from the millions of living room photos on Houzz.

Contemporary Living room wallpaper ideas

A good place to start when it comes to redesigning your living room is with the walls. While paint may seem the simplest choice, and easy to change, don’t discredit the design opportunities of contemporary wallpaper in living rooms. There are tons of great living room wallpaper ideas, from modern geometric patterns to traditional florals, and loads of ways to use them – you don’t have to cover the whole room or go for the ubiquitous feature wall. You could wallpaper only above the dado rail (if you have one), either side of a chimney breast, or behind a shelving unit to give your displayed items a stylish backdrop. Discover more living room wallpaper ideas or if paint is more your style, there’s plenty of living room designs to discover when it comes to paint ideas; just browse through the huge selection of contemporary living photos and search for the specific paint you’re after if you really want to narrow it down.

Small living room ideas

When it comes to our living room design, we want it to feel as welcoming and personality-filled as possible, but that can be a struggle when we’re working with a small space. But not to fear, there are contemporary small living room ideas to help you make most out of what you’re working with. A couple of contemporary small living room ideas can include: working with the height you have – installing floor-to-ceiling bookshelves or drawing the eye to the top of the walls with wallpaper; choosing space-saving or storage-incorporating (or both!) furniture, such as corner sofas with storage space under the chaise longue section; and keeping things symmetrical – a central fireplace with seating opposite, or seats facing each other, can give the illusion of a larger, more grand room. When it comes to the best decor for contemporary small living rooms, you can either choose to keep things light and airy to open up the space, or embrace the cosiness of the smaller area you have by going for warm colours and filling the room with your favourite accessories.

Living room layouts and choosing the right contemporary living room furniture

When it comes to the layout of your contemporary living room, it will depend on what pieces of furniture you have – but how do you choose what living room furniture to add, whether you’re refreshing your living room design or starting from scratch? The best place to start is with the contemporary seating – one corner sofa will usually seat three to four people, and if that’s all you think you’ll need, then you can leave it at that. Placing your sofa along the longest wall helps to make the most of the space, but think about where you want the focus of the room to be, too. If you need more seating, look at contemporary armchairs that offer comfort but don’t take up too much space – cramming a room with too many large armchairs is something to avoid. But armchairs and sofas don’t have to be your only options – go for bean bags and floor cushions for an eclectic feel, pouffes and ottomans if you’re more traditional, and smart design chairs for contemporary living room ideas. Coffee tables are always handy, but you can always add a couple of contemporary side tables if you don’t want to clutter the central space in front of seating with anything. If you centre your living room design around a fireplace or TV, then you might want storage and shelving to feature around the focus of your room. There are plenty of style options when it comes to TV units, and you can even go for bespoke living room storage units to make the most of the space if you want a sleek, built-in look. Keep reading below for more living room storage ideas. Discover a huge range of contemporary living room furniture, as well as living room accessories, to help you finish your room design.

Living room design ideas

Struggling with what living room colours to choose, or what style to go with? While a grey living room design is popular at the moment, you might not want to go with the ubiquitous colour. Although, if neutral and contemporary are the living room ideas you’re after, a grey sofa or grey walls will give you a good base to work on. If you want to stay neutral, beige is not your only other option, either. Light yellows, taupes and soft greys will work. Why not try adding simple but plush cushions to your sofa and a rug in these colours to achieve a modern-traditional look? For contemporary living room ideas, dark blues and greens are on trend, but if you don’t want to dive straight into the dark wall trend, you could opt for a couple of pieces of furniture, or go for dark-hued living room accessories instead. Whites, woods and pastels could work well for Scandinavian living room designs. If an eclectic living room is what you’re after, you could go for large print wallpaper, a statement lighting piece, vibrant rug and lots of colourful book or ornament displays. For a country feel, rustic carpet, stone hearths, comfy armchairs and traditional patterns in creams, greens and browns will give you that cosy cottage feel.

Living room storage ideas

It’s natural that our living rooms tend to attract lots of items and belongings seeing as they act as multipurpose living spaces. Whether you love to read a book; watch a film; let your children play with their toys; practise a craft like knitting or drawing; play a musical instrument or play video games in your sitting room, there will always be a need for a few extra contemporary living room ideas that can help you with storage. Apart from the standard bookcases, side tables and TV units, there are a few other handy living room storage ideas you can invest in. As mentioned before, if you have the room and budget for it, a built-in storage unit could be the way forward. With a well-built unit you could hide your TV, DVDs, players, books, video consoles and all sorts away in one place. If you don’t quite have a large enough area for one, you could look at shelving – either side of the chimney breast is a great place to install shelving if you have one in your living room. And don’t forget contemporary living room furniture such as sofas, benches and ottomans that lift up to reveal hidden storage; providing seating and storing space at the same time. With the right storage solutions your contemporary living room design could open up and feel so much more spacious and stylish. Discover more living room storage ideas by browsing these photos. Once you have your contemporary living room storage, colours, design, layout and furniture sorted, all that’s left is to browse the millions of living room ideas on Houzz and save your favourites to an ideabook. If you’re still searching for specific living room ideas, check out the popular pages below:

Suncrest

Heliotrope Architects

Sean Airhart
Photo of a contemporary formal living room in Seattle with concrete flooring, grey walls, a standard fireplace and no tv.

United Kingdom

Tailor my experience with cookies

Houzz uses cookies and similar technologies to personalise my experience, serve me relevant content, and improve Houzz products and services. By clicking ‘Accept’ I agree to this, as further described in the Houzz Cookie Policy. I can reject non-essential cookies by clicking ‘Manage Preferences’.