skip to main content
PHOTOS
FIND PROFESSIONALS
View All Pros
View All Services
PRODUCTS
STORIES
LATEST FROM HOUZZ
HOUZZ RESEARCH
ADVICE
HOUZZ DISCUSSIONS
Houzz Logo Print
  1. Living
  2. Living Room
  3. Speciality: Formal

Formal Living Room Ideas and Designs

All Filters (1)
Refine by:
1 - 20 of 149,829 photos
Speciality: FormalClear All
Item 1 of 3
Living Room
Living Room
OMBRÉ : Interior DesignOMBRÉ : Interior Design
Design ideas for a contemporary formal living room in Wiltshire with white walls, light hardwood flooring, no fireplace, no tv and beige floors.
South Woodford Apartments
South Woodford Apartments
James Everett PhotographyJames Everett Photography
This is an example of a classic formal enclosed living room in London with white walls, light hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace, a wooden fireplace surround, no tv, beige floors and panelled walls.
Private Client- Surrey
Private Client- Surrey
The L&C CompanyThe L&C Company
Inspiration for a contemporary formal and grey and pink living room in Surrey with beige walls and wallpapered walls.
Living room/dining space
Living room/dining space
Studio LUPOStudio LUPO
Dramatic living room and dining space with sourced furniture, antiques and artwork to curate the space.
Inspiration for a medium sized bohemian formal enclosed living room in Sussex with grey walls, light hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace, a metal fireplace surround, a built-in media unit and beige floors.
Cambalt Road
Cambalt Road
Tom St. Aubyn Photography LtdTom St. Aubyn Photography Ltd
Classic formal living room in London with beige walls, dark hardwood flooring, no fireplace and no tv.
George Living Room
George Living Room
NeptuneNeptune
Photo of a traditional formal open plan living room in Belfast with white walls, dark hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace, no tv and brown floors.
Living Room
Living Room
Teresa Sapey + PartnersTeresa Sapey + Partners
Contemporary formal enclosed living room in London with white walls, medium hardwood flooring, a standard fireplace and brown floors.
Hampstead House in London for MKV Design
Hampstead House in London for MKV Design
John Athimaritis PhotographyJohn Athimaritis Photography
This is an example of a contemporary formal living room in London with beige walls.
Super Luxe Family Home, North London
Super Luxe Family Home, North London
Ensoul LtdEnsoul Ltd
Dramatic formal sitting room in rich and bold tones. Featuring built in wine and bar storage with various features.
Medium sized contemporary formal enclosed living room in London with black walls, a standard fireplace, black floors, dark hardwood flooring and no tv.
Sandbanks, Dorset - family room 2
Sandbanks, Dorset - family room 2
My FurnitureMy Furniture
This is an example of a large contemporary formal open plan living room in Other with light hardwood flooring and beige floors.
Living Room
Living Room
Knights of BeaconsfieldKnights of Beaconsfield
A stunning living space. The sofas our handmade in our own workshop and all furniture and accessories were sourced by our interior designers and available through our showroom.
Putney
Putney
Optic InteriorsOptic Interiors
Large traditional formal open plan living room in Other with grey walls, grey floors and a coffered ceiling.
Formal Living Room
Formal Living Room
Burbeck Interiors ltdBurbeck Interiors ltd
Design ideas for a medium sized classic formal living room in London with grey walls and beige floors.
Period Property, Edgbaston
Period Property, Edgbaston
Bayswater InteriorsBayswater Interiors
A comfortable Drawing room including custom sofas in a smart herringbone Thibaut stain resistant fabric arranged around a glass coffee table from Tom Faulkner. The Mirror over the fireplace conceals a TV, meaning that the space is ideal for both family time and entertaining.
Wimbledon Home
Wimbledon Home
Joy Flanagan DesignJoy Flanagan Design
A striking, spacious and harmonious living room with vivid works of art and a sophisticated interior. Antique, vintage and contemporary possessions were intermingled to create this interior. This room was made for both family life and entertaining.
Cobham Residence
Cobham Residence
Origins DesignOrigins Design
Bespoke velvet sofa with wooden frame. Bespoke curved armchairs with leather strap detail. Bespoke brass sde tables with antique mirror. Bespoke coffee table with glass and antique mirror. All designed and made by Origins Design
Living Room
Living Room
Oliver Grahame PhotographyOliver Grahame Photography
This is an example of a large nautical formal enclosed living room in Gloucestershire with grey walls and a wood burning stove.
Woodland Gardens
Woodland Gardens
ZAC and ZAC - PhotographyZAC and ZAC - Photography
©ZAC and ZAC
Large classic formal enclosed living room in London with pink walls, a standard fireplace and a metal fireplace surround.
17th century Townhouse
17th century Townhouse
Garry Meakins StudioGarry Meakins Studio
Inspiration for a classic formal living room in Wiltshire with beige walls, a corner fireplace, no tv and a dado rail.
Manor Place Apartment
Manor Place Apartment
Studio MortonStudio Morton
This is an example of a contemporary formal and grey and purple living room in London with medium hardwood flooring, no fireplace and wallpapered walls.

Formal Living Room Ideas and Designs

Looking for 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 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 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.

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 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 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 small living room ideas to help you make most out of what you’re working with. A couple of 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 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 living room furniture

When it comes to the layout of your 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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:
1
123456789Next Page
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’.