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  2. Living Room
  3. Colour: Wood Tones

Midcentury Living Room Ideas and Designs

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Carmel Mid-Century LEED
Carmel Mid-Century LEED
Studio SchicketanzStudio Schicketanz
Robert Canfield Photography
This is an example of a retro open plan living room feature wall in San Francisco.
Island Country Cottage
Island Country Cottage
Tom Kuniholm Architects, AIATom Kuniholm Architects, AIA
Medium sized retro open plan living room in Seattle with beige walls, medium hardwood flooring, no fireplace and a freestanding tv.
Mid-Century Remodel & Interior Design
Mid-Century Remodel & Interior Design
Ann McCulloch Shop & StudioAnn McCulloch Shop & Studio
Photo by David Hiser
Design ideas for a retro living room in Portland with a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace surround.
Axiom Desert House
Axiom Desert House
Resource FurnitureResource Furniture
Resource Furniture worked with Turkel Design to furnish Axiom Desert House, a custom-designed, luxury prefab home nestled in sunny Palm Springs. Resource Furniture provided the Square Line Sofa with pull-out end tables; the Raia walnut dining table and Orca dining chairs; the Flex Outdoor modular sofa on the lanai; as well as the Tango Sectional, Swing, and Kali Duo wall beds. These transforming, multi-purpose and small-footprint furniture pieces allow the 1,200-square-foot home to feel and function like one twice the size, without compromising comfort or high-end style. Axiom Desert House made its debut in February 2019 as a Modernism Week Featured Home and gained national attention for its groundbreaking innovations in high-end prefab construction and flexible, sustainable design.
Modern Frontier- Texas Ranch House
Modern Frontier- Texas Ranch House
Mary Anne Smiley InteriorsMary Anne Smiley Interiors
Danny Piassick
Expansive midcentury open plan living room in Austin with beige walls, porcelain flooring, a two-sided fireplace, a stone fireplace surround and a wall mounted tv.
Seattle Lakeridhe MCM Staging
Seattle Lakeridhe MCM Staging
von Rocko Homevon Rocko Home
This is an example of a midcentury living room in Seattle.
Oyster Bay Cove
Oyster Bay Cove
Little Boxes Studio ArchitectLittle Boxes Studio Architect
Keeping the original fireplace and darkening the floors created the perfect complement to the white walls.
Design ideas for a medium sized retro open plan living room in New York with a music area, dark hardwood flooring, a two-sided fireplace, a stone fireplace surround, black floors and a wood ceiling.
Highland Park Mid Century Remodel
Highland Park Mid Century Remodel
Jennifer Garner InteriorsJennifer Garner Interiors
Photography: Michael Hunter
Medium sized retro living room in Austin with white walls, medium hardwood flooring, a wall mounted tv and a standard fireplace.
Dallas, TX: Brian and Katherine
Dallas, TX: Brian and Katherine
Sarah GreenmanSarah Greenman
Photo: Sarah Greenman © 2013 Houzz
Inspiration for a retro grey and cream living room in Dallas with a brick fireplace surround, a corner fireplace and grey walls.
Roseview, Mt Washington
Roseview, Mt Washington
PlatformPlatform
This is an example of a retro living room in Los Angeles.
Classic and Cool
Classic and Cool
exactly.exactly.
Medium sized retro formal living room in Detroit with white walls and no tv.
K152
K152
Lena ZufarovaLena Zufarova
Inspiration for a retro living room.
Cuttyhunk
Cuttyhunk
Cataldo Custom Builders, Inc.Cataldo Custom Builders, Inc.
John Dvorsack
Inspiration for a small retro formal open plan living room in Other with brown walls, medium hardwood flooring, no fireplace, no tv and brown floors.
Galena Usonian
Galena Usonian
Genesis Architecture, LLC.Genesis Architecture, LLC.
Stained and sealed (Cherokee Red) concrete floor- concconcretefloors with s
Photo of a midcentury enclosed living room in Chicago with a reading nook and brown walls.
Dracula mini-series on NBC Friday nights
Dracula mini-series on NBC Friday nights
Griffin and Wong LtdGriffin and Wong Ltd
NBC Jonathan Hession , David Lukacs
Retro living room in London.
Architectural photography portfolio
Architectural photography portfolio
Jeff Green PhotographyJeff Green Photography
Jeff Green
Inspiration for an expansive retro living room in Hawaii.
Highland's Eichler Home Tour May 2017
Highland's Eichler Home Tour May 2017
DRACODRACO
Amy Vogel
This is an example of a medium sized retro open plan living room in San Francisco with brown walls, carpet, no tv and grey floors.
Townhouse
Townhouse
Sherry Garrett DesignSherry Garrett Design
Photo: Sherry Garrett Midcentury Modern leather lounge chair & table with a python ottoman from the Sherry Garrett Collection atop an antique Persian kelim rug. www.sherrygarrett.com
Berkeley Hills Remodel
Berkeley Hills Remodel
Hopkins Studio, architecture + designHopkins Studio, architecture + design
This is an example of a retro living room in San Francisco with a stone fireplace surround.
Custom Living Room Furniture
Custom Living Room Furniture
Urban LeatherUrban Leather
Design ideas for a retro living room in Houston.

Midcentury Living Room Ideas and Designs

Looking for midcentury 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 midcentury 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 retro 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.

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

When it comes to the layout of your midcentury 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 midcentury 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 1950s style 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 1960s style 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 midcentury 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 retro 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 midcentury 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 retro 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 midcentury 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:
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