November 21, 2017
The living room – the place to entertain, unwind and perhaps where you spend the most amount of time. In case your living room situation isn’t the most ideal with oddly-angled walls or being way too tiny for all your furniture, it must be rescued!
Here are four typical living room problems and their solutions:
Interior designer: Hoe & Yin Design Studio
Awkward corners or out-of-place columns might make it rather difficult to fit furniture or decorate. How about turning the space into a focal point?
Interior designer: Yong Studio
Place a large plant, a painting or artwork in the empty spot. You could even use it as storage space for pliable stuff like a beanbag or futon chair. A slightly costlier option would involve building a custom showcase cabinet to display your favourite knick-knacks or even carving a wall niche!
Interior designer: SQFT Space Design Management
If the overall space is small, it’s understandable that you’ll want to make use of every available space in the room. In this case, embrace the incongruity by placing odd-shaped furniture in the odd-shaped space. A Noguchi-style table or other asymmetrical piece in the space might just do the trick!
Alternatively, try balancing the area by mixing and matching large and small furniture or accessories as well as light and dark colour schemes. This could alleviate the impact of awkward angles and give the space a quirky, mismatched look.
Interior designer: DesignLah
Tiny living rooms are a common complaint for apartments and other high-rises in Malaysia, but the situation can be easily improved. Start by choosing apt-sized furniture; going large in a small room can swallow the space and leave it looking cramped.
Interior designer: Movent Signature Design
Opt for sleeker furniture designs as well like Scandinavian or Japanese styles with slimmer legs and more contained builds.
Interior designer: UP Creations
Next, choose a light colour scheme and let in plenty of light to visually expand the space. You may even want to go with an all-white theme to make the area appear even larger! Match with sheer light drapes, a rug and unadorned lighting fixtures to play up the pristine look.
Interior designer: Metrics Global Sdn Bhd
A living room that is improperly lit can cause it to appear gloomy or lifeless, and perhaps even smaller than it actually is. Thus, it’s a good idea to keep your home evenly lit with ambient lighting. If you are renting the space and can’t install or change the lights, opt to add on various types of lamps.
Interior designer: Life Art
Place floor and table lamps, small desk lamps and even reflective decor pieces in the living room to enhance the brightness evenly and stylishly.
Interior designer: EA Alam Reka
If you own the property and are willing to spend a little more, layer the lighting by installing a combination of warm white recessed lighting, incandescent pendant lamps and wall sconces with dimmers to adjust brightness as needed.
Interior designer: Latitude Design
While mismatched furniture is not always a bad thing, it can throw certain décor styles out of whack (e.g. modern or Scandinavian). What you can do with supposedly incompatible pieces is to apply a unifying bit to tie it together.
Interior designer: Pocket Square
For instance, if your white sofa set does not match your green coffee table, just add an accessory in a similar hue to either furniture – place a pure white runner on the coffee table or an olive coverlet on your sofa.
Interior designer: Archiplan Interior Design
If the mismatch comes from size or design, you could adapt a décor style that complements these features instead. Themes like eclectic, artsy, bohemian and industrial embrace quirky, raw and mismatched pieces in style. Just remember to stick to one theme, not all!
Whether it's awkward layouts, a small space or bad lighting, the right interior designer can work around it. Request for free quotes here, and we can match you up with 5 interior firms, based on your budget and style.
Download the Qanvast app today to check out more inspiring local home ideas, helpful renovation tips and connect to your favourite interior professionals - on the go.