The living room is where we socialize with friends and family. So, when we think of decorating a living room we think about ourselves, but also about others. While the bedroom is a local private room, this is the contrary. Without doubt, this is the public place of our house where almost everything happens. Besides being a division were you spend a lot of your time, it is also mostly a room to eat. And what are meals without acts of socialization and fellowship? In this article we will let you some key ideas to decorate your room to maximize your space and its functionalities. As a starting point to decorate your room, think of you and your lifestyle. Do you have a big family? Have childrens? Do you like to read or receiving many friends at home? Your needs will guide you in this project of decoration. Step 1:Create large circulation areas. Respect the access to balconies or terraces. Calculate the space needed for all the doors to open properly, the same with doors and drawers of the furniture. Create circulation areas between the couches, coffee table and other furniture. Make sure there is good circulation around the table and can draw back all the chairs for a person to sit comfortably. I leave you some useful measures. For example, between the sofa and coffee table must exist at least 40 cm. Between television and the sofa should be at least 2 meters. For a person to sit at the table, there must be at least 35 cm between the table and the wall, so that the movements are as comfortable as possible. Ideally, this measure is at least 70 cm in order to be able to sit, stand and move freely. Between a table and furniture must be 50 cm for open doors and drawers and another 35 cm to circulate. Step 2: Create a good distribution and use of space If you like to receive people, you should pay special attention to living and eating area. Try to maximize the number of seats to accommodate all the visitors comfortably. Also choose a proper dinner table. If you do not have much space, remember that the round and oval tables allow more seating. Moreover, you can choose tables which can extended, that when not being used, it mark the eating area and is not overwhelming the space. The living area should be near the windows to better enjoy the natural light, continuing the balcony or terrace. In the opposite corner of the room, put the area to eat. Should differentiate the two spaces, though they must have a visual continuity, such as color, same style of furniture and the same textures. You can divide these two areas in various ways. Use low furniture not to cut down the extent of visual space, put one of the sofas back to the eating area, or a solution in which use the rugs to define spaces. More sophisticated solutions are creating gaps in the soil, although this option requires work and is therefore more costly. The coffee center table in a room should be the central element of the seating area, especially if it is given to gatherings with friends. However, the usual is to put the TV as the center of our rooms if that is what gives more pleasure to ourselves and to our family. If a room is small, choose a coffee table square or round to about 80 cm and put a two-seater sofa and an armchair in the shape of L. If the room has generous dimensions, you can place one three-place sofa with other two-place sofa in L or face to face. If the room is narrow, the coffee table can be rectangular 80 cm x 120cm. If you have a really big room, place the U-shaped sofa and go for a square table 120 cm x 120 cm. In the angle between two sofas, use auxiliary tables especially for placing lamps and create points of light. Enjoy all the corners, even those of more irregular shape using a piece of furniture, shelving or corner furniture. The shelves are a good solution to make an entire wall providing an excellent storage solution in the room. Not to overload the space visually, they may be painted with the same tone of the wall. Small shelves under the windows are also practical and decorative. Step 3: Enjoy the light This is a common idea in all divisions, but in a living room it is essential. The format of the windows is the driver for the solution to be adopted in deciding the type of curtains or blinds to better fit the needs. If the windows have sliding doors, you have all possibilities open. The windows that open inward require more attention, in this case blinds or shutters are not practical. In this case, the curtains are the most appropriate solution. Use curtains in narrow windows, they will appear larger If on the other hand you have wide windows, you can use a tissue with stripes on the sides and a neutral tissue for the center. In the choice of textures, if you want to capture light and brightness, you can choose light shades of light tissues like linen, silk, organza or muselina. If instead, you need to break excess of natural light, you should choose between heavy and opaque fabrics. We hope these tips helped you in the process on how to decorate your dining room

Hi Jax. I am in the same position. Our kitchen is currently 11 1/2 x 12, L shaped and the dining room is 14 x 12. The dining room opens into the living room with just a decorative moulding separating the two rooms. I'm planning on taking down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and making a penisula but need to move the wall into the dining room for more space since I'll be losing the upper cabinetry. We're taking 12 - 15 inches from the dining room space. We can't take any more because we also have a very large box out window in the dining room and don't want to add to the expense of moving that window. So the dining room are will now be 13 x 12 which I think is still a decent size. Our advantage is we can extend into the living room if necessary for large get togethers. Hope this helped.

I have never matched the patio furniture to the interiors till the house I'm in now. Or, I shouldn't say it matches now but should say it does go with. It really depends on the house setup. In my newer to me home you enter in to the living area with your immediate view a full wall of glass sliders with the patio and pool right there (my house is not large). If the patio was further away or slightly around the corner but still sort of in view I think there would be more options.

I draw plan of a room very roughly..paper doesn't matter..just whatever I've got. measure spaces, take measuring tape with me..take my time on finding the right stuff..having numbers written down and measuring tape always on me helps-that way when I see second hand something I can make sure I'm usually great at eyeballing stuff (which is very interesting given my spatial thinking is not that great)..but it still can be tricky trying to imagine X in an empty space Y. When you don't own the X yet. If you already own something it's easier, you get the feeling of the size much better Even though many sizes are standard as in case goods..so I kinda can look at it and tell: "that's 36, that's 48, that's 60.."...and I'm usually right lol But still make sure to have numbers written, measuring tape in my purse It's also height, depth..you need to know your windows, your clearance between this and that..you need to know lots of stuff before deciding unless you love it to the point you build all of your room around it