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

This is a unique, beautiful layout, but - Holy Cow - there's way too much going on. Simplify. As others suggest, raise the living room floor and get rid of the step down and railing. It would combine the entry and living room and really open up the space. It would be safer, too, because it's easy to forget situations where there's one or two steps, especially for guests. Paint the brick. Easier and cheaper than drywall and would retain the interesting texture. Lighter color railings would help. The hillbilly front door has got to go.

Hi Patsy, I think that something like this would look great in your dining room. We can customize any color or size that you need. You could also move the canopy anywhere within the junction box. Please visit our website, www.galileelighing.com or email us at sales@galileelighting.com to speak to one of our lighting designers. Thank you Sincerely, Galilee Lighting

so you got the blue/gray sofas and keeping the walls the beige? are you up for painting the walls ? i ask because your color sofa would look better w/this type of surrounding/colors if you must keep wall color/sofa color, try bringing in some natural and warmer elements like shown here. it will bridge the gray and the beige (shown w/plantation white shutters) if you're doing a tv in there, try getting a walnut console (this one is vintage) and mount the tv above. warmer elements like the leather pouf, wood chairs and some art/greenery really help. Window ideas: Are those metal windows? can you spray the metal portion a white? what about doing some trim around the windows? This one looks great. so much better looking maybe a woven wood shade like these? a flat, simple trim like shown here is perfect, woven wood shades. https://angelamariemade.com/diy-window-trim/ you could also put in a casing on the inside of the window. you see how clean it looks w/the painted casing on the inside too? woven woods w/a natural linen color curatin. hang the rod higher, toward ceiling. you could bring in plain white drapes too. hard to say w/o knowing if you're getting a rug, or any other patterns or colors can you DIY? https://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2014/01/super-easy-way-to-case-an-existing-window.html https://www.twofeetfirst.net/diy-window-trim/