Redecorating Lite: 6 Quick Updates to Liven Up Your Living Spaces
If a full redecorating project isn’t in your budget, consider these inexpensive ideas to give your room new life
Karen Mills
January 24, 2018
The beginning of the year is often the time when you feel the urge to make over your spaces, but sometimes a full remodeling or redecorating project simply isn’t in the budget. And that’s just fine, since there are several ways you can refresh a space on a more limited basis. I like to think of these changes as “redecorating lite.” Here are six techniques to make your tired living or family room a more inviting, attractive place to be.
1. Rearrange furniture. One of my favorite ways to refresh a living space is to rearrange the furniture to create a more cozy seating area that facilitates conversation or that shifts the room’s focal point to a beautiful fireplace or view. Here, a U-shaped seating arrangement includes the sofa, the accent chair and two side-by-side poufs. The U arrangement centers around the fireplace, drawing the eye toward this architectural element and cementing it as a focal point in the room.
Here the sofa and three chairs are grouped together on one side of the room in a rectangular conversational arrangement. Though there is a fireplace, it’s not the focal point of this seating area. Instead, the eye is drawn toward the tall windows and dramatic drapery, as well as the bookcase between them.
How to Get Your Furniture Arrangement Right
How to Get Your Furniture Arrangement Right
2. Add a tray to your coffee table. Accessorizing can be challenging for many people, but adding a tray to your coffee table is one surefire way to give your living or family space a more pulled-together appearance. You could keep the display simple with just one tray or use multiple trays, as shown in this photo.
Here a lucite tray, a nod to the homeowner’s love of Scandinavian design, visually disappears, allowing the accessories on top to take center stage. An attractive diamond tray rests within the lucite tray. The round aqua tray creates a pretty contrast against the white table.
Read more about which tray to choose for your coffee table; browse trays
Read more about which tray to choose for your coffee table; browse trays
3. Repurpose items from elsewhere in your home. Often, you can scout items at home to be reused in your design, whether you find them in your garage or in a different room. For example, you might find pretty organizers or dishes for a wall display in your kitchen that you can use in your living room or family room.
Or you could turn functional items into decor. For instance, the cello and guitar in this Oakland, California, home serve as decorative pieces and also add a personal touch to renter Kelly Wang’s living space. Wang has played this cello since she was 9, and a friend gave her the guitar when she was in college.
Sofa: Apel in Dove Gray, Cost Plus World Market; accent pillows and washed corduroy floor pillows: Urban Outfitters; see more floor cushions
Or you could turn functional items into decor. For instance, the cello and guitar in this Oakland, California, home serve as decorative pieces and also add a personal touch to renter Kelly Wang’s living space. Wang has played this cello since she was 9, and a friend gave her the guitar when she was in college.
Sofa: Apel in Dove Gray, Cost Plus World Market; accent pillows and washed corduroy floor pillows: Urban Outfitters; see more floor cushions
This informally arranged wall of origami-style paper flowers creates a pretty display above the sofa and also holds a personal story for Wang. The flowers were made for her best friend’s wedding; Wang kept a few and spray-painted some of them gold.
4. Layer in an area rug. There’s little that can pull your space together like an area rug, as long as it’s appropriately sized for the room. For most family and living spaces, you’ll want a rug to be at least 8 by 10 feet, possibly larger. Notice that in this space in South Carolina, a fuchsia area rug makes a huge impact in a room otherwise decorated in neutral gray, white and gold. The homeowners repeated the fuchsia color with coordinating pillows and even a book cover on the table. (To get the color just right, I recommend you make your own book cover using scrapbook paper or a high-end piece of wrapping paper you might find at a stationery store.)
Size Up the Right Area Rug for Your Room
Size Up the Right Area Rug for Your Room
5. Add colorful bursts around your room. Continuing the ideas from the previous example, it’s worth noting that adding color to a room can make the difference between a blah or beautiful interior. Small doses of color draw your eye around a space, effectively energizing it.
In this room, the foundation of orange accents starts with the area rug, then continues with bold pillows, a painted chandelier, a bold front door and a piece of art (on the back wall) that work together to bring the room’s design together. If your space is mostly neutral, adding repeated hits of color can work to refresh it with a new feel. Here, two of the accents — the door and the chandelier — can be achieved simply by using paint.
See more of this home
In this room, the foundation of orange accents starts with the area rug, then continues with bold pillows, a painted chandelier, a bold front door and a piece of art (on the back wall) that work together to bring the room’s design together. If your space is mostly neutral, adding repeated hits of color can work to refresh it with a new feel. Here, two of the accents — the door and the chandelier — can be achieved simply by using paint.
See more of this home
Here’s another example of how to use bursts of color in a family or living room. In this space, a bright yellow throw, pillows featuring bright yellow, a decorative vase on the mantle and a candle on the coffee table bring the design together nicely. Yellow-orange flowers near the fireplace bring a deeper accent to the room, adding richness while complementing the brighter yellow. But if mixing different intensities of a single color isn’t your specialty, it’s fine to play it safe by repeating one color in your decor.
6. Create a gallery wall. Sometimes what a room really needs is a statement piece of art, but purchasing new art can be expensive. Instead, consider creating a gallery display using pieces you already have. Possibilities include botanical or Audubon prints or old magazine covers or a collection of old photos, as seen here. In this Washington, D.C., space, the central piece, a round mirror, mimics the radiating pattern of the rug. This repetition of shapes helps the gallery wall feel cohesive in the overall design.
These 10 Familiar Objects Are the Wall Art We’re Looking For
More
6 Questions to Ask if Your Living Room Feels Unfinished
How to Refresh Your Living Room on Any Budget
These 10 Familiar Objects Are the Wall Art We’re Looking For
More
6 Questions to Ask if Your Living Room Feels Unfinished
How to Refresh Your Living Room on Any Budget
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What brand is the plum couch???
tiggycombe and
jowbo All photos in this article are by designers on Houzz so if you are wanting to find a source for something in these pictures ask the individual designer who posted it. Thanks! Karen Mills karenmills.net