Although an empty living room makes for a fantastic blank canvas when considering decorating, it can also be incredibly intimidating, especially if it has a rectangular design. This comprehensive article will show you simple tricks that will make a lot of difference in how to decorate a rectangle living room!
This kind of room requires careful consideration of the furniture you select and the layout to design it functionally and stylishly. Nobody wants to have the impression that they are watching TV or having fun in a railroad car.
However, there are methods to utilize this room’s shape while preventing the appearance of a long tunnel. Before inspecting the tips and tricks, let’s see the benefits you can get from this type of room!
The Advantages of a Rectangle Living Room
Regardless of the living room’s size, a rectangle seems to pose more of a challenge than a square or L shape. Still, it gives plenty of flexibility and can be surprisingly easy to decorate.
Since single-purpose specialty rooms, like a study or dining room, are becoming less popular in modern homes, rectangle room elongated form makes it easy to divide the entire space into several zones for different activities. As a result, a room that can accommodate a range of events is a huge plus.
How to Decorate a Rectangle Living Room?
Tips on decorating a rectangle living room
Decide on the function of the room
When thinking about how to decorate a rectangle living room, it’s best to start at the very beginning. Consider what you want the space to accomplish for you as you relax. Use of the room by the entire family? Do you enjoy watching movies with your friends on a huge sofa? Do you require a workspace? Or perhaps you’d prefer a private area to sit in and have a cup of coffee while gazing out the window? Each family is unique.
Once you understand the living room’s purpose, you may consider the ideal furniture placement to fulfill that purpose.
People often automatically adjust their arrangement to fit the room length without thinking of other options or using visual cues to make their room appear broader.
Choose lighting and color
The next step in furnishing and designing a rectangle living room is choosing the lighting and colors since the proper arrangement of these two elements can help to control the space in the room.
If your living room is spacious, you can experiment with deeper hues to provide depth. In contrast, a smaller room asks for lighter hues harmonious with the available natural or artificial light to enhance the impression of its size.
Use paint to make your room look enlarged
Painting the two end walls of a rectangular living room with a darker color than the other two walls will make the space appear more expansive. By using a lighter shade or a darker shade, the gradient of shade and color on opposite walls can either prolong or shorten a distance.
Have furniture match your wall color
You may not be able to place wallpaper or repaint your entire room, which is understandable given several factors. Nevertheless, you could choose furniture whose color complements the walls as a terrific alternative. By combining the hues, you can visually pull back your walls and give the impression that the room is bigger.
Move away from the walls
Placing the bulk of the furniture along the walls is standard practice when furnishing a rectangular living room. Although it can be the only option in a limited space, we advise leaving the walls empty if you are lucky enough to have a lot of room.
If the space is particularly long, positioning your focus pieces in the middle of it may promote dialogue while averting the feeling that the space has been improperly utilized.
Read more: How to Arrange a Small Bedroom With Queen Bed
Furniture with legs is preferable
Accent chairs, a side table, and a coffee table are smaller pieces of furniture you’ll need for your living area. Choosing furniture with legs is the key in this situation. They give rooms a lighter appearance and make them airier.
Divide into zones in an open plan layout
Divide your room into two areas if it is incredibly long. Create a dual-purpose room. One way to make the most of the space is to include a seating area and a small office or dining room. To separate each space, use area rugs.
Since most people spend more time in the living rooms, they usually prefer to place their largest sofa in front of the TV. However, once this TV area is set up, you have room to develop anything else at either end. The location of the primary TV will be determined by the fixed elements in the room (fireplace, doors, and windows); it may make sense to place this in the center of the room.
Change up your furniture arrangements
Avoid placing all of your furniture along one long wall, if possible. The area above pushes the traffic flow to take on an “S” form by rotating furniture groups, which prevents half the room from feeling like a straight hallway. It’s a cunning approach to make sure you use the available space better.
You can use, for example, two shorter sofas, arranged width-wise in the room, in place of one sofa against the longer wall. A large bookcase on the far wall and the console table behind the sofa will replicate the same approach of visually pushing the walls outward. A decent corner sofa may make good use of the space in a long room, even more than one with a chaise.
Identify the focal point
Rectangular living rooms frequently feature more than one focal point, depending on their size. Built-in focus elements include things like a fireplace or a sizable picture window.
A second focus point might be an entertainment center, a wall-mounted television, a sculpture, a sizable work of art, a wall of shelves, or a piano.
Even better, set aside a quiet nook on one end for socializing, reading, or meditation. The floor layout can be divided into at least two distinct conversation zones by positioning seating sections around each focal point.
Limit your artwork
Your rectangle living room’s walls shouldn’t have too many paintings or frames. As a result, your space will appear small. A superior solution that also looks elegant is murals.
Hang one or two large pieces of artwork to give the impression that the area is broader and more open. Walls that are covered with photos and other wall hangings tend to make a room appear busy or make you feel cramped. To lower eye level and help the room appear broader, choose art that may sit wide but low over the sofa or fireplace, for example.
Get the eye drawn
Drawing the eye upward will shift the emphasis from the room’s breadth to its height, providing the impression that the space is larger. For example, add a surprising splash of colors above. Also, the height of the room can be highlighted by hanging ornamental items from the ceiling and tall plants that attract the eye.
To spread light evenly, use lamps
A room’s lighting dramatically influences how it makes you feel as much as how it looks. A narrow space might appear shallow and dim with only one source of light, which inevitably makes it feel small and makes you feel claustrophobic. To fix this, we advise adding more light sources, which will aid in distributing light equally across the space and visibly enlarging it.
Installing numerous little LED downlights in the ceiling and spacing them evenly apart is one approach to do this.
Potted plants
Last but not least, place some potted plants in the corners to add a touch of greenery to the area. Wear tall pants to highlight the height of your living room without obstructing the view from eye level.
Some old but still good tricks on how to decorate a rectangle living room
Drapery
Floor-to-ceiling draperies will immediately give any room a higher appearance, as wearing high heels will make any lady appear taller.
You can also remove curtains because they add to the visual clutter. If you decide to use draperies, think about choosing light materials with an airy feel.
Apply mirrors
Applying mirrors, for a reason, it’s the oldest design trick in existence. Your room will appear wider and larger if there are more mirrors. To create the illusion of infinity, think about building a mirror wall or placing mirrors on different sides of the space from one another.
Make sure there is enough space for passing
Not to forget, if you want to create a visually beautiful and practical space, it’s crucial to consider whether there is enough room for you to walk around without difficulty. Making a cozy, intimate layout is great, but it shouldn’t require navigating a maze of obstacles while avoiding furniture and sharp edges.
Conclusion
Decorating a rectangle room might be more challenging, but not an impossible task. There are many tricks that you can use to transform such a room into a comfy space. Hope this article helped, and now you feel excited about decorating your rectangle room. Good luck!
