How to create a comfortable living room your family actually uses

As we live increasingly busier lives, our homes have become places where we seek time and space for much-needed rest and relaxation. For many, the heart of this lies in an open-plan kitchen, but what if you could enjoy a separate room that gives the whole family somewhere to unwind, connect and enjoy being together?

It’s time to renew our love of the living room, a space once seen as the real hub of family life before open-plan living became more popular. So, have we been missing out on this once-popular family room? Have our living rooms now become places that are only used, as Monica Geller would say, for fancy guests? 

For me, a living room should be ‘lived in’, not somewhere only kept for special occasions. It’s about having a space to retreat to at the end of a busy day that’s comfortable, practical, stylish and usable, too. 

So, if your living room needs a touch of TLC, here’s some advice to get it back to a space that reflects your style and that every family member enjoys.

Creating a usable living space that showcases your style

When considering how you want your living room to look, it’s worth starting with how it links and flows with the rest of the house in terms of colour scheme and overall design. Not all of us have ten different rooms to retreat to, so keeping a consistent approach will help you see the room as an integral part of the house rather than a space your family rarely uses. 

Once you’re happy with the colours and styles you want to incorporate, it’s time to think about the lighting within the room. Relaxed lighting creates a relaxed mood, which will help you unwind at the end of a long day. You can find further ideas about lighting in this blog post here. 

Now that autumn is approaching and the nights are drawing in, consider the window coverings you might want to use to keep the living room cosy and comfortable. You have a few options here. One is curtains with a thermal lining, which can help as the temperature drops. These add a touch of elegance and provide extra insulation to keep your living room warm during chilly evenings.

Another option is Roman or wooden blinds, which offer a classic and stylish look for your living room windows. Roman blinds can be made from various fabrics, including heavier options suitable for autumn, and can be easily adjusted to control the amount of natural light filtering through. Wooden blinds add a more rustic feel and allow you to adjust the slats to control light and privacy.

You could also combine curtains and blinds for a layered look, adding depth and texture to your living room, helping manage light, and maintaining a comfortable temperature as the season changes.

A living room that’s cosy yet functional

Once you’ve created a living space that showcases the style of your home and looks beautiful, it’s time to add those finishing touches to create a space you enjoy using. Comfort is key here, particularly with seating arrangements. Quite often - and I speak from experience - we can have an uncomfortable sofa or chair, and people won’t use it because they can’t relax, even if it looks lovely.

If you have a sofa or chair that’s seen better days, it might be time to replace it - most mass-produced sofas need replacing after five to seven years. If you know you’ll be sitting on something uncomfortable tucked away in a corner, you’ll be less inclined to use it - especially for relaxation. 

Be sure to provide enough seats for everyone, whatever the size of your family. A living room is a great place to connect and enjoy time together, so if one person always has to sit on a cushion on the floor, this is far less likely to happen. Explore different options and get everyone to decide on the most comfortable choices.

If you’re sharing your living room with children, you must also plan for storage options. Decide on solutions that mean you can quickly clear up at the end of the day so you can relax and unwind without creating more work for yourself. Tidy spaces improve our mental health and sense of calm, so look carefully at how you can do this in the most straightforward, stylish way possible.

And finally, consider how you can incorporate music into your relaxation space. Music is a great way to relax and set the mood in a room, so think about the speakers you’d like to have - e.g. Sonos, Alexa or even those for the TV. Choose ones that give you the best possible experience, surrounding yourself with music you enjoy and creating a relaxing atmosphere. 

So, how can you add some comfort to your living room? Hopefully, you feel inspired to create your own space to relax and enjoy together. 

If you’d like our help with your living room, get in touch, and we can support you to create something you love.