33 Living Room Ideas to Make Your Gathering Space Your Favorite Place

Focus on Fireplace and Views

Let fireplaces and panoramas take center stage. Paint walls white or in a neutral color cued by views outside the windows. Carry the wall color to furniture arranged in a way that promotes conversation and allows guests to enjoy flickering flames in the hearth and window-framed vistas. Anchor the grouping with a pretty patterned area rug; carry the rug's hues upward with accent pillows boasting organic motifs.

Suitable for a Small Space

Flirty and feminine, this relaxed yet quirky living room makes the most of the space's diminutive dimensions. Apartment-size furniture, see-through tables, and airy ottomans that don't block the eye and take up less space, a smart small living room idea. Turn up the panache with complementary fabrics in a diverse array of both playful and staid patterns.

Video: Living Room Makeover

Steal ideas for redecorating your living room from this gorgeous space.

Low, Middle and High Points

Beautifully designed living rooms place noteworthy objects at every level. Mentally divide your space into low, mid, and high areas and position elements to encourage the eye to travel up, down, and around. Here, a faux animal skin covering a woven area rug provides underfoot allure while a charming accessorized tray atop a trunk and perky pillows add color at the midground. Use vivid canvases, colorful sconce shades, and unique standing lamps to keep interest running high.

Go Bright and Bold

Jewel tones, like jade green, sapphire blue, ruby red, and orangey coral, fashionably fuse in a modern and accessible way. Draw your palette from a lively patterned fabric or oversize artwork featuring at least three bright colors. Introduce the attention-getting hues with solid-color lamps, vases, trims, and furnishings, so they contribute a sense of vibrancy without overwhelming your design.

Wild for Animal Print

A touch of animal print goes a long way in this vintage-inspired living room. Fun zebra-pattern-covered pillows and upholstered ottoman accent soft blue walls. Other furniture and accessories remain neutral, allowing the pattern to shine.

Pops of Color and Neutrals

Neutral tones are a good place to start when designing living rooms that stylishly endure. This monochromatic space works by mixing velvet-upholstered furnishings with lighter linen-covered pieces and placing them on a similarly-colored two-toned sculpted area rug. Fashion-forward colors are added with solid and patterned pillows.

Informal Family Space

These cheerful living room ideas are anything but formal. Designed to accommodate a busy family's needs (and artistic efforts), it combines comfortable seating, easy-clean coffee tables that double as workstations, and an overscale patterned area rug that hides spills. To mimic this living room idea, limit your color palette to white, one neutral shade, and one bright color. That way, you can keep the focus on the ever-changing exhibits of your kids' artwork.

Ace the Accessories

Beautiful yet calming living rooms are the result of neutral schemes embellished with thoughtfully edited accessories. Choose a main hue, such as blue, to showcase coordinating patterned pillows and drapery fabrics. Distribute the color around the space via artwork and collections. Keep the peace by highlighting one metallic finish, such as the silvery tones here with table lamps, photo frames, tray-table handles, and art glass.

White and Wonderful

All-white rooms are a contemporary living room idea that needs a dose of personality. Bright red and blue patterned throw pillows pack a punch of contrast while keeping the space calm and relaxing. In addition, using dark wood furniture prevents the room from looking washed out.

Make It Modern

Think minimal when decorating modern living rooms. Move in a streamlined sectional sofa covered in a too-cool neutral and pile on pillows rendered in the latest hues. Choose accent tables with iron frameworks and naturally finished wood, stone, or glass tops. Prevent modern spaces from feeling cold by introducing wicker furnishings with progressive profiles and basket-weave or colorful geometric-pattern area rugs. Hang only a few things on the wall -- clutter-free defines contemporary design.

Work the Room

A uniquely-shaped room can make furniture arranging tricky. For a narrow space, try placing a couch along the back wall. Then, flank the right and left sides with love seats or chairs. Keep accessories simple, and create symmetry by placing end tables on both sides of the sofa.

Cottage Contentment

Life's always a beach when you kick back in a living room that nods to sea, sand, and sky. Here, you can see how just a few hues—white, aqua, navy, silver, and seashell pink—fashion a cottage-charming view in this seashore-inspired retreat. The repetition of driftwood finishes, colors, shine, and collections provides a peaceful rhythm, making way for statement-piece pendant lights and a chandelier.

Cultivate Warmth

Though large in size, this luxurious living room offers a cozy welcome, thanks to a combination of natural materials, plush textures, and posh furnishings in toasty hues. Produce cocooning warmth in expansive rooms by considering proportion when choosing furniture—big spaces call for oversized sofas, chairs, and accessories. In this room, the ottoman/coffee table serves all seating and nicely balances the stone mantel's heavy profile.

Decorate in Stages

If you're not ready for a full makeover, do it gradually and in stages. See how this living room did just that and how you can do the same.

Kids Corner

Even the littlest members of your family need a place to relax and unwind. This living room idea starts with neutral walls, adds boldly patterned fabrics, and finishes with brightly colored accessories. Make organizing easy by placing baskets for books and toys at kid level.

Smooth Sophistication

Make a statement with dark walls and bright white molding. In this living room, the beautiful coffered ceiling echoes the lines of the fireplace mantel and creates a sophisticated look. Traditional furniture with classic lines blends perfectly into the stylish living space.

International Appeal

Multi-cultural influences and color schemes are hot decorating trends. Re-create this well-traveled look by incorporating international fabric patterns, folk-art furnishings, handcrafted collectibles, and vacation keepsakes.

Enhance a room's collected character by mixing in gleaming gilded patinas, rough-woven blinds, rugs, baskets, and sleek glass, steel, and leather accents. Then, strategically scatter one vibrant hue from your main fabric (in this case, red) to direct visitors' eyes to your most remarkable pieces.

Go Eclectic

Contemporary colors and furniture silhouettes alongside more traditional pieces create a memorable living room. Use a graphic rug and chromatic Parsons tables (with storage below) to center a grouping of equally interesting but more understated furnishings. We love how this room includes armless chairs upholstered in a free-form floral pattern, picking up on greens elsewhere in the space and connecting to the botanical print on the wall.

Cozy Inviting Cottage

Create a country cottage feel with wood-panel walls and classic cottage hallmarks, such as gingham, soft blue, cheery neutrals, and a bouquet of textures.

Streamlined and Clean

Soft white walls and modern, low-lying furniture with simple lines create a streamlined look in this calm living room. Deep orange and bright green accents add welcome accents of color but still keep the space looking crisp and clean.

Classic With a Twist

This living room looks chic as it blends modern comforts with traditional pieces. Cozy chairs with exposed legs and velvet upholstery recall furniture of the late 19th century. Antique wood tables add an air of formal elegance. The vintage accents shine through the white walls and dark flooring. Placing classic furniture and accessories in a relaxed space creates a unique look that works for both formal gatherings and daily relaxation.

Vintage Beauty

Funnel a passion for everything old by creating a vintage-inspired living space using pieces purchased from consignment stores and antique shops. Reupholstered worn-out cushions with modern fabrics update the room. Mix and match wood frames to give the artwork an eclectic feel.

Level Up With Accessories

Dress up a neutral room with accessories. Look for statement pieces like the sunburst wall sculpture to create a sophisticated air. Keep furniture simple, but juxtapose it with a boldly patterned rug. Soft pink accents add a needed punch of color but don't distract from the statement pieces.

Dynamic Duo

The duo brown and blue is always popular for decorating. Use hues that suit your design style to give the classic combo a more personal look. Here, shades of bright blue and sepia brown lend a traditional yet casual, family-friendly style to this living room.

It's All About You

Don't be afraid to mix themes within a single space. This living room embraces a charming combination of cottage, boating, and travel, which reflects the homeowners' styles and interests. Floral-print pillows add a touch of cottage comfort. Boat- and fish-inspired wall decor brings in a splash of the sea. And suitcases used as a coffee table make the space look traveled and eclectic.

Promote Peacefulness

This porch evokes the ageless charm of a finely furnished drawing room. Though boasting plenty of patterns, the environment stays serene thanks to a two-tone scheme of gray and white. Painted woodwork adds to the mellow feel. Choose contoured furnishings with upholstery fabrics in colors a few tones deeper than on the walls.

Patterned to Perfection

Use a statement-making piece of furniture as the starting point for your living room decor. This neutral-toned room gets its character from the boldly striped chair. Other patterns throughout the room feature the same color palette and echo the vertical stripes. Because the furniture all has modern lines, the pieces look cohesive.

Homey Neutrals

Wake up a neutral color palette with touches of pattern and texture. Paisley-print pillows in a soft blue stand out against the neutral-color love seat. The dark wicker coffee table and rattan window shades add depth and richness to the soft space.

Repurpose and Refresh

Decorating a living room doesn't have to cost a bundle. Use your imagination and a little elbow grease to transform furniture and architectural elements into decorative fittings. Use oversize shades and lighting kits to convert reclaimed columns, boards, or beams into sculptural standing lamps. Coordinate different styles of tables, sideboards, and bookcases with paint; use varying shades of one color to keep painted pieces from appearing too matchy-matchy.

The Great Outdoors

Bring the outside in by painting your walls a soft, dreamy shade of sky blue. In this living room, bright buttery yellow and fiery orange echo colors found in flowers and plantsk. Reflective surfaces such as the coffee table and picture frames enhance the plentiful sunlight streaming in through the windows.

Collective Effort

Give your room a collected, eclectic look with varied patterns and wood finishes. Bright red and blue patterned pillows stand out against a neutral sofa. Bold blue and white ikat curtains complement the large, colorful rug. The dark wood coffee table provides a subtle contrast against the lighter wood floors and bookcase.

Bold and Beautiful

Pack a punch with pattern and color against all-white walls. Bold coral and just a hint of blue are the colors of choice for this living room. Complementary patterns on the chair and ottoman blend perfectly with the solid-color sofa. The blank white walls emphasize the grain and hue of the dark wooden accents.