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A useful guide to help you decorate a compact lounge.
Looking for small living room ideas? Whether you have a tiny sitting room that barely fits a sofa, or an open-plan living area that loses out to an adjacent kitchen – there is no space too small for a brilliant design scheme. As the most-used communal room in the home, your living room should have ample seating, a sensible flow and convenient storage, no matter the size.
'The first step to maximising storage in small living quarters is, of course, to declutter,' says Kelly Collins, interior designer and head of creative at Swyft Home. 'Once you’ve decluttered, you want to find alternative ways to store away everything you need, without having to compromise your living quarters. Multi-functional furniture is the key to small space storage.'
If you've ever struggled to arrange furniture or choose a colour palette, lost hope in finding the right pieces or pondered over visual tricks to increase a sense of spaciousness, these 44 decorating ideas can help you make the most of your small living room.
Light and bright is really the way to go. In the tiniest of spaces, choose furniture with visual lightness – that could be slim arms and spindly legs on your armchairs, glass tops to coffee or console tables, and pale finishes on your upholstery. This small but perfectly formed flat uses sunny buttercup yellows and light woods as a way to brighten and uplift.
'Using a single colour over the walls, woodwork (including bookcases and shelving) and up onto the ceiling will make the room feel larger and uncomplicated giving the illusion of more space,' says Charlotte Crosby, head of creative at Farrow & Ball.
Wider than an armchair but smaller than a standard sofa, a loveseat offers versatility when configuring your living room seating arrangements, especially in a compact space. One of the joys of a loveseat is that extra attention is usually paid to design elements that promote comfort, like deep cushions and sumptuous fabrics.
Wood burners are compact and don't require grand fireplaces, so they are perfect for smaller living rooms. This classic feature – here in a diminutive garden flat in London – looks striking and will make any space feel more cosy.
A built-in shelving display will make the most of your alcoves. We love this example because of the varying heights of the shelves – a lack of uniformity like this can be really charming and allow for more space to display lamps and mirrors.
A ready-made small space design scheme in the home of Emma Hoareau (@emmahoareau) – a wash of light cream on the walls and ceiling to brighten, integrated shelving with cupboard storage to declutter, and an XL mirror over the fireplace (instead of a television, hoorah!) to bounce light around the room and give the impression of extra space.
Multifunctional furniture is a gift in small spaces. Storage ottomans that double up as extra seating are ideal, especially those set on springs or hinges for easier access to the bits and pieces underneath.
Pictured: House Beautiful Layla Sofa at DFS
Take a leaf out of the Scandi design book and saturate your small space with warm neutrals – a colour palette that modulates beautifully over the course of the day – sofas that sit low to the floor to open up the space above, and a great big nod to the outdoors in an oversized plant.
Pictured: Walls painted in White 05 at Lick
Paint effects are an easy way to change the perspective of your space. Born & Bred Studio have added a lick of pristine white to draw the eye up to the height of these ceilings and the interesting architectural details on display. You could use this effect to highlight a big window too, drawing attention to the view beyond.
A true white is largely avoided because it offers little warmth. It should be considered in a very small living room however for its capacity to increase a sense of spaciousness. It works particularly well in a home with lots of wall art and sculptures – true white is used in art galleries and museums because it allows works of art to stand out.
There is a natural inclination to pare back accessories and textiles in a small space, but equally we don't want it to be totally devoid of character. Layers are a little more forgiving – demonstrated to fabulous effect in the Margate home of interior designer Natasha Lyon – because you can pile a couple of soft furnishings together to maximise impact but minimise footprint.
'It can be really effective to embrace a small space by using strong, darker colours such as Duck Green or Bancha to create a dramatic, intimate feel, making you focus on the style of the room rather than the size of it,' explains Charlotte Crosby, head of creative at Farrow & Ball.
Pictured: Olive No.13 Paint at Farrow & Ball
In compact spaces, it’s easy for one or two features to stand out – whilst this is great for a patterned sofa or statement armchair, you really don’t want your TV to be the main event. A clever hack from Topology Interiors is to use a Samsung Picture TV that has a realistic frame and displays artwork when not in use.
Note how low these sofas sit to the floor, how stout the adjacent tables and even how low the art is hung. This is a nice technique in a small living room that benefits from a high ceiling – low profiles will always look relaxed, informal and inviting and the expanse of wall above increases the sense of space.
Removing doors and increasing the width of your doorways can make all the difference to the flow of your home and the amount of natural light available. To make this feel intentional – and not simply that you’ve misplaced a door – mimic this really lovely trick from design studio Retrouvious, who have painted both the door and window frames in a cheerful yellow to connect the two spaces.
Instead of armchairs, consider a chaise for a slightly more generous seating option, and shop around for something with deep seats and low arms to encourage lounging. This enticing corner in the home of artist Jessie Cutts (@cuttsandsons) makes a compelling case for choosing decoration in a small space rather than populating every inch with storage.
When space is of a premium, you have to be careful with the footprint of your furniture. Choosing pieces that are slightly smaller than standard such as a compact accent chair or super slim floor lamp is key to adding everything you need for a comfortable living room without sacrificing too much floorspace.
You never want your rug to float like a lonely little afterthought in the middle of your living room. Rugs should be used to zone and connect furniture, and no matter the size of your space, an XL rug that encompasses the full footprint of your living room furniture will always look brilliant.
Pictured: Chess Wool Rug at Layered
Modular sofas – like these totally covetable pink Togo sofas in the home of Lisa Dawson (@_lisa_dawson_) – can totally alter the function of a small living room. Push your modules together for a family movie night, or separate and arrange around a coffee table for entertaining.
Painting a small living room – including the ceiling – in an all-over uniform colour blurs its edges and boundaries giving the impression of space. This is particularly effective if you paint woodwork, doorframes, and radiators to match.
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