Turning your apartment into an outstanding space doesn’t require the help of an interior design professional. In reality, designers’ opinions about what works best runs the gamut anyhow. With some creativity, skill, and originality, you can design an apartment living room that is spacious, beautiful, and all you.

Here are a few apartment living room design ideas and basic principles to get you inspired.

Focus on Color

            There are at least two schools of thought here.

            One is to use light, neutral colors for the walls and very deep colors for furniture, rugs, and decor. If you go with this route, limit the number of colors you will use. Strategically using one or two colors as accents for furniture, rugs, and decor can make a room look larger by creating contrast, but too many colors will suffocate a room.  As noted by Bless’er House, medium shades can make a room appear smaller, so you may want to go bold with decor.

            Alternatively, some designers prefer to stick with varying shades of the same color for the walls, furniture, and decor. This creates a clean, smooth, airy appeal that also makes the living room appear bigger.

Go for the Drapes

Add drapes to cover your windows, even if you have to add them over existing blinds. The trick is to place them high up over the windows and let them hang to the ground, creating an illusion of a higher ceiling.

Choose drapes that are as close as possible to the color of the walls to further create an appearance of a larger area.

Add Mirrors

Adding mirrors is a common method designers use to create a larger appearance in a room. Mirrors reflect light, and simply seeing reflections in the mirror makes one feel that there is more to the room than there really is.

Choose Clear

Similar to the concept of mirrors in a home, glass or otherwise clear tables and desks can present the illusion that nothing is there. It’s likely that these pieces of furniture are more petite as well, so you can avoid wasted space that you may have with big, bulky furniture.

Be Creative with Artwork

Just like color, how to use artwork to optimize apartment living room space is a matter of opinion and skill. Some designers prefer to add a gallery of linear, framed artwork to create depth, while others recommend placing only one large piece of artwork on one wall to create an airy feel.

Two things are clear: Both sides recommend including some kind of art on the walls, and neither advises haphazardly cluttering all the walls with artwork. It’s OK to leave one or two walls bare.

Use Fabric Designs Strategically

Blankets, throws, seat covers, and other materials with certain textures and patterns can trick the eye into believing a room is longer or wider than it is. The goal is to keep the eye moving in order to create a fascinating appeal and create the illusion of a larger space.

Choose the Right Furniture

Along these lines, placing furniture on an angle also keeps the eyes moving, as opposed to traditional straight layouts.

As you are shopping for furniture, try to find those with thin legs. They indeed should have legs in order to make the room look more open, but big, bulky legs will unnecessarily crowd the room.

Additionally, you may want to swap a coffee table or end table for an ottoman. It’s a smart way to enhance apartment living room space, as you can store items inside of it and use it as extra seating.

Minimize Knickknacks or Display Them Together

            Placing small knickknacks in many places throughout the apartment can make the home feel and look cluttered. Instead, invest in just a few larger, attractive pieces to use as decor.

            If you really want to display all your treasures, consider placing them together on a bookshelf, on floating shelves, or in a display case.

Consider a Sectional

            Sectionals are a popular choice for apartment living room furniture. They provide plenty of seating area without taking up as much space as separate pieces of furniture.

Mismatch Wisely

If you don’t like sectionals, choose a sofa and/or loveseat that are long and narrow in order to add length to the room without cramping the living room area.

Keep in mind that today’s designers prefer cleverly mismatching furniture as opposed to matching sets. If you do this, choose carefully, as the wrong colors or styles can appear disorganized or cluttered. In other words, there’s a method to the mismatch madness.

Look Alive

            There are so many reasons to include plants in your apartment, which we have discussed in past blogs. However, in order to avoid using floor space, consider placing them on wall shelves, on bookshelves, or on wall or ceiling hooks.

Use Layers of Lighting

            Enhance overhead lights with table lamps and floor lamps of varying heights. Like long drapes, this creates an appearance of a higher ceiling. It also adds an elegant, soothing appeal to the home.

            Remember that no matter what your apartment design and decor looks like, the most important principle is that it feels like home. Apartment living room designs should enable you to be you, and that all begins with choosing the right apartment for you. If you’re still shopping for your new home, visit our website to explore our southeast Michigan apartment communities.