It’s your turn to host Turkey day and your living room is blah. You’ve been meaning to give it a mini makeover for a while but the weekends have flown by like a like Phil Collins skipping across the pond for Live Aid in ’85. Time is not going to go slower and before you know it, Thanksgiving Day will be upon us and everybody will be at the door ready to get their turkey and pie on! Now is not the time to panic. There’s still plenty of time to get your living room Pinterest ready so that everybody gushes over it they won’t even notice if the bird’s a little dry. Here’s How to Fix Up Your Living Room in 7 Simple Steps.
I’ve used these same steps to get every makeover I’ve worked on done so that my clients could enjoy their rooms within a month. When I worked in custom furniture, that was really the lead time. I could design an entire room and, barring any back orders or unforeseen snaphoos, I could usually deliver on that promise. In this case, Thanksgiving is now less than 30 days away, as of this post, we’re just shy of 3 weeks -yikes!- So, my 30 day turn around is already blown up. Thanks to the Amazon Prime, procrastinators still have a fighting chance to get stuff pulled together in time for pretty much any occasion. This post is totally not sponsored but, if you click a link and purchase one of the items, I may get a small commission, just to be up front. I will always put it right back in to developing great content to share back with you. That’s my promise.
So, here’s a few assumptions that I am making to keep the train rolling: Since this post is about a quick refresh, I’m going to assume that your already have your main pieces of furniture, sofas, chairs, cocktail and end tables, etc. Having the staple pieces will make this advice achievable. I’m also assuming you are not changing the wall color.
Choose An Area Rug
This is usually a great way to begin the color story for the space. You can pick out a few colors from the rug and suddenly, you don’t have to struggle to come up with coordinating colors and textures. Now this quick refresh does rely heavily on a patterned rug. You can easily substitute a neutral, textured or tone on tone rug and still come out with the same result. The key to that approach is to keep your color story simple. Reinforce the neutrals with all the accents in the space and maybe add in small amounts of color if you choose. But, I’m getting ahead of myself… For this example, I’m sticking to starting with a patterned style rug. This is will keep the process simple.
2. Choose Your Curtains
The next step is to choose a color from the rug to pull in your window treatments. I decided to pull the teal color for this example but you can also just as easily pull a neutral beige, white or taupe tone out and work with that as well. By pulling the color of the curtains form the rug, two of the biggest opportunities for color and pattern in the room are checked off the list. In my opinion, a pleasing design is all about adding in layers and working with contrast. Window treatments are a great way to add in that layer and texture that every room needs. They also “soften” a room and help to provide a little insulation and sound abatement.
When choosing where to hang your rods, I go as high as possible: a couple of inches below the crown molding or ceiling and breaking right at the floor underneath the base or skirting boards. If you’re purchasing ready made panels, I suggest going for the longest possible to give you the maximum height and length. You definitely don’t want your curtains to break inches above the floor. Nothing screams ready made panels like short lengths that look like high water pants. If they’re too long, you can hem them to the right length. Adding length to curtains that are too short can be done but it’s a pain and will definitely ad time on the clock for your quick refresh.
3. Add in Pillows
Go back to the rug and pick out a couple of additional colors. My example here has a lot to choose from. I can go beige, taupe, cinnamon, teal, navy and orange. When you’re contemplating all the directions you want to go it helps to keep the feeling you want to achieve in the end. I decided that I wanted the room to be colorful because the wall color and furniture was so neutral. Again, you can go much more tone on tone if you’d like. The rug has a geometric feel so I decided that I wanted to find a pillow that had the colors I wanted to reinforce but didn’t compete with the pattern. I found this abstract pillow cover that went great with the colors and also was unique enough to hold its own. After that, I found these pumpkin colored velvet pillows that pull a warm tone from the rug and adds in a nice Fall season texture that can carry through the winter. Velvet adds luxury and sophistication to any space.
4. Choose Art
There are so many ways to go with art these days, You can add in a gallery wall, mix in different mediums, shapes, sizes, etc. But, because we are on a time crunch here and we need to get this space looking guest ready now, I suggest bringing in colors and textures from your rug. This piece is 3 separate canvases that relate back to the colors in the rug. They also add in another abstract pattern that ties back into the first pillow choice.
I like to stick with abstract art for the largest pieces in a space because they aren’t specific. What I mean by that is that they aren’t a portrait or a landscape that is specific. I tend to reserve those pieces to add in as smaller footprints, layering in for interest. Larger abstract pieces hold your interest longer. There’s subtlety that doesn’t wear off quick. If you have a large piece like a picture of a meadow, or a horse or flowers, that is very specific and can grow old fast. Abstracts let you concentrate on the smaller picture of the meadow, horse or flowers as accents that can be switched out when you’re sick of them without changing the whole color scheme of the space.
5. Add Lighting
I always add in tables lamps to bring to lighting off the ceiling. It adds warmth to the space and allows for a more intimate, softness. Ceiling lights are much more utilitarian and not the best option for holiday gatherings. Placing and lighting candles is another great way to get some soft light in your living room. I love lamps that have a low, medium and high setting so you can customize the intensity of the light to suite your mood. These particular lamps have a built-in power socket and usb port so you don’t have to go fumbling around behind furniture or underneath tables to pug devices in. Sign me up for multi-function in my home décor!
6. Add Large Accessories
This is a great opportunity to add in additional wood tones, textures or finishes. It’s not completely necessary to match the colors of your area rug for this example. In fact, I would suggest using your large accessories to add in some contrast. If you have a neutral, tone on tone space, try introducing some dark elements to add in some contrast. Take the large learner mirror on the back wall, this is a different wood tone from the other pieces. It has a distinctive weathered wood frame and that is completely different in color and texture from the medium wood tones of the matching accent tables. The mirror is a total contrast to the tables in texture, color and style. The large wall clock is another example of using a piece that is playing “against type” here as well. It has a much more minimal style that compliments the mirror and allows for some needed contrast on the light painted wall. It’s a great size, 24” x 24”, so it fills that other side of the window up nicely and provides a bit of balance for the mirror. Lastly, it is round which reinforces the round end and cocktail tables. It also breaks up all the right angles and provides a softness to the overall composition.
7. Finishing Touches
Last, it’s time to bring in the smaller accessories to really finish up the space. My first tip here is to try bringing in some smaller pieces from other rooms to see how they look in your newly updated living room. 1. That is a great way to save some money and 2. I’ve often found that moving accent pieces around in the house really makes your old stuff feel new again. Sometimes all it takes is moving stuff that you’ve looked at in another room hundreds of times into a new location to bring it back to life for you. I’ll usually bring in a bunch of stuff that has the same feel as my other metal tones, textures, wood tones and colors as my newly refreshed room. Then, I’ll start placing the objects around the room to see where they feel right. I usually end up moving things around a number of times, so don’t feel like that is unusual if you find yourself doing that. Place the objects down, step back and take a look at them. If they don’t feel right to you, move them and replace with something else. Trust your instinct and edit until you’re happy with the look.
Conclusion
Choose an Area Rug
Choose Curtains
Add in Pillows
Choose Art
Add Lighting
Add Large Accessories
Finishing Touches
That’s really it. Now that you’ve learned How to Fix Up Your Living Room in 7 Simple Steps, I’m curious to know if you have any additional tips you’ve used to give your space a simple refresh. Have you hosted holidays or events where you’ve felt unready to let people in the door? Leave a comment below with some of the things you did to get yourself prepared for company. As always, if you have a friend who could use this simple refresh method, share it out by clicking any of the share buttons to the left or right below.
Thank you so much for stopping by this week. I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate your time and attention. I can’t believe the holidays are almost here. It will be 2020 in the blink of an eye. Are you ready for that?
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I am so grateful you decided to take the time to read my post and until next week, stay amazing and keep your dreams big for your small space!
P.S. Need a little more to read? Check these posts out next:
WALLPAPER CURIOUS? DON’T WANT TO COMMIT? SEVEN OTHER WAYS TO USE WALLPAPER IN YOUR HOME.
FURNISHING A NEW HOUSE FROM SCRATCH? HERE’S FIVE TIPS TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK.
MIX IT UP! GET THE SKINNY ON MIXING PATTERNS, TEXTURE AND SCALE FOR YOUR LIVING ROOM
Michael is Principal designer and blogger at Michael Helwig Interiors in beautiful Buffalo, New York. Since 2011, he’s a space planning expert, offering online interior e-design services for folks living in small homes, or for those with awkward and tricky layouts. He’s a frequent expert contributor to many National media publications and news outlets on topics related to decorating, interior design, diy projects, and more. Michael happily shares his experience to help folks avoid expensive mistakes and decorating disappointments. You can follow him on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook @interiorsmh.
