Regardless where you live or what kind of home you live in, chances are you have a living room. The living room is the center of modern American home life, and is the room that most individuals spend the bulk of their time in. Whether you’re playing video games, watching television or engaging in some quality time with your family, the living room plays a quintessential role in the modern American household.
Many living rooms, however, aren’t in the best state that they could be. They’re left in a state of neglect, sparsely decorated and poorly maintained. For many, living rooms are seen as a mere utilitarian part of life, existing only to serve as a place to kick back and relax. Most living rooms rarely benefit from a complete realization of their true potential.
If you want to remedy this unfortunate reality in your home, you’re going to need to take a long hard look at your living room and decide what you need to change. You might need to remove certain things, or add others. You might need to rearrange the layout you’re currently using in the room too; whatever it takes, we guarantee you it’ll be worth it!
Want to take your living room to the next level? Then you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ll be taking you through some of the best ways to reinvigorate and reinvent your living room, breathing new life into a space that may have fallen into disrepair or neglect. With that said, let’s just jump right into it!
Organize the space
To start with, we’re going to be telling you the easiest and most inexpensive way to instantly revitalize your living room: reorganization! Whether your living room is disorganized and chaotic or simply boring and uninspired, there are few such spaces that can’t benefit from a thorough reorganization scheme. In addition to elevating your living room, donating unused goods can be a great way to support your community!
You can start off towards this goal by getting rid of any clutter and unnecessary furniture or decor currently in your living room. As the old saying goes, less is more; this rings true for living rooms too! Too much clutter, unnecessary furniture or garish decor can do a lot to detract from the overall aesthetic appeal of your living room, and removing such pieces can be equally effective in elevating your living room.
Another way to organize your living room is by finding some creative ways to store your belongings and decor. Using shelves, bookcases, storage containers and other creative organization solutions, you can inexpensively and easily elevate the appearance and aesthetic appeal of your living room while simultaneously increasing its practicality and functionality!
Thrift some new furniture
Want to up your living room decor while simultaneously minimizing your impact on the planet? Then you’ll want to look into getting some secondhand furniture! While prefabricated furniture from Ikea and other similar outlets may be the easiest way to revamp your living room, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to achieve a similar or even superior level of comfort and quality with responsibly sourced secondhand furniture.
There are plenty of options you can choose from when it comes to finding quality second hand furniture at a reasonable price. Antique stores, second hand furniture outlets and classifieds websites are all among the best places to search for this type of furniture, and you’ll often find the furniture you want at a much better price than you would if it were new.
In addition to affordability and environmental friendliness, second hand furniture also comes with the added benefit of being unique and interesting. When on the hunt for second hand furniture, you’ll often find antique or unique pieces that will serve as both beautiful aesthetic additions to your living room and excellent conversation starters!
Purchase a painting or two from local artists
As you may have realized while reading this article, there are a number of ways in which you can improve the decor and appearance of your living room while simultaneously helping the environment, your community and furthering your personal growth. Another way to elevate your living room while also being a good member of the community is by purchasing art from local artists for display in your living room!
Whether you live in Dallas, Miami or New York City, most towns and cities across the country have one thing in common: they are home to more than a few underappreciated artists. The art world is often harsh and unforgiving, and even the most talented artists often go years without so much as selling a painting or print.
If you want to help change this, you can find a local artist or two and purchase some of their art. It likely won’t cost you a great deal of money, but to them it will mean the world. It may even mean the difference between them defaulting on their rent and managing to pay it! Last but not least, these paintings or prints can be hung in your living room, instantly improving its aesthetics and overall appearance. It’s a win-win!
Repaint your living room
For homeowners with slightly larger budgets, one of the best ways to improve the aesthetic appeal of your living room is by giving the place a repaint. This may end up costing you a few hundred dollars, but by choosing the right colors and paints, you can easily change the entire look and feel of your living room without the effort of a complete remodel.
Repainting isn’t particularly difficult, if you have some idea of what you’re doing. Painting isn’t a complicated or particularly demanding process; it’s just meticulous work that requires patience, diligence and careful planning. Anyone with a good work ethic, a willingness to learn and a reasonable amount of mechanical dexterity can do a surprisingly good job repainting their living room, with the end result being nearly indistinguishable from those achieved by a professional.
The materials necessary for a repaint are simple. All you’ll need is some brushes, a roller and pan, some drop cloths, some paint and, most importantly, a coherent color scheme. Ultimately, with some elbow grease and a dream, you can have the living room color scheme you’ve always wanted at a fraction of the cost you’d pay to hire a professional team of painters.
Conclusion
When you’re trying to revamp your living room, it’s often tempting to look at furniture and lifestyle outlets like Ikea as a one-size-fits-all solution to any and all decor needs you may have. While these are often sufficient to get a reasonably attractive living room aesthetic, they often leave your living room lacking in personality and color. When these are your only source of lifestyle supplies and inspiration, your living room can easily become bland and boring.
With this article, it’s our hope that we’ve given you some solid ideas concerning where to start when organizing your living room and breathing some new life into it. It’s far from a comprehensive guide on elevating your living room decor, but with the inspiration we’ve given you here, we think you might just be able to do some great things. Until next time, good luck!