How to arrange a small living dining room?
Sources
DESIGN DILEMMA - Tricky Living Room Layout, Narrow ... - YouTube
www.youtube.com
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1
13 Small Living Room Ideas That Will Maximize Your Space
www.architecturaldigest.com
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2
38 Small Living Room Ideas That Maximize Space and Style
www.apartmenttherapy.com
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3
Awkward living room layout ideas: How to overcome tricky spaces
decoratingden.com
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4
Answer
Here are some tips for arranging a small living dining room:
Delineate Functions Using Rugs: Use rugs to visually separate the living and dining areas. Placing a rug under the dining table and another in the living area can help define the different zones.2
Fashion a Desk from a Console: If space is tight, use a console table as a dual-purpose desk and display surface. By day, it can hold books and decor, and by night it can serve as a work surface.2
Add a Sectional: In a small space, a sectional sofa can be a space-saving solution that provides ample seating. Look for a sectional that fits the room well without overwhelming it.2
Stick to a Defined Color Palette: Choose a cohesive color scheme to make the space feel more unified and intentional, whether that's a neutral palette or a bold mix of colors.2
Use Mirrors: Strategically placing mirrors can make a small living dining room feel more open and bright by reflecting light.2
Use Existing Elements: Maximize the use of any built-in ledges, windowsills or other architectural features to hold decor and reduce the need for extra furniture.2
Float Your Furniture: Instead of pushing furniture against the walls, float it in the center of the room. This can create a more intimate and cohesive layout.43
Incorporate Room Dividers: Use bookcases, screens or other dividers to visually separate the living and dining areas without closing them off completely.4
The key is to choose furniture and layout solutions that are scaled appropriately for the small space and help define the different functional zones. Focusing on multi-purpose pieces and an open, flexible layout can make the most of a compact living dining room.
References
1. DESIGN DILEMMA - Tricky Living Room Layout, Narrow ... - YouTube2. 13 Small Living Room Ideas That Will Maximize Your Space3. 38 Small Living Room Ideas That Maximize Space and Style4. Awkward living room layout ideas: How to overcome tricky spaces5. Open Concept Layouts (Pro Space Planning Tips!) - YouTube
Author: Christina DiStefano
Key insights
- ️ An L-shaped sofa can be a great alternative to a traditional layout in a small space, allowing for more seating without overcrowding.
- Investing in multi-functional furniture pieces with storage options can provide both practicality and aesthetic appeal in a small living room.
- ️ Utilizing wall hanging shelves instead of floor bookshelves can create more space for seating in a small living room.
- Small living rooms can still feel spacious and balanced with the right design approach.
- A focal point like a large piece of art can pull your eyes up and create a visually appealing space in a small living room.
- 🪞 Placing a mirror across from a window can give the feeling of more light in the space.
- Amplifying natural light can make a small living room feel airy and light.
- 🪑 Choosing leggy furniture can create the illusion of more air and spaciousness in a small living room.
Video Full Text
- Hello friend welcome back I hope you've had a great week today. We're getting into a very much requested video topic and that is decorating a small living room living in New York City. Especially in Manhattan. I have endured many small living rooms including studio apartments. So I feel like I'm a little bit of an expert on it. You know I think it's really interesting because I feel like in New York. We all kind of learn to adapt to this some better than others and today. I'm going to give you my tips for how I've navigated a small space but still giving it a lot of character and personality and making it a space that I feel proud of proud enough to invite friends over and to hang out the thing I would like to start off with is think about the space and what your purpose is. That's what you're going to start off with any space. You're going to think about what am I using this space for do I plan to have friends coming over do I plan to have guests or is it just me and my partner or we hanging out and only watching TV like what will we be doing in this space because that's going to largely determine how much Furniture you really need if you plan to entertain.Read More
- I want you to think about seating in sort of the shape of at least a triangle. If not a square then a triangle and what I mean by that is think about a triangle you want to have seating at each point of the triangle if you can't have a square like. For example a square would be or a rectangle would be sofa with two chairs in front of it pretty standard layout but in a smaller space you may not be able to pull something like that off. So. In that case I want you to think about an l shaped sofa now hear me out. There's a couple reasons why I like an L-shaped sofa for a small space number one one just because you have a small space doesn't mean you have to have a love seat as your sofa. Often times. We think we need more furniture than we actually need for a small space like we're trying to have a traditional layout in a small space that you would normally expect in a larger room in a small space. You're not going to be able to do that not typically and so I would like for you to think about maybe bypassing the end tables and what you're going to get from. That is you're going to get a space especially with the L shape. So the L shape could be like the sofa with like the Shays attached to it or maybe. It's modular and you can kind of move. Those pieces around but with an L shape you're going to have seating at each one of those Corners so you're not right in someone's personal space. I cannot imagine ever going to a friend's house where I'm sitting on the sofa and they're sitting like right beside me I'm trying to have a conversation with them that would be so awkward. I had a studio once where I had this L-shaped IKEA sofa. The great thing about that L-shaped sofa that I had from Ikea was that the bottom of it popped up and it made like this huge KingSize bed and then the shed the shads popped up and I could put all my blankets inside so that was such a great great thing for me. The other thing I want you to think about is multi-purpose furn Furniture. So rather than having your usual end table. I want you to consider multifunctional tables such as an ottoman that opens up and has room for storage.Read More
- There could be things that you could store inside of there you always want to be thinking about storage. You always want to think of nice little. Pretty neat ways to tuck away things because what you can't do in a small space is have clutter unintentional clutter and things that are kind of left around because it really shows in that small space. I like the way these two pieces actually look and I think they're great investment and a Timeless investment at that. They have a worldly feel and they're actually very beautiful. I've seen them in person at World Market but look at this storage. This is the coffee table. The intable also has storage and also that intable you could use as a side sort of stool as well. So you could move that around if you need additional seating in your space. If you have unexpected guests. This is a great place to pop all of your things really quick and also it's a great place to hide toys and blankets and things like that when they're not in use. I have two options for a coffee table for you either buying a large trunk and what I did was I would stack books on top of that because I love books and then I would pick candles and people could set their drinks and stuff on that nothing was really too precious like in my home. But I had this large trunk and that also served as a place for me to store my winter clothes in the summertime and my summer clothes in the winter time. Because also in Manhattan I had one closet for towels bed linens everything I am using this example to illustrate the trunk as a great option for your living room. But I do want to note about this picture is that imagine if they were able to get those bookshelves off the floor and do like wall hanging shelf and utilize that wall space they would have much more area on the floor to then do like an L-shaped sofa or a fulls siiz sofa. They wouldn't need this small little um love seat sofa to be their only source of seating in this small space. The other option I really like is gathering a few of these sort of stool slash side tables in a collection of maybe three or two and you use those as a coffee table and you can pull away pieces of them of the collection to then be used as seating to be used as side tables. So you got to think in terms of things that you can kind of move around as your guest count changes. So if it's just a couple people it may serve great as just a coffee table. But if you have several friends over maybe you want to kind of move these around if you are entertaining and you're standing around. You may want to move them out of the center altogether but use them as a place to hold drinks. I would also opt for chairs that are a good size for the space. I would think about a chair that is comfortable for your body shape and height but also that is not too that doesn't lean back too much or take up too much overall space. So maybe it's more of an upright sort of chair which I feel like when you have guests come over. I want to sit in in a more upright chair myself because I don't want to hang out like this in a chair. When I'm at someone's house I don't want to be like leaning back like this anyway.Read More
- It's not reclining time. Now I have to reposition myself I would opt for something like that. Another option is to think about hanging things on the walls. You really want to utilize your wall space as much as possible so using hanging shelves is a great idea. You could also get those white. I think they're Billy bookcases from Ikea and stack I don't know like three of them together. Two of them together depends on the size of your room but I would line one wall in the room with those and you could even put your sofa up against those shelves so you have the bookshelves activated behind you and then in that space that's covered up by your sofa. You could use that as additional storage because people aren't seeing that but I would put it in nice you know like linen covered boxes or something like that. In case. Someone could catch a glimpse of that from the side of the sofa so you could utilize that as extra storage another thing to do is layer your lighting and so again I would move as much as you can off the floor myself because I think that you need to see some of the floor and some of the floorboard that gives a feeling of breathing room. You need that negative space we don't want to occupy every square inch of your living room with things. So you want to have some of those empty little pockets with Harmony unity and balance in mind of course. But you want to have those little empty. Pockets to show like oh I have everything I need in this space. I have little gaps where you can see the floorboard because there's plenty of room in this small space. So it's kind of like a subconscious subliminal thing.Read More
- So you know you want to keep that in mind and in order to do something something like that you need to look at what can you elevate what can you move onto the wall. So I would opt for sconces. You could get an arm like a reading light that has a long arm that can come over and you know shine light there when you need to read and then it goes. It retracts back think about having some kind of interesting focal point fixture above the seating area because again we're wanting to bring your eyes up bringing your eyes up gives the illusion of that the ceilings are higher than they actually are. I would also recommend a neutral rug things that reflect light so lighter colors tend to look a bit bigger than darker colors things that just absorb all the light. So if you have a lighter rug on the floor. It's going to give you the feeling of a bigger floor plan. The principles of design do not get thrown out of the window. You really need to still consider those just as you would any room and if you need additional help with that definitely check out the foundations of creativity playlist that I've made for you. I'll link it here and then you can get a little more understanding about those principles speaking of those principles don't forget about a focal point. I already mentioned a light fixture that you have hanging from the center could be a focal point but also something else that can pull your eyes. Up would be to use a large piece of artwork and it could be immediately over the sofa. It could be on another wall but think about when you enter the room. What do you where do you want the eyes to go and if you have an oversized piece of art versus several small pieces of art on you know um a gallery wall that one piece is going to give the illusion of a bigger Space versus several small spe spieces several small pieces.Read More
- I'm sure you've heard of using mirrors and that I I have to mention it because it's very important in a small space. But the way that I would work with the mirror is I would have them kind of either across from each other consider putting a large clean minimal like I'm doing this like mirror on either side okay because then you're going to get like a feeling of Dimension when you look side to side. Also it's kind of cool because you can see like whoa it looks like you're going in an alternate. Dimensions or something the other way that I would do it is I would think about it actually this. This is one of the ways that I really like to use a mirror in a small space or in any space really is I would have it across from a window because then that's going to give you the feeling of more light in the space. The more light you have in the space the bigger it's going to look the more natural light focusing on your natural light is going to be your best friend. So if we can reflect the natural light I play with mirrors a lot to reflect natural light in dark areas. So I have a dark corner in my kitchen and I put a mirror across from the window in the kitchen. So we're getting light there and and it almost feels as though there's another window. There it feels as though there's more natural light. There. It amplifies that reflection of natural light into the actual space and so this is something you could do so. This is how the mirrors work for you and this is how you can properly position the mirrors to amplify the natural light. That's what's really going to help you that's how mirrors really work for you in a small space.Read More
- The last one and this is tough for me because I love Fabric and I love drapes but when you have a small living room keep in mind that if you have a long drape and it's hitting the floor you're losing some of that floorboard space that we were talking about some of that empty space some of that negative space that is the valuable real estate on your floor plan. So if you are going for that I would opt for a shear and I would opt for a Shear that is the same color as your walls or maybe a lighter variation of it. But you also don't want to restrict the natural light coming in like for example. This is a nice Shear here that blocks out what we're seeing in the window but still allows a lot of light to come in so if you insist on having a a a curtain or a drape in your small living room. That's the direction I would go. I would recommend using a Roman shade because these are very beautiful. I still really love a Roman shade and it's a way to kind of blend like when you have to pull it down for privacy. It's a way to blend the wall and the shade in but still have some light coming through um without making the walls feel like they're closing in. On you. I will always love drapes first but if you insist on a drape then go for a sheer something light and Airy. That's what you need to be thinking about in that small space. I know you can go with like a moody Vibe a dark room in a small space absolutely. It's Moody. It's it can be a little romantic. It can be sexy you know to to make a small space dark and that is certainly an option and these other principles that I mentioned to you. These other tips would still apply in that way but just in a darker version. But I would always myself opt for a lighter version just because I a person who needs a lot of natural light so the more the more more I can't talk. Today. The more I can kind of fake it. You know fake the natural light or um amplify. The natural light really show off the natural light make it feel. Airy make it feel light. I'm going to go in that direction and speaking of Airy.Read More
- You know there's there's some conversation about choosing furniture that is leggy so legged Furniture versus like a dense piece on the floor and that will make a difference for sure because the more elevated your pieces are the the the the areer it will feel and the areer it feels you know like the more it feels like it's going up. It will also create that illusion too it'll create that illusion of more air more spaciousness but on the same note having that lower furniture will make your ceiling feel high so it's kind of your personal preference and I would even still opt for mixing it up. I still think that even if you're in a small space and you're mixing up leg furniture with like lower um or more dense pieces you can do that like if you're going for an L-shaped sofa and you go for something you know that is more dense that doesn't really have a leg to it. But then you have like a couple leg chairs that are a little more upright that's a great way to do it and that's still having a lot of circulation like you want to think in terms of air circulation. It's really about creating the energy of the space. That's what you're doing so being sensitive to that the way a space feels and taking all these things into consideration. I know you're going to come up with a beautiful space. Just take these tips figure out and just kind of assess your space and see which ones apply to you and let me know how it goes and if you have other tips please leave them in the comments and lastly don't forget about the live every Wednesday. In April this month we are going live at 7:00 p.m Eastern where I will answer your interior design questions. It's called fix my home and uh be sure to find me on Instagram at Christina DeStefano studio. So you can DM me a picture of your design Challenge and a summary of what you're dealing with and I will let you know if you'll be featured and on that note sending you so much love from New York m.Read More