Small rooms, big impact: This is how you can set up your living room to save space

Table of contents

• 1. Avoid large furniture
• 2. Create a room layout using wall paint
• 3. Go for a slim silhouette
• 4. Use the space behind the sofa
• 5. Stretch the room with striped patterns
• 6. How-To: Set up a small living room with a dining area

The living room is the heart of your home - a place to relax, work, meet friends or even do sports. But if space is at a premium, setting it up can quickly become a challenge. But with a few clever tricks you can get the most out of your living room and make it appear larger.

With these simple ideas you can not only furnish your living room practically, but also make it cozy - even if space is limited.

1. Avoid large furniture

Sounds banal, but it's really important. If you have a small living room, you should adapt the furniture to the size of the room if possible. This means: It's best to avoid bulky pieces of furniture that take up too much space and make the room look small.

Of course, there is furniture for which a certain size is important for comfort - for example the sofa. However, a medium size is often enough and it doesn't have to be a huge upholstered living area. A great option for a small living room, for example, is a two-seater sofa that can be pulled out into a bed (like this beautiful model from IKEA*).

Tipp:If you do want to fit a larger corner sofa in a small living room, place it so that the open side faces the door. This immediately seems much more inviting.

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2. Create a room layout using wall paint

Especially if you want to cover different purposes with your living room - for example, by accommodating a desk or a dining area, it is helpful to divide the room with wall color when furnishing small living rooms.

Paint the corners of the room that serve a different purpose a different color. You can paint the ceiling to enhance the effect, or just paint half a wall to make the result look a little simpler.

This technique has the advantage that you can easily create different zones and your living roomlook calmercan leave. Your eye is guided, making it easier to block out the corner of your desk when you're lying relaxed on the sofa.

Tipp:Do you like the wall color in the photo? Here you canorder directly from Amazon*.

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3. Go for a slim silhouette

It's not just the actual size of the furniture that is important in a small living room. The look of the furniture and decorative elements can also have an influence on how large the room appears.

You should therefore avoid seating and sideboards without feet in a small living room. The rule of thumb here is: everLess floor space covers a piece of furniture, the less restrictive it seems.

Transparent furniture made of glass or plexiglass (likethis trendy coffee table from Amazon*) that simply seem to disappear into space. Shelves without a back wall or chairs with loosely woven material also appear subtly airier and do not block the view.

4. Use the space behind the sofa

Do you want to fit a wall unit or a few bookshelves in your small living room, but don't have enough free walls? Thenmove the sofa half a meter from the walland place the shelf wall behind it.

The practical thing about this solution: It creates an exciting background for your sofa, offers storage for decorations and at the same time makes everything that you put on the shelf behind the sofa disappear. All in one!

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5. Stretch the room with striped patterns

The use of stripes is also a good way to make a small living room appear larger. As with clothing, vertical stripes elongate furniture and wallpaper, while horizontal stripes widen them. So, to make a room appear longer, you can use a long striped rug (to porridge play this runner from Amazon*) lay out.

Tipp:Place the rug so that it runs parallel to the longest wall in the living room. Conversely, a rug with horizontal stripes can make a narrow room appear wider.

The same principle also works on the wall. If you want to make your ceilings appear higher, you can paint one wall in the room a color and leave a stripe of white at the top. Borders or light striped patterns also make the walls appear higher or wider, depending on the situation.

6. How-To: Set up a small living room with a dining area

If you want to accommodate a small dining area in your living room, it is best to choose a round table. Ideally, this can be pulled out so that all your friends can find space if necessary, but the table does not take up more space than necessary in everyday life.

To prevent the dining table from looking out of place, you can separate it from the rest of the living room with a rug. It's best to choose a washable carpet, as mishaps can happen quickly when eating.You can find our simple favorite here on Amazon*.

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We hope the tips help you set up your small living room. For more interior design tips, take a look at our Living & Lifestyle section!