Arrangement of a living room with an area of 18-20 sq.m in the comfortable center of the house
For many homeowners, the living room is not just a room where the whole family gathers in the evenings for a joint rest, conversation and decision-making. This room is the heart of an apartment or home ownership, the design of which reflects the status of the owners, their lifestyle, preferences and even temperament. That is why it is so important for us to arrange a common room for all family members with maximum comfort and rationality. If the area of your living room is from 18 to 20 sq.m, then this is a very good option for placing all the necessary areas of the relaxation room. Only at first glance it may seem that in such a living room nothing can fit except a large sofa, a pair of armchairs and a TV on the wall. With the help of a selection of interesting design projects of living rooms, we will demonstrate the possibility of placing in a relatively small room not only the living room, but also the dining area, library, home office and much more.
Before proceeding to the planning of repairs, the choice of a color palette and furniture for the living room, decide what functions you would like to endow with the common room. Will it be an ordinary living room with a soft zone and a TV, or would you like to equip it with a natural relaxant - a fireplace, or maybe there is no other place in the apartment or house for placing a dining room or mini-cabinet.
After you decide on the purpose of your living room, you can begin to choose the color palette and the style of the room. We advise you to do this in parallel, because each style has its own color and textured preferences, but they are certainly not “carved in stone” and no one limits you in your freedom of choice. Moreover, the room for the whole family and the reception of guests is not intended for sleep or pacification and there are no restrictions on the color palette. With regard to stylistics, to design an area of 20 square meters, you can choose almost any stylistic direction, it all depends on the occupancy of the room with furniture and its purpose, taking into account the characteristics and hobbies of all family members.
Living Room Color Palette - Ocean of Ideas
A living room of 18-20 sq.m is a spacious enough room not to need restrictions in terms of color schemes for decoration and large furniture. But from the point of view of combinatorics of interior items among themselves, a light palette is preferable, neutral tones are easier to combine and there is no doubt that the living room decor will contribute to rest and relaxation.
Light colors, bright accents
Even without any skills in design art, you can equip a living room that will look fresh, modern, practical and non-trivial. Snow-white wall decoration, like a blank canvas for your imagination, is an ideal option for any color combination. A bright palette and bright pieces of furniture, upholstery or textiles are the conditions that every homeowner can do.
Furniture with bright upholstery, wall decor, pendant and floor lamps - on a white background everything looks very advantageous, accent. As a result, you get a fresh and light living room environment, not devoid of attractiveness and brightness.
Despite the total white tone of the ceiling and walls, the room looks bright and colorful, thanks to the active colors of furniture, carpet and textiles. The image of the living room as a result turns out to be non-trivial, interesting. But not only the color palette influenced the creation of a unique interior - the arrangement of furniture in a circle created a harmonious layout with a pronounced center of the composition.
Pastel colors and natural shades to create a cozy atmosphere
In nature, there are a lot of shades pleasant to the eye that can calm our psyche, pacify emotions, and allow the body to relax after a hard day in the family circle. We do not need to invent something new, just trust nature. Even the reddish shades of brickwork as an accent to the living room interior look not only appropriate, but also attractive, original.
In pastel colors of decoration and furnishings of the next living room, decorative dishes with Gzhel painting have been successfully integrated. The cool shades of the white and blue palette did not easily dilute the color scheme of the room, but also became its accents, centers of gravity.
A light mint shade of the main decoration of the living room created a neutral background for the room, using a wall pasted with wallpaper with gilded embossing as a soft accent. Noble colors transform the room and bring elegance to the most ordinary surroundings.
The atmosphere of the living room is literally saturated with proximity to nature and all thanks to a careful selection of colors. The active use of wood (or its successful imitation) and carpet, which successfully imitates young grass, creates the effect of being outdoors.
Colorful decoration - an interesting interior of the living room
The average size of the common room is not a reason to deny yourself the possibility of using colorful, saturated colors for decoration. If you don’t like the light palette, if the white-beige interiors evoke melancholy, and you want the living room to invigorate and keep all those present in good shape, then look at the next photo - a bright, eclectic family room can do a lot. From such an interior literally blows spring mood, joy, festive mood and positive.
Imitation of masonry has become more than a bright decoration for the walls of the next living room. With such an active background, the furniture should be light, neutral colors. The use of textiles for decorating window openings is optional in this case, the same applies to carpeting.
The deep, dark emerald shade of the wall decoration became an excellent backdrop for snow-white edging of niches for arranging open shelves, window and door openings, an original wall decor, a colorful print of chair upholstery.
Stylistic solutions - modern mixes
Currently, most of the living room design projects are a mix of two or three stylistic trends, reflected in the decoration, furnishings and space decoration. For example, traditional methods are often used to finish the surfaces of a room in which modern furniture will stand, country-style decor will be present, and at the same time, the practicality and quantity of pieces of furniture will tend to minimalist practicality.
The Scandinavian style in the interior of the living room is popular around the world. Perhaps the European desire for practicality, the moderate use of furniture and decor served as an excellent incentive for homeowners from different countries. Among our compatriots, you can also meet many fans of this functional, but attractive in appearance style in the design of the rooms. Scandinavian style, as a rule, is expressed in a snow-white (or pastel) decoration of the room with a minimum set of furniture in simple and convenient forms. Scandinavian style is distinguished from minimalism by room decoration - bright interior items, home textiles, carpets for floors, soft and even fur bedspreads or wraps for sofas and armchairs. All of these interior items and its decor create a pleasant, cozy atmosphere. And the color palette makes us forget that in our country, as in many Scandinavian countries, most of the year outside the window is slushy, damp or cold.
For relatively small living room rooms, the minimalist atmosphere is an opportunity not only to save free space without compromising the functionality of the room, but also to arrange a room in which it will be comfortable for everyone - households and their guests.
Minimalism “loves” space, high ceilings and large windows, lots of light and white. In a campaign with pastel shades and natural dark tones of furniture and decor, the white color of the finish creates an atmosphere of peace and relaxation. A minimum of furniture, but the most practical models, provides a sufficient amount of free space.
The contemporary style “prefers” the light decoration of the living room walls using bright, modern furniture, the original models of which become the main objects of collection of all views. As a rule, textile decoration is completely absent or is present in small quantities, but much attention is paid to wall decor. Pictures, mirrors in original frames or whole compositions from various decor items can rightfully be called art objects.
A modern interpretation of the classic interior in the living room can be a very interesting way of arranging a common room with comfort, grace and nobility. In the traditional design, in addition to the desire to provide the room with maximum comfort and convenience for households, there is also an irresistible craving for the integration of beautiful furniture, fine textiles and sophisticated decor. And the light, pastel palette of finishes and furnishings in this regard is very helpful.
Living room furniture - a practical approach to beauty
No one will argue with the fact that the main piece of furniture in the living room is a sofa. Much in the image of the living room depends on how the soft zone of the common room looks. If we talk about the practical side of the issue, then the largest number of seats with a minimum footprint provide corner sofas. Many models of corner structures are able to fold out and provide a berth for guests who stayed with you at night.
The dark corner sofa against the snow-white background of the living room decoration does not look easy in contrast, but it becomes the unconditional focal center of the room.
Another example of a corner sofa with dark velor upholstery, which serves as a wonderful backdrop not only for colorful sofa cushions, but also for a bright composition of pouffes-stands with red leather upholstery.
The corner sofa, made up of several blocks and occupying two perpendicular walls of the living room, is perfect for decorating a room with oriental motifs. To successfully accompany such a roomy piece of furniture you will need at least two coffee tables or several small coasters, pouffes.
A roomy sofa with leather upholstery is a practical solution for the living room, especially for houses and apartments where there are small children. A snow-white textile sofa in the presence of little artists and just pranksters “gets killed” during the first month of operation. But it is important to remember that leather upholstery has its drawbacks - it is cold in the off-season on such a couch, and hot in the summer.
In addition to providing the living room with upholstered furniture, it is necessary to install a coffee table, stand or a whole composition of small pieces of furniture (depending on the size of the sofa and the number of chairs, their layout in the room). It is also necessary to decide whether you need storage systems in the living room — closed cabinets or open bookshelves, or maybe storefronts for storing family heirlooms — dinner sets or collectibles. The living area of 20 square meters is quite capable of accommodating small storage systems located near one of the walls of the room.
A coffee table made of construction pallets, equipped with wheels is not only a spectacular piece of furniture that stores the warmth of your hands (if you made it yourself), but also a mobile station-stand for any household items.Obviously, in a classic interior, such pieces of furniture will not look appropriate, but the table is integrated very successfully into the modern design.
Options for arranging a multifunctional living room
Living-dining room
In so many apartments and private households, the living room serves as a dining room, because kitchen spaces are not able to accommodate a dining group, and there is simply no separate room for arranging a meal. A room with an area of 20 square meters can easily accommodate two functional areas - a dining room and a living room, while there is still a lot of free space.
The snow-white finish and furniture of the living-dining room are effectively “diluted” with wooden flooring and the accent design of one of the walls with brickwork. Modern style does not impose any restrictions on the manifestation of your imagination, both in the decoration of the room and in its layout with furniture. For example, a massive table made of carved wood harmoniously combines with designer chairs, and all the furniture in the living area is made of former building pallets.
Another example of a bright living-dining room, which was able to harmoniously put together in a medium-sized room. Thanks to the snow-white finish, the abundance of natural light and well-placed color accents, the room looks incredibly fresh, easy and even festive. Usually in snow-white spaces it is difficult to achieve a cozy and warm atmosphere, the coldness and sterility of white tones interfere. But the wooden dining table, fur covers for chairs and bright shades of pendant lights successfully coped with the role of “thinners”.
Here is an example of the design of a living room of a very modest size. This is unbelievable, but when placing a soft zone, storage systems, a dining segment for two and a TV zone within the framework of a common room, there is free space in the room. The living room does not look loaded, cluttered, despite the fact that its decor is quite active and even in the decoration it uses a colorful print - horizontal stripes that visually expand the room.
The studio room, which, in addition to the living area, includes a segment of the entrance hall, kitchen and dining room, is a fairly common version of the design of apartments built in this century. With the help of color accents of both decoration and furniture, it was possible to organically zonate the space without any partitions or even use shelving as screens.
The minimalist atmosphere of the living room combined with the dining room leaves a lot of free space, but at the same time all the necessary functional aspects of the room are taken into account. The space is filled with natural light, the atmosphere "breathes" freedom, spaciousness and lightness.
Living room library
In a medium-sized room, you can surely single out one of the walls for installing book racks and thus equip the library in a common room. Well, and to organize a reading corner you need very little - a small sofa or a comfortable armchair and floor lamp. Your book shelves can either merge with the general shade of the decoration of the room, or act as an accent painted in a contrasting color.
The living room is a library that shares the functions of the dining room - an objective reality. A wall with a window or two is always empty, we can’t install furniture there or hang a TV, so why not use the free space to build book racks, using, among other things, the space under the windowsill? As for the dining area, the bay window in this living room has become an ideal place for a round dining table and mini armchairs.
An interesting interior item can be a composition of open shelf units, drawn up in random order. Such a storage system for books and discs does not burden the appearance of the room, but at the same time it is a fairly roomy rack. In a snow-white version or made of light wood, such a rack harmoniously fits into any modern interior.
Living room with fireplace - “classic of the genre”
In Europe and America, the living room is strongly associated with the presence of a hearth. Our compatriots have recently also begun to install fireplaces in their homes more often. But if in a private house the arrangement of the existing hearth does not meet any obstacles, then in an apartment building you can often find electrical appliances that successfully simulate fireplaces. A living room with an average area of 18-20 square meters can easily accommodate a zone with both a working fireplace and its analogue, working from a power outlet.
The most common place to place a TV zone in a living room with a fireplace is the space above the hearth. It is very convenient that in one segment of the room there are two types of relaxants at once. For many homeowners, the best way to relax after a hard day is to watch TV with households; for more intimate and cool evenings with conversations, a fireplace is lit as a natural source of relaxation and purification of thoughts and emotions.
A fireplace often acts as a niche between the living room and dining room or kitchen, for example. In this case, it attracts additional attention and needs a more thorough finish, perhaps in the application of a special decor for the space of an impromptu niche. With the help of stucco molding, you can bring a bit of classics into the modern design of the room and raise its status to a new level.
Another common design move for living rooms is to install a metal stove in the fireplace space. This is a very practical way to organize an additional heat source and a safe option for its execution.
Often in modern design projects of living rooms you can find an imitation of a fireplace, which is simply a niche for installing a composition of candles or lighting fixtures. The design of such a “center” with the help of embossed wall panels becomes the highlight of the interior and its unconditional focus center.