The living room is the heart and soul of any home. It’s the place where friends and family gather to enjoy a meal, play games and crack a few jokes before going home to their own homes. But what if you don’t want to fill your living room with so much clutter? What if you’d rather keep it simple, warm, and cozy? Well then, this article is for you! It’s time to get organized! Here are a few tips on how to organize living room furniture.
Organizing your living room furniture can be as simple or as complex as you are. It all depends on how organized you are. Follow these simple guidelines, and you’ll be living room furniture organization-free in no time!
Establish a Central Focus
You want your living room furniture to be as unified as possible, right? That’s where a central focus comes into play. The best way to get started is to use a tablecloth or a blanket as a guide.
Decide where you’ll keep your centerpieces. For example, if centerpieces are the wedding present that you’re keeping for yourself, you’ll want to put them in the center of the table.
Make it the focus of your table. Once you’ve established where your centerpieces will be located, the rest of your table will follow suit.
Provide Enough Space
This is the most important thing you can do when it comes to organize your living room furniture. If you have an uneven or crowded living room, then you’re probably going to have a hard time keeping everything in order.
That’s where a great organization program like The Container Store’s Create comes into play. Create allows you to mark down items that need to be taken out or put away and then has those items wrapped up in a storage bag.
Once you’ve marked everything that needs to go, it’s easy peasy. Just take it out of the storage bag, place it where you want it, and throw away the bag.
Take Advantage of Storage
The same goes for storage; why not use the space more wisely? If there’s a chance that a large item will be lying around for a long time, then it should be put away in a smaller item. Make use of hidden space inside furniture pieces. If there’s a small drawer or a sock-sized gap between the front legs of a sofa or the back of a chair, then you can bet that there’s potential for a mess.
Frame pictures and mirrors. While it’s easy enough to hang pictures on the wall, it’s also a good idea to keep them from getting out of control. Trim the edge of pictures so they don’t look as though they’re falling off the wall. If a picture is a few centimeters too wide, simply trim it down to the size you’d like.
Feature Large Items
You don’t have to spend a small fortune to get a great-looking living room set. It’s perfectly fine to opt for a piece that costs a few hundred dollars. In fact, you might even want to do this on purpose.
What you want to look for are large items that you can store away when you’re not using them. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the item is big enough to stand up straight and roomy enough to store away your prized possessions.
If you’re not sure what size piece of furniture you should get, you can always measure the space that you have in your home. A bedroom set should usually fit into a bedroom, while a living room set should fit into a room.
Accentuate with Light
Did you know that huge furniture pieces create a dim, gloomy room? The same goes for lights. If you have a dull light coming from an overblown lamp or a dark, gloomy room, it will make your guests feel completely lost. You can solve this by using a source of light that brings light into the room, like a bedside lamp or a table lamp.
If you’re not a huge fan of lights, there are plenty of options for adding light to your organized living room furniture. You can always go with a subtle light from a candle or a small light that can be hung from a shoe or a wall-mounted lamp.
Introduce Elongating Accents
This one’s a no-brainer. If an item is too short or too wide, you’re going to look unorganized and messy. So, try adding some length or width to an item. There are a couple of ways to go about this. The first is to use a candle as an accent piece. You can hang a candle from a shoe, a wall, or an outdoor light.
The other option is to use a lantern as your elongating accessory. These might be a little pricey, but they’re also a great way to add light and character to any space. You can also experiment with using a lampshade as an elongating accessory. Add some color and texture to the shade. It will look like a bookshelf is spilling out of the lampshade.
Bring in Angles
If the room has a natural light source coming in from above or from the side. You might want to add an angle piece to the room. This will give the room a more open and spacious feel.
If the light comes from the front or the side. You can always try adding an opposite-side light to brighten the room up. You can always place lights on the opposite side of the room from the door. So it doesn’t look like you’re permanently corralled in one room.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to organize your living room furniture. All you have to do is keep it that way. Regularly clean your table and chairs, and vacuum or sweep the floor when necessary. Keep your curtains closed when you’re not using them. Store away items that are out of date or no longer use.