Home Decorating

Formal living rooms are typically designed for entertaining and conversation. To create a design for your formal living room, identify your focal points, arrange your furniture to maximize the views and accessorize based on the scale of your wall space. Lay out the design before you shop for furniture so you can better size the individual pieces. Add elements like stained glass windows or a crystal chandelier to set an elegant tone for your formal living room.

Instructions
Things You’ll Need

Measuring tape

1. Identify the focal points in your room before creating your design. In a formal living room, you may have a picture window or a fireplace, both of which are focal points. You may have built-in shelving or a bar area along one wall; these are also focal points. Measure the walls and room space around the focal points so you can lay out a design for furniture placement. Outline the layout, including measurements for windows, doorways and focal points. You can sketch your layout on paper or create a 3-D image on your computer with the help of free software.
2. Arrange your furniture to accentuate the focal points in your room. Formal living room designs may include a piano, which is definitely a focal point and will dictate the arrangement of your room, especially if it is a grand or baby grand. Place the piano first, and then layer in the other large furniture pieces so that they face one or more of the focal points. For example, if your formal living room has a bay or picture window on one wall and a fireplace on another, place your sofa facing the fireplace with the window to the side or back, depending on whether or not the fireplace is opposite the window or on the wall adjacent to it. Add two chairs and a table opposite from or to enclose the sofa. If your living room has an oversized doorway taking up much of one wall, use the space in either corner to place your piano or to create a seating nook with a chair and side table. You can place furniture to the side of an oversized doorway without limiting your access.
3. Accessorize the walls and table tops with mirrors, art or family photos. A formal living room is the perfect place to showcase a large-scale family portrait. Hang the portrait over the mantle on the fireplace or on the wall behind the sofa. You can place a large mirror opposite the windows to bring more light into the room. Design the layout for any artwork, sculptures or wall hangings based on size and scale of the available wall space. You can group small works of art together to create the illusion of a larger piece, or add sconces on either side of a medium-sized piece if you need to fill a large space. Add a rug to connect furniture groupings and decorate the table tops with candles, glassware or collectibles.

To design a Tuscany-inspired living room, think of the vast vineyards, gently rolling hills, and magnificent scenery for which Italy is famous. Just as Tuscany is located in the heart of Italy, the living room is the heart of a family’s home. Tuscan designs are warm, inviting and regal, ideal for a lovely living room retreat.

Selecting Colors

Designing a Tuscan living room begins first with color, rustic, earthy tones and hues, inspired from nature itself. Deep reds, olive inspired greens, sunlit yellows, and terra-cotta oranges are popular shades. Warm browns from the earth and elegant blues of the surrounding sea find their places rooted in Tuscan design. When painting the wall, consider which color provides the energy or warmth desired. To keep the living room light, choose yellow or gold. For a vibrant energy, choose red or orange. Consider using blue and green as accent walls, although both colors are regal in their hue and can add an air of elegance.

The exact color does not need to be precise, but if the color concept still escapes the creative mind, find pictures online to inspire decorating, or find Italian art pieces that will provide a color theme.

Texture Choices

When designing a Tuscany living room, think Old World tradition. Textures are often rough, the trademark of many years of beloved use and detailed artistry by skilled workers who strove for excellence within their trade. Terra-cotta pots are popular and provide a rustic feel, while tables and chairs with wrought iron and scrolled metal detailing supply refined, elegant elements. Elaborate wooden furniture, hand painted or finished in rich warm stains, brings natural pieces to the living room.

Tapestries or Italian-inspired art pieces add decorative flare and soften many of the rough edges of iron and wood.

Arrange pieces to fit the living space. The order is not as important as the colors, textures and old-fashioned accessories that replicate Tuscany houses.

Lighting

Because older styles tend to be more eclectic, lighting can come from various sources like antique-style chandeliers, various lamps and natural sunlight. Stay away from gaudy pieces, but it is acceptable to use more than one light source. Avoid recessed lighting or anything that looks new or modern. Tuscan designs are very old-fashioned in their appearance and things should look as natural as they would have 100 years ago. In going with Old World tradition, candles and lanterns work well for providing accent lighting. Use sheer or light-colored curtains to allow sunlight, or consider installing lights in various places. To mimic the appearance of a sun-drenched living room, consider installing inconspicuous lighting in discreet areas that do not interrupt the flow of traditionalism.

Special Additions

To design a Tuscany living room it is all about the final additions, small changes that can add serious design impact. While they are not always budget friendly, the result is well worth the time and money spent.

Aside from merely painting the walls a flat color, Tuscan design has many layered textures, so consider Venetian plaster. This faux technique involves spreading drywall putty on the wall with various trowel strokes. Then simply prime and paint with a glaze-paint mixture. Several coats add depth and interest to the wall. For a time-honored appearance, try hand painting or stenciling details on furniture.
Consider adding architectural features such as columns, wooden ceiling beams, stone or tile flooring and arched structural elements. If this is not feasible, use items that re-create these special touches like arched frames for art and mirrors or build custom beams and columns with spare wood. Fresh flowers, fruit baskets, vases, and urns are commonplace Italian accent pieces that add distinct flair.

To display family photos, transfer original prints into black-and-white or sepia-toned images that coordinate with the Old World design theme. Remember to keep things uniform with delicately aged accents and decorations.

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Interior design is an art of putting pieces together to manipulate the architectural integrity of the interior spaces. It is concerned with anything and everything that is found inside a space and that includes the doors, walls, textures, windows, finishes, furnishings, light, and furniture. Most of these elements, if not all, are used by interior designers in creating a safe, functional, and aesthetically pleasing space. The interior design of a house gives it either a warm and inviting setting or a cold and distant ambience. While there are many factors which contribute to a room’s atmosphere, the way the furniture is arranged or where the furniture is placed is also a great factor to influence the mood of the room.

Squeezing in all the furniture into your rooms is a lot more challenging than buying them. Sometimes furniture cannot be placed in a certain spot due to a door that swings the wrong way, a window that is too low, and many other factors, which will challenge your furniture-arranging skills.

A Short Guide on How to Arrange furniture

It must be remembered there are no hard and fast rules in interior decoration, much more on furniture arrangement. But there are some things that may help one in arranging the furniture to give the room some enjoyable spaces where the whole family or guests will feel relaxed.

1. Good furniture arrangement starts with evaluating the area of the room or house as well as the furniture inside the room. Consider the size of the room first before buying or putting in the furniture. Measure the room or get the dimension of the room. This will give you an idea of the size of the furniture that you will put. By using one’s common sense, the furniture must fit into the available space.
2. When you plan to arrange a room or decorate a room, always take into consideration the person or persons who will use the room, the number of people who use the room, and how often these people enter or stay inside the room.
3. Determine which particular area of the room catches your immediate attention. This area will be the focal point of your room. Discover some dramatic elements in it. Let us say, the focal point of your bedroom is your large window which gives you a beautiful view of the beach, then you must put your primary piece – in this case, your bed – to that side or if not, put your bed to the other side and let it face the window in such a way that you get to have a good view of the beach outside.
4. Consider the color of your room when choosing the furniture. When the color of your paint is dark, get light-colored furniture to make the room look brighter.
5. Create a visual motion and excitement. Add furniture and furnishings that comes in two to have a symmetrical balance or asymmetry. Asymmetry refers to an imbalance such as two candles of somewhat different sizes next to each other. Symmetry is very restful while asymmetry is used to add visual motion and excitement.

If you wish to make your house or room more relaxing and beautiful, the guide above may just be all the help you needed.

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