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3. Comfortable Furniture
This is an obvious one but it’s worth emphasizing: Comfortable furniture is a must-have in a living room. That means using more soft fabrics, deep cushions and rounded edges rather than solid, hard-backed pieces and sharp corners. “I always tell my clients that the most important living room feature is comfort,” says designer Lindsey Machado of Designed With Grace & Joy. “We will always make any space look beautiful, so it’s more important to me that they’re also happy with the way it feels. That not only includes actual materials — think plush rugs, soft pillows and throw blankets, a nice-feeling sofa — but also ambiance.”
Designer Krista McGrath of McGrath Interiors tells homeowners to get the best-quality seating they can afford. “They will spend hours sitting on their furniture,” McGrath says, “so it should be very comfortable and hold up well.”
Designer Sabrina Lowe agrees. “The sofa is the one item in the living room that clients should put resources toward,” she says. “Most people who invest in a good couch have it for decades.”
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With their first baby on the way, this Toronto couple wanted their yard to be family-friendly, with a grassy area for play. They also wanted an outdoor dining space and a pergola-covered lounge. Enter Alex Zalewski, a landscape designer and the co-owner of Infinite Possibilites Landscape Installation & Design. He worked with the homeowners on designing and installing these elements as part of a phased landscape design.
In addition, Zalewski added trees and shrubs for privacy and beauty, and redesigned the side yard. He kept easy maintenance at the front of his mind throughout the process. He also considered the master plan he’d drafted for the entire property. Later phases will include adding an outdoor kitchen and reworking the front yard.
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After: The renovated sunroom has the same footprint as before but feels like a different space. All-new windows offer an indoor-outdoor connection and a beautifully framed panorama. Gridded panes on the top half of the windows lend a traditional cottage feel, with single panes on the bottom offering unobstructed backyard views. The ceiling line matches that of the new porch, easily accessed through the propped open door seen here.
Amato envisioned a space that would embody indoor-outdoor living in a classic New England summer home. She wanted to “make you feel elevated but relaxed enough to spend the day your pajamas,” she says.
She used a mix of vintage finds, strategic investment purchases and some pieces the homeowners already had to create a comfy space for napping, reading and enjoying outdoor views. Patience is key, Amato says, when pulling together a layered, lived-in look like this.
Windows: Pella
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2. A Bit of Boho
Designer: Meliza Veloz Designs
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida
Size: 311 square feet (29 square meters); 16 feet, 7 inches by 18 feet, 9 inches
Homeowner’s request. “The homeowner wanted to blend bohemian, midcentury and modern styles in his space,” designer Meliza Veloz says. “Since he didn’t need much storage, the focus was on enhancing the room’s aesthetic appeal. The space was originally monotoned and empty, so we introduced color and carefully staged it to add vibrancy and personality. This transformation brought the room to life, achieving the eclectic and modern look the client desired.”
Special features. “We definitely used lots of organic materials in the typical nature of bohemian design, especially wood, between the honey accent table, the white oak base of the lamp or the dark mantel and ceiling fan,” Veloz says. “This client in particular loved cane and wicker, as seen in the featured baskets behind the couch, which are tied in throughout the whole home. We also utilized paint to frame out the TV (Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams) to create a frame effect and make it feel less visually obstructing.”
Veloz used Houzz Pro to manage this project. “I used Houzz for the entire process,” she says. “ I used the Mood Boards, Selection boards and proposals — that came in very helpful in the project.”
Designer tip. “Don’t be afraid to take up space,” Veloz says. “The gallery wall pictured on the right measures at approximately 12 feet in width and 8¾ feet in height, which is over 60% of the wall’s full surface area. Oftentimes homeowners will stray away from incorporating color at such a large scale, but when executed well those risks are what take a space from ‘furnished’ to ‘designed.’”
“Uh-oh” moment. “Our client was away on vacation for only five days, so we had less than a week to move everything into this home,” Veloz says. “With a limited timeline, every second counted. On day three, when the art finally came in, we realized that somewhere along the way the dimensions were mixed up and most of the pieces didn’t fit in the frames we ordered. Luckily we were able to reach out to the supplier and get PDF versions of the prints we needed, found the nearest FedEx and explained our situation. They were able to expedite our order and had them all to us the next day.”
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6. Hamptons-Inspired in Michigan
When designing this Norwood Township, Michigan, home for a retired couple with a large extended family, architectural designer Stephanie Baldwin of Edgewater Design Group took to heart the homeowner’s inspiration images of traditional Shingle-style homes and created something worthy of a Nancy Meyers movie. The welcoming front porch has an arched roofline echoed by the arched front door, the columns have real stone veneer at their bases and the bay on the right has a copper standing-seam roof.
To ensure that the lakeside home could survive the harsh climate and blowing sands from the Lake Michigan shoreline, Baldwin specified low-maintenance exterior materials, including vinyl shake shingles for the siding. Zip sheathing on the north- and west-facing sides of the house adds extra insulation and waterproofing.
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It’s a rare living room that doesn’t call for an area rug. Even in a carpeted room, an area rug helps to define a seating area and make a room feel complete. So if you don’t already have an area rug, or the one you have doesn’t reflect your current taste, this is a good opportunity for a refresh.
If you’re trying to make a formal living space feel more casual, consider a flat-woven or natural-fiber rug (such as jute). Tufted rugs with asymmetrical patterns or high-low textures are good bets if you’re looking to add a contemporary element to your room. Color-wise, light colors tend to make a room feel larger while darker colors make it feel more cozy. And the busier the patterns of your other textiles, the simpler your rug can be, and vice versa.
At least as important as the style of your rug is its size. A common recommendation is that all of the legs of your furniture — or at least the front legs of your seating — should be on the rug. If you love your current rug but it’s too small or irregularly shaped, you can layer it on top of a larger one. Natural-fiber rugs or solid, neutral-toned wool rugs are often good, affordable choices as base layers. A small, vibrant but well-worn antique Persian or Moroccan rug can look gorgeous over a large jute rug, for example.
All of that said, the “perfect rug” isn’t a specific size or style. It’s the one that most appeals to you and fits your lifestyle and budget.
11 Area Rug Rules and How to Break Them
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