From movie night to game night, to family parties and birthday parties, the living room plays host for all kinds of special events. It’s important for it to feel inviting, comfortable, spacious, and personal to you! There are a few mistakes we see over and over again in living room design, so here are our tips for avoiding them.

5 mistakes you may be making in your living room

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1- Your rug is too small

Not only do your rugs set a color tone for your space, but they ground them! If your rug isn’t substantial enough for your space, it’s only going to make it feel off, or worse, smaller than it really is! We like to make sure that the front two legs of your large pieces are on the rug. It’s a more traditional look to put all four legs on the rug (we rarely do it), but we NEVER have the rug floating in the middle. We’ll do end tables completely on or off (no one wants a leaning table!!). We’ve got an in-depth guide to rug sizes here. 

2- You’re not considering the scale of your furniture

Commonly people think that a small space requires them to shrink down their furniture choices. Instead of trying to fit it all in, buy substantial pieces that fill the space and save room in other places. Buy that larger couch and coffee table and do a floor lamp or sconce instead of a side table. Always remember to make the place feel functional and balanced.  Also, If you have a large couch, sofa, or sectional, make sure you don’t have a tiny coffee table or side table.

Think about the purpose and needs of the space. Does your couch have enough room to seat your family or to entertain? A large coffee table can hold games, and benches and ottomans are great for layering in extra seating.

3- You’re Hanging Artwork Too High

We see artwork hung at the wrong height more than we see anything else! Finding the right artwork that speaks to you is tricky, and sometimes hanging it is even more difficult.

• We find it’s best to hang a single piece of artwork right at eye level. Taking the piece 60 inches up from center to the floor always seems to do the trick.
• Something to remember is that if it’s hung above furniture, it can be 4-6 inches above the piece. If it’s going above a sofa or console, the piece should be approximately 2/3 width of the furniture.
• As a general rule of thumb, always consider the scale of your space. We usually prefer to use larger artwork and frames rather than smaller.
• When hanging two art pieces, we treat them as one and still hang them 60 inches from the floor to the center of the grouping. This also applies to groups of three and four. Make sure they are spaced only a few inches apart, so they look together and not disconnected.

For more help on hanging artwork, check out this blog post!

4- You’re not giving your accessories space to breathe

One of the biggest styling mistakes we see is overcrowding your shelves, built-ins, table tops and nooks with decor. Give your accessories space to breathe! When there’s no place for the eyes to rest, your decor feels cluttered and random! Remember, you don’t have to style every single space!

Break up the little objects by placing them in groups with the large. Create vignettes and don’t be afraid to use boxes and bowls to corral smaller objects or even to hide knick knacks that are on display.

We talk about more styling mistakes to avoid in this blog post!

5-  You’re not balancing your materials

Sometimes we love a trend a little too hard and go heavy in it!! You can let your favorite material have more of a moment by balancing your space with different materials. If you love brass, you don’t need brass lights with legs on a coffee table, and brass accessories.

Mixing materials also keeps the space feeling collected! You don’t want it to look like you shopped everything from the same collection in a catalogue.