Use Decor to Add Visual Interest
“Having several different lighting sources at different heights will draw your eye to different areas of the room, making it feel bigger and more interesting,” says Murphy. She also recommends adding a larger attention-getter to balance scale, such as a piece of art or built-in bookshelves. Try an eye-catching gallery wall or artwork or mirrors, or add a bold accent wall or wallpaper.
Float a Selection of Furniture
In any room that’s tight on space, it’s tempting to push all big furniture up against the walls to create a kind of pool of open flooring in the middle. But while useful for doing cartwheels—and there is some real liberation in being able to do just that—the space would be put to better use serving a function. In the living room of social media savant Amy Stone, the design team at One Kings Lane opted to float the couch across from two wicker-and-chrome chairs in the middle of the room, transforming the heart of it into a space for conversation.
Try Café-Style Seating
If you’ve ever tried eating dinner at a coffee table, you know it really isn’t possible unless you don’t mind being hunched over so far your nose touches your knees. But a single person—or even a pair of people—doesn’t need a massive dining room table to suit their needs on a daily basis. If your living room needs to also serve as the dining room, consider a round café table with two chairs. It can easily be pulled out from the wall to fit four in the event of a dinner party just by adding two folding chairs.
Fashion a Desk from a Console
Besides being the picture-perfect place to stash another bit of seating, a console that’s wide enough can also serve as a desk without looking like one. By day, stack it with books and a lamp, and maybe even your keys when you arrive home; by night, settle down at that ottoman you snuck beneath it for a bit of highly glamorous bill-paying.
Delineate Functions Using Rugs
To visually set apart that floated sitting area in the middle of the room from the room’s other functions, Amy Stone’s design team chose a rug just larger than the couch and matching chairs. The edge of that rug doesn’t extend all the way to the walls as you’d expect; instead, the café table dining area and console/desk sit outside of its edges. The line visually cues that you’re moving from one “zone” into another, which keeps the furniture from feeling like a jumble.
