When looking for solutions to decorate and furnish elongated living rooms, square footage and layout can be a challenge. For this reason, today we tell you some key tips to get the most out of it and make your living room your favorite room in the house.
The living room is the heart of any home, it is where most of the daily activities take place: rest, food, work, leisure and visits. Therefore, achieving a comfortable and functional room is a priority objective. But not all living rooms are the same, and it is important to know what is needed in each of them. In this article we talk about how to decorate and furnish elongated living rooms.
Before getting down to work, buying furniture, making reforms and changing the decoration, it is essential to stop and define what you really need from this space. Because each family is different and requires a place that offers different functions.
Having small children at home and finding a play corner for them is not the same as having a dining room in another room or having to add an office desk for teleworking days.
Once we have determined what we want from our elongated living room, it will be much easier to apply the following tips adapted to the needs of each home.
8 tips for decorating elongated living rooms
Elongated living rooms are one of the most common distributions in homes. In the case of having few square meters or having a narrow space, furnish it and turn it into a cozy and functional living room may seem complicated, but with these recommendations you will gain amplitude and make better use of every centimeter.
1. Get the most out of the walls
Optimizing space in a narrow living room starts by taking advantage of every corner, including the walls. Hang the television to avoid the low furniture, put wall shelves or floating storage drawers and you will gain centimeters of width without losing comfort. In addition, leaving the floor clear will generate greater feeling of spaciousness. Of course, be careful with the furniture that go from floor to ceiling, as they accentuate the corridor effect that we want to avoid in our elongated living room.
2. A good choice of furniture in elongated living rooms.
Choosing the right furniture for the space you want to furnish is essential to achieve a feeling of spaciousness and avoid the tube effect of the room. For example, curved shapes will work very well to break the continuity of elongated living rooms. This can be translated into a round dining table or side table, a rug or, for example, an oval puff.
Another tip is to opt for narrow or custom-made furniture to get more meters and optimize every centimeter you have available. And if you need a multifunctional and multipurpose room, folding furniture is an excellent alternative to use from time to time. They do not take up space permanently and, thus, can accommodate, on certain occasions, more people or different activities.
3. The sofa: the central piece of furniture in the room.
The choice of the sofa requires a separate point, because it is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the living room. Opting for a narrower model or one without armrests can contribute to enlarge the space. Another possibility is to opt for an L-shaped or modular format, which allows you to adapt to the needs of each moment. On the other hand, if you want to deceive the eye, choose a sofa of the same color as the wall and place it against one of the sides, to gain amplitude.
4. Frees up space
One of the keys to achieve a more comfortable stay, and even more if we have an elongated living room, is to recharge it as little as possible and leave it clear. This way you will achieve a greater sense of cleanliness and spaciousness. Try changing the curtains for blinds, to dispense with a coffee table -or replace it with a side table- and simplify the decoration of walls, textiles and shelves, choosing each element in detail.
5. Colors make a difference
Use colors to achieve an effect of greater amplitude. And it has always been known that light and neutral colors help. Paint the ceiling white and play with different shades of the same color to make the walls seem more distant from each other. As with the sofa, the solution of mimicking furniture such as shelves or drawers with the colors of the wall helps to gain inches, at least to the visual perception.
6. Take care of the layout of the space
The living room is a meeting space. Therefore, and regardless of the meters you have, you have to arrange the furniture in a way that invites sharing and conversation. In wider, elongated living rooms, you can add armchairs in front of the sofa and create an X-shaped distribution, where the center will be a low table. If the room is smaller, the sofa will have to be attached to the wall and you can add a small armchair or poufs that will also fulfill this function. The key is to find the balance between functional, comfortable and cozy.
7. Use light to your advantage
Clear the entrance of natural light to get a warm, cozy and larger room in sight. If you have a traditional window, you can use the wall that is free below to put a seat or a table, but if you have a window or access to the balcony, we recommend that you leave it free by removing furniture or decorative elements that may detract light. For artificial light, opt for recessed ceiling or wall lights to occupy as little space as possible.
8. Distribute the space
As a general rule it is preferable to reserve those areas of natural light that we talked about in the previous point to put a dining table or work and the darkest part for the television. If you have an open kitchen, a high bar and stools can become the ideal option to divide the space and, at the same time, integrate a dining area in the room. If they are independent, an interior window that connects the kitchen and the living room will help to gain amplitude and reduce the feeling of corridor effect.
Elongated living rooms: a space full of possibilities
In short, the alternatives for furnishing and decorating living rooms living rooms are many. With a previous idea of what is needed and the right furniture, you can get a cozy and functional space for the whole family. You just have to pay attention to the small details that will make your living room become the nerve center of the house and the meeting place for the family.
