Help me fill my new living room!

[fucksbizzz]

Hi everyone.

We are moving into our lovely new home next month and need some inspo. Our current living room is small so we only have space for our sofa and TV.

I need a pop of colour and at least a decent big rug as this new lounge is huge! Everything in the new home is the same colour scheme for each room so would ideally like a pop of different colours in each room but the lounge is the biggest space so need some ideas!

Pics of the lounge and my sofa below. Any suggestions / good buys / ideas on how to fill my new living space would be great. Thank you!

Photo of the sofa is in our current living room.

I would have green walls and get a couple of large plants.

Have a think about these questions from Mad About the House before you rush out to buy things. I'd not rush out and buy lots, live with it for a bit with what you have then work out what will enhance the way you use the room.

WHO is going to use that room?
WHAT are they going to do there?
WHEN are they going to be doing it?
WHERE will you shop?
WHY are you decorating this room?
HOW do you want to feel in this space?

Are you putting in a table? In that case, I would probably take the carpet up, at least from the dining area (but maybe that would look weird). I would add a colourful armchair and a piano!

Thank you everybody!
Going to take a look at the rug options.

Good idea re storage. I think I'm going to add a book case in there and some other storage either side of the wall breast.

Colours I think were going for are navy / emerald to break it up a bit. I didn't even think of curtains over the windows! What a good idea! That's a definite. Some thick draped curtains will look lovely. Going to have a look this evening. Thank you everybody!

Where is good to get some decent low maintenance house plants from?

I got one from Ikea and its still alive , its in a big pot so it can sit on the floor without looking too small and means you don't need another piece of furniture to put it on.

So far I've got:
Pine coffee table
A small pine 4 seater table and chairs
Emerald and mustard cushions and a throw

On the hunt for a big rug and maybe some wall art. I thinking maybe a mustard rug as all the green and greys might make it a bit dark.
And also looking for a book shelf. I have probably 100+ books under my bed and because they're not on display I forget about them and don't read them!

Anybody used this website for plants? www.patchplants.com/gb/en/10-best-plants/

Myself, DH and DD (2) will be using the room so needs to be toddler friendly.
Aim really is for it to be broken up a bit. The picture doesn't do it justice but the living space is HUGE so I don't really just want it to be a lounge.
It will be a space where we eat. Would like it to look feel warm / cosy and have somewhere to sit quietly with a book which I'm planning to put in one corner. DD is upgrading from a single box room to a double room, so her toys can go in her toybox / box shelves in her room so we can get a bit more of a normal living space back without as many toys. (I know this won't be possible at all times) but a bigger room for her helps.

We move on 18th Feb. Open to shopping anywhere, we've set aside a budget and would like to have good, quality furnishings in there. Specifically the rug and bookshelf. The rugs I've had before (range etc) are good but they go flat very quickly. But I think we would like a flatter more of a 'carpet' rug this time.

We've settled on emerald green and mustard as they're both our favourite colours for furnishings. So excited to move, it's in such a lovely little market town.

We are going down to a 1 car family too as it's in the town centre and everything is on our doorstep. So selling 1 car and that is our budget for a lot of the new furnishings and the rest is going away in savings.

We live in a 3 bed semi at the moment but moving due to landlord selling. The square footing of the apartment is actually more than our house. And our spare room now is the 'junk' room so it's forcing us to get organised and sell / give things away so less clutter. We should be in a position to buy in 18-24 months and want to buy in Farnham, so we chose this apartment to start with and get a feel of where we'd like to buy.

It's a great room @fucksbizzz - you'll have lots of fun filling it!

I'm with @DilemmaDelilah in that you should always start with something you love when coordinating a room scheme - that could be a fabric (curtains), rug or artwork - and build from that.

We bought a huge and very colourful vintage Persian rug for the main living room at our last house and when we sold that place and downsized, buying somewhere with smaller rooms we were determined to fit the rug in somewhere!

The rug has an unusual colour scheme including olive green, turquoise and cerise pink, so we used it as a starting point and our recently revamped living room (we've knocked two rooms through and moved one external wall out further which has created a large enough space 😉) here includes those colours.

But we also have favourite artwork, decorative objects and lamps that are predominantly orange and purple, so we've attempted to incorporate those colours too by replicating them in soft furnishings (purple throw, orange cushion etc) to tie the whole lot together. It works, but we have fairly eclectic tastes which wouldn't be for everyone!

Lamps are something else that can inexpensively add colour and interest - far better imho to have lots of ambient lighting by way of floor and table lamps than harsh overhead lighting!

We have six lamps in our living room and rarely use the ceiling lights. All the lamps are different (a mix of vintage, Pooky, Abigail Ahern and Homesense) as are the colourful shades.

Definitely a book case, low coffee table & with all that light and space, I would get a few large plants.
I think a green wall would look good in here, you could have pink accents too.

If it's a rental property that you are only going to be renting for 12-18 months then buy things with an eye to how flexible they will be in future properties. So rugs and lamps and side tables can all be repurposed in different rooms in your next house but be careful about bigger pieces of furniture and curtains because they can be expensive if you only have them for a short while and then don't fit in the new house.

Another good rule: never be the oldest thing in your house. Buy second hand, vintage and antique particularly if you might need to sell it on in 18 months.

Hi everyone!

We move next Saturday (I'm so excited.)

We've gone for navy and mustard. I've bought some navy and mustard cushions to replace the pink / grey ones on the sofa. I e also bought some throws and some pampas and other little bits in those colours. But I'm stumped at the rug! Trying to get one rug to fill that space is extortionate.

Would it look utterly ridiculous to buy 2 rugs. 2 of the same rugs but different colours. So one mustard and one navy, and put them next to each other with a gap of a couple of feet between them? I have a vision of this working but I don't know what others think!

We are on the hunt for an art piece to go on the right hand wall and a bookshelf. The left hand side of the space I want to create a cosy corner so we are after maybe a navy futon chair and a floor standing lamp.

Guh I'm so bad at this.

To give an idea of the space we're working with (the pictures don't really do it justice) but we have a lot of space to fill in this living room.

Any more ideas throw my way!

We have a small 4 seater table. I also need chairs so maybe white dining chairs?

I basically need an interior designer to come along and fill this space for me!

The 2 pics are of the living room. It's hard to get the concept of size into one photo so DH took a photo from one side and then turned around and got the other side.

Aside from the rug situation, we are going to get our dining chairs, and bookshelf from Facebook market place.

We've already bought some throws and cushions from Etsy but I didn't even think of Vinted! I'll have a look on there today.

I'd also remove the carpet. I don't personally like it, but also, it's the same colour as your sofa and will make the room look too bland.

We love the carpet. We have laminate at the moment and hate it so we're keeping the carpet. The sofa is much much lighter than the carpet too.

A big brightly coloured rug then?

Have you read the thread?

Mad About the House (who I linked to previously) had lots of small rugs layered up in her last house. She had floorboards and lots of vintage persian rugs and the occasional modern monochrome rug. Looked good but a very eclectic style so depends if you like that or not. And would look different on top of a carpet.

Hope you share photos when you've moved in and have the room sorted, it's such a lovely big room, sure it'll be fab!

For the dining area I’d get a washable rug from Ruggable to spare the carpet. Two rugs won’t look odd: it’s ideal for zoning it into the dining space and the living space.

Tv on unit to the left of chimney breast, pull up carpets (are the floorboards in good nick?) and invest in some king floor length thick curtains to dress the windows and for warmth. Ikea for example are excellent value.
There's probably a hidden fireplace behind that chimney breast.

Well we're in! It's beautiful. We're getting there slowly. We couldn't actually put the telly on the breast as there isn't a plug near enough. (We have sky glass so we just literally plug it in) but the socket was too far away and we didn't want an extension lead on display so we're putting wall art on that wall.

This is one side of the lounge. What chairs would you go for? I need 4 seats for the table. We've gone for mustard / navy to break it up. The colours look so grey in the picture but the walls are actually a stone colour with beautiful high ceilings but the carpets are grey.

Desperately in need of some chairs but not sure what! (Need to be somewhat toddler proof, we'll end up selling the high chair and getting one of those booster type chairs and plonk DD on that) it's quite a big table but looks small in the picture so I've put my hand on it for size reference. It's a comfortable 4 seater for sure. And will pull it out from the wall a bit when we have seats. I just can't find any I like!

(Also the sad looking rug under the high chair is going. It's just there temporarily to protect the floor until we can get some good chairs there)

That room screams amazing full-length curtains to me. I'd be considering:

What way are your windows facing (N, S, E, W)?

Will you need sun shading in the height of Summer?

Is privacy an issue?

Would you like your curtains to add insulation?

You can then pick the thickness of the fabric and the type of lining accordingly. For example in my South facing bay where privacy isn't an issue I chose a light floaty cotton, and didn't line it, because we just use it on Sunny days to reduce the heat and light. But for my North facing bedroom I can have heavier, cosier fabric with a thermal, blackout lining.

I can recommend curtain making - I'm not at all crafty but I can manage that, and being able to get the exact fabric, size and type is really great.

When I started reading, I was going to suggest two rugs to break the surface up, but I see you’ve all ready come to that idea.
It’s a lovely room with great proportions, the windows look original and not double glazed, I’d get blinds for them and find some fabulous statement fabric to make faux curtains, that are panels on either side of the windows.
The navy/mustard complimentary colours are lovely together, maybe think about the tones within those colours to give depth and interest.