How To Mix & Match Furniture For Your Living Room

Are you moving into a new house, or would you like to redesign your living room but don’t know where to begin?

Finding the right mix and match for your living room can be tricky, but with the right color schemes, interior design layouts, and furniture, you can make your living room come to life.

Once you consider the size of the room, the type of furniture you own or want to purchase, and the colors and themes you want, finding the right mix can help you design a living room you’ll always look forward to coming home to after a long day. In this article, we provide steps to guide you on mixing and matching furniture for your living room.

These steps can help you mix and match furniture for your living room in line with your design style:

The theme for your living room can dictate several things, from the furniture you buy to the room’s layout. Some living room ideas are contemporary, Scandinavian, eclectic, mid-century modern, vintage, minimalist, rustic, and bohemian styles and themes. As you pick a theme, ask yourself what aesthetic you want for your living room. Do you want a modern room with a farmhouse vibe or a clean, minimalistic room? Consider searching for living room ideas to help you visualize the overall design of your living space.

Ask yourself what you plan on doing in the living room. If you want to host friends and family often, large, L-shaped couches that can seat several people comfortably are a good idea. If your living room will double as a dining room, a smaller couch would suffice to make space for a dining table and dining chairs. Perhaps you’d like to do a lot of reading or working in your living room. In that case, you’d need a desk and a lamp as a light source, and maybe a comfortable chair.

Preparation helps. If you want to purchase an L-shaped couch, but it faces the wrong way, or get an area rug that’s too big for your floor, you could be out of luck and, possibly, wasting money. Measuring your living room in advance helps you get a sense of a layout and may aid in purchasing or renting furniture that fits well, allowing a natural flow pattern. If your living room is L-shaped or has features like alcoves or built-ins, measuring these spaces can help you find the furniture pieces that may fit perfectly.

When working with a small living room, you can use furniture to make it appear more spacious. For example, you can hang up large paintings, put up a mirror, and buy a lacquered table or bookcase to reflect light, or buy a large sofa with a low profile to lengthen the space between the ceiling and the top of the couch. You could also shop for a loveseat to give the room a cozy feel in a small room. It can also act as an accent chair in a nook to give your living space that pop of color.

Finding the right color palette is a big step that will give your living room the vibe and ambiance you’ve always imagined. The colors you pick can help give your living room a cohesive look. A way to find your color scheme is by using the 60/30/10 rule. Your walls, ceilings, and floors should have the primary color of the room (60% of the room).

Then, buy upholstery, area rugs, and curtains in a second color (30% of the room), and finally, splurge on accent pieces like throw pillows and artwork (10% of the room). So, if you’ve always found picking room colors tricky, this hack is a great starting point.

Once you settle on the theme, you can get to the fun part –furniture. The essentials to make your living room comfortable include sofas and chairs, tables, accessories like throw pillows, rugs, paintings, mirrors, and good lighting.

If you’re a rustic theme lover, get a coffee table, end table, or side table with a decent wood finish, and throw a textured rug in an earth-tone color on the floor to give the living space that country feel. If you want a pop of color, add a couple of throw pillows and blankets in accent colors to provide the room with some contrast.

Conversely, if you’re more into a minimalist living room look and feel, go for white, off-white, and neutral colors to give the room an airy look. You can also achieve this airy look by pairing a large sofa with a minimalist coffee table to create an open space.

Buying the living room furniture is only one part of the puzzle — using statement home decor pieces brings it all together. Picture what you’d like the flow to look like, then play around with the furniture until you get that perfect layout. Layout options include giving the room a focal point on a sectional or going for cohesion to provide visual balance.

Play around with shapes. An L-shaped or U-shaped furniture can help put boundary lines around the room, making it clear that you’re in the living room. You can also go bold and mix and match furniture styles, especially if working with furniture pieces from different eras. Mixing modern and vintage pieces can be a creative way to give your living room cohesion.

Lighting also plays a huge role in home decor and has additional functionality — it lights up a room and serves as art. If you like the idea of symmetry, why not buy a pair of matching light fixtures and hang them over your coffee or dining table? You can also use lighting centerpieces to add dramatic flair. Use dimmer light switches to change the room’s ambiance or make the room more engaging.