IN THIS POST
- Choose the Right Paint Colours
- Pull Furniture Away from the Walls
- Decorate the Space with Circular Pieces
- Hang Round-Shaped Mirrors on Your Wall
- Divide the Space into Distinct Zones
- Maximise the Vertical Space
Does your living room look like a bowling alley with all the furniture pushed towards the wall, leaving only a strip of walkable space in the middle? Truth be told, it is not easy to decorate a long and narrow living room without feeling restricted in your design choices. The lack of square footage combined with the rectangular layout can be extremely frustrating, especially if you have children who require extra space to play and hang out.
So, what can you do to overcome this challenge?
Of course, extensive renovations and knocking down walls are not always the best options. Similarly, moving into a bigger house or apartment right away can also be impossible for many. This leaves you with one option: to make do with what you have – and for that, you are required to think outside the box and create an optical illusion of a larger space.
Tips on How to Decorate a Long and Narrow Living Room
Here are some ideas that can transform your long and rectangular living room into the most attractive part of your home.
Choose the Right Paint Colours
The first thing you should do is change your home’s colour palette. Even if you don’t have the budget to repaint the entire place, consider buying a few cans of paint for your living room only and leave the rest as is.
Interior designers around the world play with different tones and shades to make a space look livelier, brighter, and bigger. Colours also have a direct impact on our moods and can affect our sleeping patterns as well as appetite. In addition, choosing the right paint colours for a long and narrow living room can make it look more spacious than it actually is.
Many experts suggest using brighter tones for longer walls in a narrow room, such as a shade of off-white. Meanwhile, darker colours such as royal blue or shades of emerald green should be selected for shorter walls. Doing so will give your room a more square-like appearance,
For more tips, please check out our guide on how to make a small room look bigger using paints. Moreover, don’t forget to use our paint calculator to determine how much colour you will require to cover all the walls.
Pull Furniture Away from the Walls
Pushing furniture against the wall is one of the biggest interior design mistakes most people make while decorating their homes. Although it is tempting to arrange all the couches and chairs right against the walls to clear up space in the middle, doing so could be counterproductive to what you are hoping to achieve.
So, if you are looking for small and narrow living room décor ideas, consider pulling your furniture from the sides of the room and creating a seating arrangement right in the middle. Instead of placing your sofa against the longer wall, place it in a perpendicular position. You can then place your coffee table in front of it and move the chairs or the second couch to the other side to form a cosy arrangement.
Depending on the amount of furniture in your living room, you can either create this small island, flanked by two narrow walkways on either side, in the middle of the room or towards the back. You can also place a rug underneath the couches and coffee table to create the illusion of a separate space. Moreover, if you have a small dining table in your home, you can also place it in your living room in the same fashion.
Just make sure to use less bulky furniture – which also takes us to our next point.
Decorate the Space with Circular Pieces
It is ideal to decorate a long and narrow living room with furniture that has rounded edges and exposed legs. For instance, a circular coffee table with a glass top can be a great choice for a space that feels small due to its layout. Similarly, you can arrange your sofa set to create a U-shaped setting, as it will make the room appear more spacious by eliminating any long horizontal lines.
For additional seating, add round-shaped ottomans to the living room in different hues. They will add a splash of colour to your interior without making it appear too overwhelming. If you are planning to buy new furniture, consider choosing couches and chairs with soft, rounded corners.
Furthermore, you can spruce up the walls with round-shaped tapestry or artworks. It will give the space a more luxurious look. Rounded lampshades, as well as round area rugs, can also be great additions to long and narrow living rooms, giving the space a bit more dimension by attracting the eye to the floor.
Here are some more considerations for choosing high-use furniture. Meanwhile, if you are looking to buy used furniture, our comprehensive guide on the topic will surely help you out.
Hang Round-Shaped Mirrors on Your Wall
Have you ever heard the phrase, “the objects in the mirror are closer than they appear?”
Well, strategically placed mirrors can easily open up a room by creating an optical illusion of a bigger space. Since it also reflects light, placing a mirror in your living room can play a huge role in making it look brighter and larger.
If you are wondering how to decorate a long and narrow living room without having to repaint the walls or buy new furniture, you can consider investing in a large circular mirror or a set of smaller ones. You can easily find them at any store selling home décor items for rather low prices.
Once you have selected the frame and design you want in your room, it is time to choose a spot to hang it. Since our goal here is to make the space look more like a conventional room and less like a small shipping container, it is recommended to hang the mirror in the middle of the shorter wall. Doing so will make the shorter wall on the opposite end appear wider and closer than it is without taking up any space at all.
Divide the Space into Distinct Zones
If your living room is particularly long, you can easily divide it into distinct zones created for different purposes. For example, you can use the example mentioned above to create a small seating area and a dining area just a few feet apart in the same room. If you still have some space left, you can utilise it by placing your multimedia console and television in the room.
When designing a long and narrow living room layout with a TV, it is important to section off each area using rugs. They not only help define each zone but also make your space look more organised and less visually cluttered. All you’ll have to do is place at least two front legs of larger furniture on their respective rugs.
Another way to create distinct sections in your living room is to divide them using a partition or a screen. You can even use open shelving and bookcases to create smaller rooms within one long and narrow room. This tip could come in particularly handy if you are planning to set up your home office within the confines of your living room.
Maximise the Vertical Space
Last but not least, you can decorate a long and narrow living room with tall bookshelves that draw the eye upward. Such pieces of furniture not only add depth to your home décor but also make your space look sophisticated and organised.
More importantly, well-decorated bookshelves can serve as the focal point of any room, drawing the attention of your guests as soon as they step into the living room – which is also often the first room they encounter after entering a house or an apartment. If your budget allows, you can think about investing in custom-made bookshelves. Alternatively, you can transform cheap bookshelves into fake built-ins in a few easy steps.
You can also use floor-to-ceiling curtains featuring vertical stripes to create the illusion of taller walls, thus giving your room some height to balance its layout. Here are some other ways to create an illusion of higher ceilings that you may want to check out.
To conclude, learning how to decorate a long and narrow living room is not as difficult as one might expect. All you have to do is create a comfortable seating area without pushing the furniture against the wall. Moreover, if you are confused about the paint colours for a long and narrow living room, please make sure to use swatches of different light and dark hues on long and short walls, respectively, to find out which colour combination perfectly suits your home décor theme.
Round mirrors, area rugs, and tall bookshelves can also be a great addition to a rectangular room.
For more small and narrow living room décor ideas, please stay connected to Zameen Blog. You can also share your feedback with us by dropping an email at blog@zameen.com. Furthermore, don’t forget to visit and like our Facebook page to learn all about the latest interior design and real estate trends in Pakistan.
