The Right Way to Decorate a Small Living Room

By Kaitlin Hurtado on May 24, 2018

This article is brought to you by CORT Furniture Rental. We take the hassle out of furnishing your new place so you can do more important things like read this article. Learn more about why furniture rental is the best way to get a great looking apartment.

Living on your own can be both exciting and daunting. You are granted freedom (or nearly complete freedom) when you get your own place – deciding whether or not to go out for the day, when you need to clean, what you get to cook for every meal, and when to go to sleep. With the ability to make so many decisions for yourself on a daily basis – it’s important to put thought into deciding how to decorate your living space as it is a space that you want to be both comfortable and functional when you are going to be spending extensive time in it.

While many college students have plenty of ideas of what their dream living space would look like in an ideal world, plenty of factors limit the possibility of achieving their dream living space. Between the limited college student budget and the subsequent small living space typical to college housing, many college students are “stuck” with the task of decorating a small living room. Instead of throwing a couch in the living room and calling it a day, decorate your living room so that it is a place you are excited to come home to at the end of a long day of classes and that you can proudly show off to your friends when you host a get-together. Here are some ways that you can decorate your small living room to make it both comfortable and functional, even on a typical college student budget.

living room

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

Start out with a plan for your small living room 

Everyone’s needs are going to vary when it comes to what they need out of their living room in order to make it function for their lifestyle best. For some college students, their bedrooms don’t have enough space for their desks or a proper study space. While resorting to studying on your bed may seem like the perfect solution, you may want to consider taking the time to create a study space. Because a living room is a common living area, you’ll want to ask your roommates if they are okay with you putting a study space in your small living room.

Starting out the decorating process by planning on what you are going to do with space will help you make sure you are making the most out of all the space your small living room offers.

Go for furniture pieces that are multi-functional

If you have a small living room, you are going to have to limit the amount of furniture you can put into the space without making it feel cramped or a waste of precious space. You definitely don’t want to be falling over coffee tables or couches just because you thought you were going to need every piece of furniture a “typical” living room would need.

If you know going into the decorating process that your small living room is going to be the location for plenty of social gatherings you will want to plan out how you can plan to include furniture pieces that work in many ways. Go for storage ottomans that can be used as seating, storage, or even as a side table or coffee table if you can use coasters or platters to keep the space clean.

If your bedrooms are a small as well and lack proper space for a study space, plan to dedicate a portion of your small living room to a study space. Get a dining table that works to fit your roommates for meals, but that will also be big enough for everyone to have their share of space to lay out their laptops and study materials.

Many of your furniture pieces may not fit a small living room, but remember that you can always sell or donate your furniture that doesn’t work for your space in order to get furniture that does. If you can’t commit to getting all new furniture, you always have the option of renting furniture that you will only need with your current living room.

Decorate with items that add your personality and function to the space

When you have a small living room, every item that you add to space will most likely be visible and take away space for items that you would eventually want to add to the living room. If you try to make the most of every wall that you have in a small living room, you might end up making the space even more cramped than it already is. Go with a collection of film or band posters on one wall, or a tapestry to make one wall a focal point of the small living room.

Instead of adding pops of color through somewhat meaningless bits and bobs littering various surfaces, use different items that actually will be useful to add pops of color. While your couch may be a plain beige, you can add patterned or colored throw blankets or pillows to dress up your couch.

While you may think of your small living room as a negative thing, there are plenty of steps that you can take to make the most of your small living room by decorating it the right way.

Looking for an easy way to furnish your off-campus apartment? Renting furniture from CORT saves you time and money. See how easy it is to get great looking furniture without breaking the bank.

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