Living Room

Going Exotic: Moroccan Living Room Style Guide

The Color Pallet

A Moroccan color pallet is made up of mostly deep hues of orange, purples, and reds much like in picture (1). With splashes of yellow to brighten it up. So keep this in mind when you are looking for decor pieces. Try to remove pieces that clash and are outside of this color pallet.

Those are the sort of colors you’ll see in a Moroccan living room. But as you’ll see in the Keeping it Simple section below – there are people who have opted out of the color pallet and have instead gone with a neutral colored living room and used 1 or 2 main Moroccan styled furniture pieces.

Adding the Spice: Moroccan Decor Pieces and Ideas

In the Center

In a lot of living rooms the coffee table is the focal point. So look to infuse the Moroccan style here. Whether that is with a Moroccan coffee table or by having Moroccan style table lanterns as a centerpiece seen in picture (3).

On the Floor

The seating in Morocco is very informal and close down to the ground. So you’ll see a lot of floor cushions (4) (5), poufs (6), and charming area rugs in the same deep hues mentioned above.

On the Wall

Another great decor piece to have would be an elegant Moroccan wall tapestry.

Keeping it Simple

You don’t really have to do much to create a Moroccan style living room. If you keep the space quite plain by having white walls and keeping it clutter free, and take away any other styled pieces – one or two Moroccan pieces will really set the tone for the room. Focus on the focal pieces of a living room – like the coffee table, a large area rug, wall tapestries, and seating.

Just take a look at picture (7). It is a scandinavian looking room – with it’s black and white color pallet. Which is what makes the Moroccan styled coffee table and lantern really pop out – creating that chic Moroccan ambiance in the room.

Or how about the living room in picture (8). The Moroccan poufs (ottomans) make a statement in the room. Then you have the living room in picture (9). What is the one thing that brings the Moroccan charm to that living room? It is the hanging Moroccan lantern. If you keep your living room free from other styles, one or two main Moroccan inspired focal pieces will do the job.

Lighting

At night you’ll want to have the lighting dim, and close down to the ground. So avoid using the ceiling lights and instead use floor and table lamps – or candle lanterns.

Going The Extra Mile

At night you want the lighting to be dim and cozy. In the day time though, having the living room bathed in natural light is the way to go. If you want to completely restyle the space then look to have ornate windows just like in picture (10). Decorative wooden doors will also add that Moroccan feel to the living room. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

January 4, 2014 in Living Room

Color Choice: White Living Room Ideas and Designs

Up North

A good place to get inspiration when it comes to white living room ideas is from Scandinavian interior design just like in pictures (1) and (2). They make heavy use of white in their living rooms – mixed with shades of grey. But to bring some warmth and color to the space, plants and wooden furniture pieces are used.

Shades

To add in some depth and styling to your space you are going to want to add in a few other shades to the white canvas of a living room. One way to go would to be to use neutral shades (like cream, greys or black) – for a minimalist and Scandinavian look. Or how about adding one other color to the mix like blue or red. These can be added through little decorating ideas like a candle stand on the coffee table, or with the pillows on the couch. Try and keep the majority of the room in white.

Classic: Black and White Living Room Ideas and Designs

Textures and The Art of Pillows

A great way to add style to your living room is through textures. Imagine a white living room and then having wicker baskets on the floor being used as storage to hold pillows or blankets (5). The wicker’s texture really adds to the style of the room. With a white living room you really have a blank canvas and pieces, like a wicker basket, really stand out.

Other ways of adding texture to the living room:

White walls can have a texture to them. You have rough plaster or bricks painted in white. Or take a look at my post here for textured painting techniques.
Pillows can have simple colorless patterns on them, just like the ones in picture (6). So can throw blankets.
Area rugs with a simple pattern (like a white rug with a light grey chevron pattern)
Plants and planters
Wooden bowls or coffee table trays
Poufs (7)

The Coffee Table Area

The design of your coffee table will really set the style of the living room. If you use a chipped painted white coffee table just like in picture (8), or a white trunk you’ll be creating a shabby chic or vintage feel in the room. Or a raw wooden (9) or pallet coffee table will set a more rustic and distressed feel. While a simple design will give your space a modern look (10). A marble or glass coffee table would be other good options. If you go with a white living room furniture like a coffee table, it will blend in well with the rest of the room. While going with a black coffee table will make the coffee table stand out and create a focal point in the room.

Have a look at my post here for more coffee table ideas and designs: Creative Coffee Table Ideas. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

January 3, 2014 in Living Room

Color Choice: Red Living Room Ideas

From your color choice and what to do with the walls, to the seating and the decor pieces, here are red living room ideas to style your space just like an interior designer.

Color Choice

Dark vs Light: When it comes to styling your living room in red you’ll have the choice of going either with a dark palette of reds or a light one. A dark red living room will feel romantic and intimate – but also smaller, and cozy. While a light red color scheme will feel brighter, and more spacious.

Adding Another Color: An all red color scheme is one way to go. But you can mix it up a bit by adding in another color to your design. A red and brown living room is a popular choice. Other good color combos include matching red with grey, with green, or with gold. A red and black living room combo strikes a bold statement.

Removal: To really build a strong color scheme in your living room you need to get rid of pieces that go against the color(s) you choose. Unless you are going for an orange and red color scheme, you need to take out that orange pillow/blanket/candle stand. If you are going for a green and red color scheme but have blue pieces around – that messes it up. Pieces that are not in line with your color choice will stand out, take away from your styling, and kill the color scheme you are using. So it is important to pay attention to what pieces you use.

What to do With the Walls

Three Options

You have three options when it comes to the walls in your living room.

1) Paint them all in red just like in picture (1) – you are really making a statement here.

2) Paint only one wall red and the rest in a neutral color like white, cream, brown, or grey. This one wall will be your accent wall, it will become a focal point in the room just like in pictures (2) and (3).

3) The last option is to have all the walls a neutral color. This creates a blank canvas – letting you colorise the room through using red decor pieces, and furniture.

The Curtains

If you go with neutral colored walls or with an accent wall of red, then a way of adding a splash of red to your walls is through using red curtains (4). When you draw your curtains at night, they fill up a lot of the wall space. So they really do add to the styling of the room. If you go with red walls and want to have red curtains, take some time to pick out the right shade of red. You want the curtains to stand out a bit from the red walls, so pick a red shade that is either darker or lighter than the wall color.

Art Pieces

One other way of adding some red to your walls is through hanging up art pieces. Red art ideas include flower prints, or frame a decorative piece of fabric. Or go with a neutral art piece (like a black and white, or vintage photograph/graphic – something without any color) and put it in a red frame to match it with your living room color scheme.

The Focal Point of the Room

The seating area, around the coffee table, is usually the focal point of a living room. Some ideas on styling in red here include:

The Couch – Go with a a red couch, or a neutral color couch but decorate it with red pillows and a red blanket (5).

The Coffee Table – If you have a red couch – not much needs to be done here as it can be overpowering. Maybe go with a neutral colored coffee table with red area rug underneath. Or if you have a neutral colored couch then a red coffee table works just like in picture (6).

Decor Pieces

Some red decor pieces that you can add to your living room style include:

Candle stands
Table lamps (8)
Storage containers
Check out the shelves in picture (13) in my post here. The back of it is painted in yellow which makes it a statement piece in the room. Because the walls are mint the yellow really pops. So if you didn’t paint the walls red then a cabinet with a red background could really stand out. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

January 3, 2014 in Living Room

Color Choices: Grey Living Room Ideas and Designs

The question to ask when you want to decorate your living room in grey is, how much grey? You can go all out and have all the walls in grey, and the furniture in grey and have it look good, or go with much less grey – using one or two grey statement pieces.

The darker you go the more intimate and cozy your living room will feel, and smaller. While going lighter will make the space feel brighter and and more spacious. Here are some grey living room ideas and design tips to help you decide how you want to style your space.

Going All Out

Going all out means having all grey living room walls. This will make the space feel a little smaller. If you want to go down this route, or use really dark grey (which feels masculine, just check out the living room in picture (1)), you can still keep the room feeling a little bright and spacious by breaking up the dark walls using white curtains (2), and window frames (3). Or how about breaking up the color of the wall by using a white beadboard just like in picture (4).

Keeping it Simple

When you walk into your living, what are the first few things you notice? Is it a wall, the seating area, the coffee table, a shelf, or the media cabinet? Take note of what the focal points are in your living room.

Now if you keep your living room somewhat neutral, then you’ll only need one or two main pieces to be grey to create a grey color palette. For example, if a wall is one of the things you notice first when walking into your living room, why not paint it grey. You can leave all the other walls neutral (aka white), but this one wall will become a feature piece.

If the seating area is a main focal point, why not get some grey couches to create the grey color scheme – and decorate it with a mixture of different shades of grey and white pillows just like in pictures (5) (6) and (7). Or if you have a neutral colored couch like white/cream or black, a few grey cushions will do.

It doesn’t take much to create that grey color palette in the living room. Just check out the modern space in picture (8). A light grey couch, along with a light grey area rug is all that is used there.

Taking Things Away

A lot of times we think about all the things we can add to a room to style and decorate it the way we want. But to really style a room, more times it is about taking things out. If you want to have a grey palette scheme in a living room, then you might need to make the hard decision of taking away bold colorful pieces that dominate the space. Keep it neutral.

Or, it might not be a bad idea to add in another color. This one color will really stand out amongst the cool neutral white and greys of the room. Just check out the grey and yellow living room in picture (9). See how the yellow pops out. Other good combinations include grey and brown, grey and blue, green, purple, and orange.The key to making that one other color pop, is to remove other colors from the room. 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

Here are some other living room posts to get more ideas from: