A living room isn’t always going to come with pre-selected furniture all from the same brand. Households often have to play the mix-and-match game to try and get down a definitive living room aesthetic in their furniture.
Here is how to mix and match furniture for living room:
1. Combinations, Combinations
When you mix and match furniture for a living room, the furniture combination plays a key factor. The most effective living room designs in interior decorating aren’t those which strictly follow a single trend. They’re those which combine different parts of styles, places, and time periods.
Customize your living room according to your personality and don’t be afraid to go outside-the-box. Whether you go with a style featuring modern furniture or vintage antiques, the results can be absolutely glorious.
2. Decide On A Theme
Themes can add up cost-wise but they make it easier for many homeowners to mix-and-match furniture. The theme can be a specific time period like the 1960s, a culture such as Chinese or Scandinavian, a color collection, or a lifestyle such as a hunter, gardener, professor, or athlete.
Each of these themes immediately give off ideas and inspiration on what one can fill their living room with. The result is furniture that won’t have to work hard to match.
3. Define a Limited Color Palette
Don’t go wild, putting in anything that feels unique and ‘you’. The best approach to mixing and matching furniture in a living room is to define a limited color palette and sticking to it. This way, you’re guaranteeing a sense of coherency.
For example, a black-and-white aesthetic is something you can commit to and have plenty of options furniture-wise. A green-esque forest look, ocean blue aesthetic, or beige and grey combination also work.
4. Layers Upon Layers
A unique, personal living room often uses layers. That is, to layer not only in colors but textures, shapes, and materials. Any opportunity you can use to create couplets of things like colors, textures, and size, consider the impact it would have on the room. A living room is advantageous in the sense that it is a very dynamic area that can be transformed into anything. Tell a story.
5. Size And Scale
Size and scale refer to the comparison of proportions between objects. For example, a heavy object looks well with a lighter object near it. Not everything in your room should be large either, just like you wouldn’t want it all to be small. Consider the balance you can achieve by using alternatives.
6. Use Pops to Create A Sense of Matching
If you’re unhappy with the big furniture not quite matching, another way to create a sense of harmony in a living room is to use it with ornate accessories. Something as simple as fake plants placed sporadically through the room ties everything in together.
7. Repetition
Repetition is a great design approach and one that provides not only a visual impact but functionality. If you’re mixing styles, you can make it more polished by repeating patterns or objects. For example, a sequence of chairs.
A collection of books on a shelf. A pathway of rugs. These are all opportunities to create direction and meaning through repetition.
8. Essentials v. Additions
Every living room is going to have a set of essentials. These are things like the couch, a loveseat, couch-side tables, and items which you know are going to make up the biggest elements of the room. Then, there are additions.
These additions can pull from antiques, emotionally-resonant objects, and self-made items. There are opportunities in both categories to match different furnishings.
9. Mix Up Your Materials
An area that many of us forget about when mixing and matching furniture is the material. No room’s made from a single material and nothing more. Feel encouraged to use as many different materials that makes sense. From porcelain to glass, stone, wood, velvet, metal, and more, layering materials like this can create a visual story that’s instantly perceptible.
10. Choosing A Focus Object
If you’re not sure where to begin in mixing and matching furniture, start by selecting an object that inspires you. We call this a ‘focus object’. You position it somewhere in your living room and build it from there. Using a focus object as a starting point, you can repeat its shape, texture, colors, or theme in other furniture or accents throughout the room.
This way, you’re crafting according to something that speaks to your personality as opposed to trying to fit the same object in after-the-fact when it might not necessarily fit.
11. Matching Art
Another opportunity to create balance in a living room with interior design is through matching pieces of art. This technique is used by homeowners who are still learning about what works for them. Matching art placed next to one another or across from each other on walls makes a statement without you having to do much work.
12. Use Mirrors
Oversized mirrors on an empty wall creates the perception of matching furniture without you having to do anything. It isn’t going to resolve a room that absolutely does not match. It will, however, strengthen what’s already matching. A large mirror is recommended, however, a smaller mirror can also do the trick.
The beautiful thing about a mirror is that it will also reflect natural light and brighten up your living room.
