A typical home plan consists of various kinds of spaces categorized as per their primary function. A living room is amongst the most important spaces in any home. It is a room with maximum area in plan.

In spite of variations in shape, size and volume of living rooms depending upon design of each, one thing is common for all kinds of living rooms and that’s their need to have an inviting nature.

This kind of inviting nature can be achieved by using some easy design principles such as use of bright colors. If lighting is used with these colors then a very magical play of colors can be used enhance the living room space.

Lighting primarily is categorized in two types

 1) Natural lighting (Direct sunlight) and 2) Artificial lighting.

1) Natural Direct Sunlight.

Natural light received from the Sun is the most obvious and healthy source of light we receive during daytime. Though the intensity and quantity of sunlight coming inside the space can be controlled using diffused glasses or curtains on windows.

When the direct sunlight falls on the inside walls the color of the walls temporarily changes to a mixture of sunlight plus the original wall shade. This particular phenomenon can be use to our advantage. By finding out the wall that received direct sunlight and painting
that wall with bright color a beautiful diffused and “reflected light” can be created absolutely free. This “reflected light” will help in creating an ambience in the living room.

Also shadow patterns on this wall will add to some extra excitement if used creatively.

2) Artificial Lighting.

Artificial lighting is a wide area of study of interior designers. Unlike sunlight in this type of lighting every aspect of light, right from its color to it’s intensity or even it’s area of spreading can be controlled with various controls.

Also depending upon the requirement of the living room space a single or multiple number of lights of various intensities can be used.

But for creating a “moody” environment lights are used in specific areas of the living room such as ceiling corners or along the edge of the room. In creating a mood it is necessary to hide the light source and only show its effect. By hiding the light source using a “false
ceiling” and projecting the light on bright colored ceiling panels such kind of mood can be created.

In some cases spot lights are also used to bring attention to specific areas of the living room such as the loop created by sofa sets around the TV unit. Corner end tables that come with a living room set are good for creating a platform for decorative lampshades that will lit the entire sofa set area for some extra lighting.

There are numerous more ideas and methods you can use to add some extra attention in the living room. I am sure this article will help you to generate more creative ideas of your own to decorative a wonderful living room.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com/. Visit today to get more free tips on designing and decorating a beautiful and charming  living room of your wildest dreams.

A table is a furniture unit which is seen in every home used for a variety of purposes from study to dining, tables are a very popular type of furniture unit. Theoretically speaking a table is nothing but a horizontal platform with legs that support various activities in everyday work.

Since the primary function of a table can not be defined with 100% guarantee the form and shape/size of tables greatly vary. For example tables for studying/dining/coffee/in restaurants/in bedrooms/in living rooms all have different sizes.

In living rooms two types of tables are primarily used. First are the end tables that come with a living room furniture set as part of the other furniture units like sofas and chairs and the second type is a coffee table. As the name suggests a coffee table is normally placed in the center of the “loop” formed by sofas and is used to serve eatables or drinks etc. because of this the overall volume of the coffee table is short and does not “over occupy” the living room.

On the other hand end tables are only used as fillers to occupy the small corners at the “end” of sofa units where living room ends. These kind of tables are also mostly used to keep a flowering arrangement or statues that will hide the unwanted corners of the room. The typical height of both end and coffee tables measures to be 450 mm (1 feet 6 inches approx.) This height does not obstruct the vision of the people occupying  the living room.

The coffee table normally comes in a two layer design. The upper layer is used to serve coffee or other eatables and the lower layer can be used to keep magazines/newspapers.

One very creative way to break the old pattern of decorating is to use the end tables as a coffee table but in more numbers. For example instead of using a single rectangular coffee table with glass top you can use two wooden end tables and two glass+steel end tables to create an interesting pattern. Since the end tables measure shorter in demission around 450mmX450mm such type of design will not obstruct the human movement between the sofa loop.

Also the variation in top surface material will give rise to interesting material themes that can be repeated elsewhere also. Some possible shapes of such an arrangement could be

* A big square using 4 small squares end tables of different  top surface finish
* 2 small square tables with 2 half round tables at both ends to form a “capsule” shape in plan.
* Two rectangular end tables to for a “L” shape.

The variations can be unlimited if done creatively. But one thing remains to explore here, what happens to the “end” space where these end tables need to be placed primarily? Of course this space is a good one to place a attention grabbing feature such as a medium height plant or even designer lampposts. The advantage of using these is they will
evenly balance the visual focus away from the center tables and form a visual frame in the living room by providing good lighting at the same time.

Many more creative ideas are possible using simple tables in the living room. I hope you will find more new ways to use them in your home. I have tried to mark a few ones here

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com/. Visit today to get more free tips on making use of living room tables and other furniture models such as chairs, sofas, and living room sets in home decorating. 

Decorating a living room is a great way to enhance the value of your home. A beautifully decorated home always helps in creating a charming mood amongst the family members. Apart from just arranging furniture and finalizing color schemes, there are many things that can go in a living room decorating project.

Accessories in decorating can make a big difference in the look and feel of any interior space. Objects such as wall clocks, picture frames, wall hangings, feng-shui objects can greatly add to the value of beauty in a living room.

Indoor metal statues and plants are another my favorite objects in decorating. You can also go in for bonsai trees on window openings to add some extra interest. In addition to these accessories a good choice of curtains, window valances depending upon the theme of decorating can create a good visual balance in the room. If your home is located at a place where there is plenty of natural sunlight the curtains that will filter out harsh sunlight during daytime will create some great lighting play inside the living room.

carpets of various sizes and shapes can add a good sense of direction of human movement inside the room. While selecting the carpets it is necessary to look for the maintenance factor as well.

Furniture in any interior space occupies maximum floor area. Apart from providing comfort for the users, furniture also has a certain emotional attachment from user’s point of view.

Depending upon the volume of space being decorated and the overall theme of decorating, furniture can be used to bring some great ambience in the space. If the living room you are trying to decorate is smaller in volume, it is necessary to create a perfect balance between the used and unused areas. That’s why it is recommended that you go in for furniture that is more “sleek” in nature like cane furniture. If you use bulky furniture like stuffed sofas etc. they create an appearance of large volumes and the smaller room looks smaller.

Will keep on writing more about various furniture types later. That’s it for now

Sofa in a living room is a very special way to occupy space for a special purpose. The main purpose of any sofa unit is to not just to provide seating, but create a secured environment where the home owner and his family can enjoy moments of togetherness. 

That’s why sofas come in a variety of shapes and sizes. In most cases sofa units come in a category of “number of seats”.

3seats in a row, 2seats in a row (commonly called as a “love seat”) and a single seat sofa are available today in the furniture market. Apart from these special designer sofas for placing in corner on the living room are also popular. These designer sofas are sometimes in the form of a letter “L” in plan, with the longer side of the “L” has a back rest with 3 seats in a row.

The most preferred arrangement of sofas in a living room furniture unit is making use of one 3seat sofa along the longer length of the sofa and two single seat sofas with an end table in between them. A living room set is also available for customers. This living room set contains a 3 seat sofa, a love seat, a single seat sofa, end table(s) and a coffee table.

Depending upon the design/dimensions/shape and volume of the living room various combinations of the sofas can be done to utilize space. While deciding the arrangement of the sofas keep one thing in mind that as soon as you arrange a sofa layout, the volume of space occupied by the sofas and surroundings immediately becomes the focus of attention. For example if the sofas have been arranged around the TV unit, see that the rest of the space gets enough attention or it will look unoccupied. Also make use of small elements such as end tables and coffee table of various shapes to create some interest in the living room.

Before defining a living room furniture layout first finalize your main activity of interest in a living room. What does this mean? What I mean is for do you use the living room most. Is it reading? watching TV, sleeping, home office in a short corner with a computer etc. Answering this question first is very important because in a living room furniture layout sofas play a major role. Since sofas are the heaviest furniture elements you can not move or shift them every other day for a different layout. I’m not saying you can never change the layout once it’s done, but if you arrange the sofas around a TV unit then naturally watching TV becomes your main activity.

On the other hand if you place them around the exit to patio then naturally you will have to spend a lot of time watching nature and birds in the outside garden.

I hope this article was a good start in thinking about more creative ways to use sofas in a living room decorating.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com/ Visit today to get more free tips on making use of living room sofa and other many aspects of decorating that can make your home a beautiful place to reside.

It is very common to see home decorating projects taking longer times in finishing than what was scheduled for. Why does this happen? Has this happened anytime with your home.

I have got an easy solution to this problem. Before starting staring the decorating project finalize what “theme” you would like to go for. This solution seems to be very common, but has a lot of power in it.

The biggest benefit of this system is that you don’t get distracted from what you want to achieve with decorating. The theme will always guide you in executing the right color schemes/linen finishes/wallpapers/lighting fittings/ carpets/furniture styles and every minute detail; you want to go in for.

For example if you have a clear idea that you are willing to go for a “contemporary home decorating theme” then you won’t waste your time looking for stuff that is heavily decorative, because the very essence of a contemporary theme is “simplicity with straight lines”.

I will write more about this type of theme later, but if you want to achieve such type of mindset that always forces you to execute your every project in time and in the shortest possible budget, I recommend “Home Decorating Made Easy”, a step-by-step guide for anyone who wants spectacular and charming rooms, which your neighbors will envy

Chairs provide a very simple yet effective way to relax and spend some good time in a comfortable body posture. But not all chairs are designed to “relax” . This is especially true about chairs in the workplaces. In the workplaces we are supposed to be alert hence the office furniture is designed to be alert at work. They keep your body in a manner which will keep you from relaxing.

But things are different in a living room. the whole and sole purpose of chairs in the living room are to provide better comfort and maximum relaxation. But there is one more important aspect to this situation.

let’s see a small experiment. If you have been given a choice in a living room to watch a good movie and provided with two different types of seating arrangement. First a big stuffed leather sofa and a small chair with fair amount of seating space a person should have, which one would you choose to sit. Of course most people will unconsciously choose to sit on a large sofa and ignore the chair altogether.

Why does this happen? It’s simple a sofa has a much different psychological impact on the human mind because of its sheer volume and form. Because of his a chair in a living room is always considered as a “option” for seating arrangement. If your more friends join the movie viewing with you then you might consider getting a few “chairs” to sit around the TV and fulfill the need of emergency occupancy.

So chairs are always considered a fillers rather than core furniture elements in a living room. But this same principle can be very effectively used, let’s see how.

If you observe the furniture arrangement in any living room you will notice that sofa sets are arranged in living rooms that overlook some object of interest such as a fireplace, TV, outdoor patio, backyard etc. So such kind of arrangement is used to create a focus in the living room. Go right now to http://images.google.com and search for “living room” images. View at least 10 images and you will see that all attention has been focused around this furniture arrangement.

We can easily use this method with chairs as well. An arrangement of chairs in a large living room will definitely be used to balance the attention elsewhere and create another focal point. For example if the exit to patio has been overlooked an arrangement of even 4 chairs with a small coffee table will make the space look more used and
balanced.

In this way chairs do have a lot of “power” in decorating when used in groups and with creative arrangements. I hope this article has shown you the importance of chairs as a design element in living rooms.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya
Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com Visit today to get more free tips on living room chairs and many other factors that will help you to create a charming and beautiful living room.

If you planning to buy new furniture for your living room, then most probably you have already thought about the furniture layout in your mind or else you have probably thought of repeating the same old layout with only the new furniture pieces. In this article I will show you a simple method to create the most efficient livingroom furniture layout.

Before we begin there are a few points that need to be considered. A living room is always a transition space. This means that entrances to all other rooms are located in living room. Other bedrooms, dining room, kitchen etc. are accessed through living room, that’s why a sufficient “circulation space” for family members is a must.

So here is what you can do to create the most efficient layout for a living room.

1) Take a plane white paper. A4 size is also enough.
2) Draw a sketch plan of your living room on this paper. While drawing this plan it is important to show the following things in it.

*Entrance door
*Entrance doors to other rooms
*Window positions
*Minor column projections (if any)
*Swing of the doors (inside or outside the living room)
*Presence of staircase
*Fireplace (if any)

3) Take a pencil and draw lines starting from entrance door to all other doors and window positions. This is the natural travel lines for any person using the living room. If the room is empty without any livingroom furniture these are the lines any person would follow to reach other point in the living room.

4) Now start placing the furniture units like 3 seat sofa, single/double seat sofa, coffee table, end tables lampshades, bookshelves, TV unit, etc.. Depending upon your budget you can go for any number of these units.

While placing these units it will always be seen that the furniture obstructs the pencil travel lines drawn in the third step. But that’s OK for now. Now make as may combinations and arrangements of the furniture units as possible. Think out of the box while doing this. Try to do something different.

Remember if you try you will easily come up with at lest 10 layout for that same living room. You will be amazed at how many combinations are possible. Also imagine the furniture pieces you already have or can you replace that table in the bedroom with the one in the living room.

How about keeping it vertical rather that horizontal in the plan. Whatever you do keep one thing in mind. Always keep the human ovement “unobstructed”. People passing through the living room in other rooms must be able to pass without cutting vision if you are talking to other person in the living room.

That’s why those pencil lines have been drawn. After you have drawn the furniture pieces on the living room plan, modify the travel lines. Now these lines will be around the furniture, especially at corners. The travel lines will now take the shape of the furniture at the edges.

After this short exercise you will have probably 5 different layouts on paper with. Select the one in which you see the following points of interest.

*Travel line lengths are shortest.
*Travel lines do not pass trough the furniture.

Apart from the efficiency there is another factor called as visual balance while designing a furniture layout. Finally does it look good to YOU. Are you  comfortable with the final layout. The visual balance is achieved by making the most use of all walls of the living room with decorating elements such as paintings, color schemes, etc.

So if you follow a system from the beginning you will be definitely be able to create a beautiful living room in the shortest possible time. I hope this article has helped you to find more creative ways of doing this job more efficiently.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com/. Visit today to get more free tips on living room furniture to decorate a beautiful and charming living room of your wildest dreams.

A typical living room set consists of sofa mostly 3 seats,
a sofa with 2 seats (commonly called as “love seat”), a coffee
table and an end table(s).

It is up to the manufacturer of the living room set, to include or exclude a particular furniture element from the set he is selling. So before finalizing on a furniture set first study the actual space where the set is going to reside.

But how to study a living room for better placement of furniture for best visual experience? It all depends on volume of the furniture that the space will occupy. For example imagine a large wardrobe in your bedroom. The wardrobe seems to occupy a lot of space, but if you remove all the side faces and the shutters of the wardrobe and make it into an open shelf, the perception of the heaviness disappears and the wardrobe gives a light experience. But it is very important to remember that the actual floor are covered by the wardrobe always remains the same. To view a visual presentation of this, visit http://www.bedroom-design-and-decorating-ideas.com/furniture-set.htm

So the volume of the furniture, irrespective of it’s shape, matters a lot. For creating visual balance study all faces of the living room. Look for entrances, exits to other rooms. Draw a rough sketch plan of the living room and draw possible furniture placements.

After this select furniture pieces that best fit into the space without obstructing the circulation flow and most important create a “balance” of vision in the space. By balance of vision I mean that all the walls of the living room should look equally occupied. Where you find loop holes use small elements such a end tables with flower arrangements etc. This is the reason why they have been provided. Also a coffee simple table is used to create a focus in the living room.

Since all the people who sit on the sofas are going to face in the center of the room, a coffee table add a point of “concentration” in the living room.

Also if a particular wall looks unoccupied after placing a sofa
against it make use of “wall painting” to balance it. More better effect can be created by using artificial lighting on unoccupied walls. In the daytime creative use of sunlight and shadows can be made by studying light patterns.

So in decorating of any space a lot of things come into considerations. As mentioned above it’s not just placing furniture in a room and calling it a “design”. The possibilities are endless and if used wisely can easily transform your home into a wonderful and amazing place to live.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com Visit today to get more free tips on various aspects living room set decorate a beautiful and charming living room of your wildest dreams.

What exactly is a theme? To make things simple let’s put it this way. A theme is nothing but a group of design elements combined together and given a name.

Some of the common theme names we have heard are
1) Contemporary theme
2) Oriental theme
3) Country theme
etc..

So a theme includes elements of decorating that are responsible for a drastic change in any given interior space. What these elements can be? A theme might include colors, finishes, textures, specific shapes to be used, budget restrictions, or even a material of only by a particular manufacturer.

Such a group of design elements when combined together gives birth to a “theme”. It is perfectly possible to add, delete, modify, alter, replace any one or all the elements in this theme. It all depends on what you like/dislike.

For example If I say that a “contemporary design theme” does nor or should not include a specific color for ceiling in the living room, you have total right to modify the above statement and make your own depending upon what you like/dislike. So any design theme is always evolving and you can use “creativity” to give birth to new themes.

But what about the themes that are already existing?

1) Contemporary design theme:

In these type of designs much emphasis is given on “simplicity” and straight lines and forms. this type theme says that a square in it self is a beautiful and “balanced” entity hence most design elements in this theme are simple forms made of straight lines.

Also plain colors with their shades are used to create a “play” of light and shadows.

2) Oriental design theme:

In these type of design majority of surfaces are treated for “relief work” such as textured plasters with heavy decorating, wallpapers, with decorating prints of natural elements such as leaves, flowers, scenery. Surfaces are treated as a way of expression.

3) Country design theme:

In this theme more and more natural elements are used for creating furniture and other elements. that’s why more country houses have wooden furniture, wooden flooring, shutters, ceiling made of wood etc.

So wood is used as a major language of expression.

While selecting theme for your living room it is necessary to first analyze what you like most and the budget criteria. Once this has been defined finding design elements that fits your design theme is relatively easy. But one thing must be kept in mind that a living room is the face of your home. Once you decide or finalize the theme for your living room, it becomes almost necessary to use the same theme for rest of the room.

Of course this is not an absolute rule ,but keeping a common theme for your entire home helps to maintain a visual balance.

I hope this article was helpful to everyone.

Copyright Shrinivas Vaidya
Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://www.livingroomdatabase.com Visit today to get more free living room decorating tips to decorate a beautiful and charming living room of your wildest dreams.