How to Decorate a Living Room

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Video Transcript

[Music playing]

Nicola: Welcome to Design2Share Q&A. I am Nicola.

Irwin: And I am Irwin.

Nicola: I like to address a question that we have been post. What makes a great living room?

Irwin: Or rather I should say, what makes a great living room great? We should start from the shell of the space. It is pretty much like an empty box and one should make it look better than that, larger perhaps, more imposing, more dramatic, more impressive, and more inviting. And there are many ways to do that. Starting with the shell of the space, one does two things. One is to establish how it is going to be use and one is to design it in such a way that it will look its best.

Nicola: To pick up on that, how is it going to be used? The function of the room. Today, we see multifunctional rooms such as a family room. So, you may have a family room, as well as a formal-living room. A family room, where obviously, the family gathers. You might have the children doing homework or the parents checking on e-mail versus the formal-living room where you entertain or you have parties.

Irwin: But I think that they are very much is kind of, the one is blending into the other. That was practical fabrics with slim-line TVs with the rooms where people are growing up in families or perhaps the children are using the family room more and as their teenagers and the parents not wanting to hang out with them. The parents might end up in the living room or vice versa perhaps. So, there is no a reason why it should not be used.

Nicola: No, indeed. If you are buying a house, sometimes - you have a vision of how the is going to be used. Down the line, say five years later, actually it is very different.

Irwin: Absolutely, things do change. We should be prepared to design for that and that is quite important. And, of course, the design should relate to the rest of the house, in a way. It should not be something that says, would have be odd and sort of stand out either in terms of design or its formality. It does not have to be as formal as perhaps, as one remembers as a child being in the living room that one does not want to go into. And also, one other point to remember is the quantity of sitting. I think it advisable to have as many seats in the living room as one has in the dining room.

Nicola: Right, Also balance and proportions is very important. Picking up on the fact, maybe some people prefer clean lines over curves and have you mixed it, can you mix it, is it acceptable to mix. So, they have more expensive pieces versus inexpensive pieces and I say absolutely, mix it up.

Irwin: Of course, and the other thing I want to say, is finally, is about spending as much as one can. I think that if I say to you, you would have to wear these boots or a pin necktie, whatever it is for the next five or ten years. You would buy the best that you could afford and I think it is the same when it comes to the interior of your living room. You remember pieces when you were a child. You remember you had pieces that are passed on from generation to generation. Why not buy something that is really, very expensive? Not everything in the room needs to be like that, but certainly one or two pieces or a certain percentage should really be that. Absolutely.

Nicola: That could be special. Whether it is a fabric that is $300.00 a yard, say for just a throw pillow, but it is a special piece versus the fabric is the item that is more practical, say a note this way.
To summarize basically, to have a great living room, it is the sum of all parts that come together and it is a visual display to kind of excite the eye.

Thank you very much for joining us Design2Sharee Q&A. I am Nicola.

Irwin: And I am Irwin.