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As its name suggests, the living room is the very center of daily life in every home, a place where the family spends most of its time, reading, chatting, entertaining friends and enjoying the time spent together.
This is why the room needs to be a space where you can relax and feel utterly comfortable, but getting the right look may not always come easily.
Fashion trends come and go and whether they repulse us or inspire us, we can decide to incorporate certain elements into our room décor to make it more up-to-date, fresh and inviting.
Sometimes, the smallest change can be sufficient, such as rearranging the room layout, adding a new piece, a fresh coat of paint, colorful cushions or an area rug.
Besides being comfortable and welcoming, your living room should show off your style as well, so every choice you make, from the chairs, sofas and wall color, should be carefully thought through.
As tastes and preferences are very different and rather subjective, this is where the latest popular trends can be very helpful. Here are several of them that left their mark in 2018.
Colors and Materials
A deeper exploration of colors is definitely worth your time, as all the pieces you pick, from furniture to light fixtures and accessories, will stand out and give your room a distinctive flair.
While there are still girlie neutrals, pastels and greys present, we have seen braver color choices that include lemon yellow, bright red and reddish orange.
These colors set the room character contrasted against moody backgrounds painted in brooding violet, navy blue, burgundy and dark grey. Green in all its vibrant varieties is very desirable and has basically become the color of the year.
Picking your pieces in these bold colors and combining them with softer colored walls, floors and rugs will make them more pronounced and create a satisfying balance between lighter shades and darker, richer colors of particular elements.
Speaking of materials, attention is put on the richness of tactile experiences, so we see an increase in the usage of soft velvet, metallic, marble and shining surfaces and lots of darker wood.
Single pieces in gold or brass, rather than the copper of recent years, give the room certain depth and richer and more luxurious quality to your interior design.
The Media Center
More and more homeowners have been looking for ways to create a multi-purpose living room, rather than having a separate family room and a home theater.
With rapid technological novelties that have been sweeping the home theater market, it’s become fairly easy to find the best solution to fit in with your living room design.
Whether you opt for mounting your TV on the wall, or you prefer to go with a TV unit, having a media center is a must in a contemporary home.
Incorporating all the necessary elements for a great media experience can be tricky, so it’s a good idea to go with a customized home theater system.
Getting valuable expert advice from professional installers, as well as designers so you can make it all work from the aesthetic point of view, is a key ingredient of a modern and functional living room.
Furniture Design
One trend that was noted almost everywhere is the inspiration drawn from vintage pieces of furniture. This lasting design has now been given a new life by the usage of new technologies, materials and aesthetics, and it doesn’t dwell only in one epoch, but it takes up ideas from the 1940s and 1950s or even 1970s, bringing in a great variety of colors and shapes.
This reincarnation of furniture design shows a specific contemporary direction: the sofas are bigger and seating is fluffier, they can fold over and recline to an almost lying position, offering utter comfort and relaxation.
This trend of over-sized and lazy-looking seating is very indicative of a modern lifestyle – they offer a place where people can relax and wind down after a busy day at work, but they can also do it in a luxurious way. Sophistication is the goal and elegance is visible everywhere.
Accessories
An essential living room trend in the spring and summer was decorating with greenery. Whether it’s tiny cacti, succulents, fern, hanging pots or large potted plants, greenery always has a powerful impact on the space.
Used minimally as a finishing detail or in abundance, you can never really do it wrong.
Feature floors have gotten lots of attention this year, as opposed to feature walls being highly popular in the years before.
Wooden floors still stand their ground in many homes, but there’s a strong desire to adorn them with warm and cozy statement carpets and rugs.
There’s been a visible rise in sales of patterned carpets, tartans and stripes. Using larger rugs, layering and avoidance of symmetry gives the room a unique and non-traditional look.
Finally, it’s up to you to pick a trend you love, give it your own twist and create a living room that’s comfortable, inviting and reflective of your personality.
