7 steps to an individual living room

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Cushions, Sian Elin Sian Elin Salas / recibidores
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Our lives amount to an assortment of disparate yet harmonious tasks and desires, and our homes are a reflection of this: personalised structures replete with spaces set up to cater to every need. The kitchen, for creating sustenance and sociability; the bathroom, for grooming and rejuvenation; the bedroom, for intimacy and slumber; the study, for work and miscellaneous tasks. Just as important is the need to relax, to unwind, to kick back, and that's where a well-appointed living room becomes an absolute domestic necessity. 

Living rooms are often treated in a generic fashion, without much thought to exactly what we need from them, or to how we'd really like them to look and function. The fact is, when it comes to having a well appointed, cosy and truly harmonious living room space, there's no substitute for an individualised approach: for creating an area that truly reflects our idiosyncratic needs and desires. The way to do it? For a start, add accessories! 

'How can I accessorise my living room?' is a fine question indeed, and today on homify we're here to help with 7 salient steps to creating a truly individual living room. Read on for some excellent clues and pointers.

Fantastic feature lamps and lighting

homify Salas / recibidores

We've said it many times here on homify, and we'll say it again: lighting remains one of your best and most useful tools when it comes to turning even the most relatively mundane living spaces into ones that sing with an acute individualist touch. Take a look at your room and review the state of your lighting: are there unsightly lampshades or globes where there could be far more stylish alternatives? Or perhaps too many lights where a few less would work so much better?

Let's take this wonderful loft-style example as a cue to great feature lighting in the living room. Blessed with a bright and contemporary space, the designers here have opted for a simple yet highly effective approach to brightening up this room. No corner stand-lamps as such, nor table- or bench-top varieties: not necessary with this fabulous set of matching staircase drop lamps, anchored with a central teardrop feature lamp angled from the ceiling's highpoint. Individual, artful and keenly stylish. Very classy.

Lighting can be a tough thing to really get right in the living room – for a little extra advice and guidance, it's always a great idea to get in touch with a professional.

The all important coffee table

No living is complete without a good solid coffee table to really tie the space together. Without it, where else would we put our coffee mugs? While we might be focusing more on an individualist approach, it's ok to sometimes walk the common thread with a few living room attributes, and the coffee table is most definitely one that you can afford to spend a bit of time and thought on.

There's a coffee table for every room, for every home and style. What does your living room demand in a coffee table? Something long? Something wide? Something a little more minimalist? It's crucial to get not only the dimensions right when it comes to the right coffee table, but also how it blends and fuses with the feel of the room itself. Here, we see how a fabulous wooden coffee table – imperfectly shaped, almost direct from the tree trunk – generates so much additional character in this already charming rustic living space. Always think about what sort of personality your room has, and what kind of table might enhance that.

Bookshelves customised to your personal taste

For bookworms and light readers alike, nothing lets you accessorise with a fine individual touch like a well appointed and stocked bookcase. Books are a great way to declare some of the traits and values of your own inner personality, attributes which can be used to create a sense of individuality in your living space. We'll leave it to you to make your mind up about the titles, but we can certainly point you in the right direction when it comes to how to hold and show them off.

Here, a decidedly minimalist duel-towered vertical wooden allotment adds so much personality without compromising space; the books rest neatly in small piles: colourful, vibrant and easy to read – noticable, having an effect on the living space, without distracting or come off too ostentatious. A lovely touch.

Make a statement with your freestanding unit

Whether you love to watch TV, or prefer to listen to music through your entertainment system, every living room should consider the inclusion of a well selected freestanding entertainment unit for an extra burst of individual class. Freestanding units aren't simply used for flatscreens and DVD players, but they are versatile living room accessories and have multiple uses.

Here, we see how a freestanding unit – neatly minimalist, wood-framed, long and stylistically in-keeping with the rest of the room's furniture and accessories – makes a wonderful art space and vinyl record player table: something that keeps clutter to a minimum and gives a unique flourish of personality to an already characterful living room.

Clever curtains for a chic setting

Curtains can be a fabulous way of imparting a little extra verve into any room in the house, but especially the living room. The best part about curtains is that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to achieve a unique curtain effect – there are so many patterns, fabrics and materials available today, offering so many choices to help make your living space sing.

Take this as a fine example: light, airy, free-flowing lacey drapes make the perfect, understated addition to a regal, seaside-style cottage living room, matched to perfection both colour-wise, and style-wise.

Accessorise in style with fabulous cushions

Cushions, Sian Elin Sian Elin Salas / recibidores Accesorios y decoración

Consider how cushion can be included to your chairs, lounges and couches for a hit of extra colour, personality and vibrancy. Cushions are one of the more easy accessories to work with, because they're extremely versatile and come in a great range of styles, patterns and colours. 

Here, we see how even a feature pile of cushions – sans chair or couch – can become a unique stylistic living room statement in its own right, finely tuned to the tones and feel of the room.

Embrace the unusual and go for style

Lastly, it goes without saying, that to achieve a truly individual living room, you must always follow your gut instinct and always feel free to think outside the box. Accessorise to your heart's content and if the unusual is what takes your fancy, then you ought to follow down that path. 

Unusual and unorthodox styles are what keep the design world turning, and if you've got the sort of space that can handle a bit of nouveau or avant garde treatment, why not explore it? The designers of this fabulously chic living room certainly knew how to embrace the unusual, and the result speaks for itself: a bright, contemporary, almost futuristic living room that compromises nothing in terms of functionality and warmth – it's colourful and cosy, adorned with a keen array of accessories and accoutrements, from silver coffee table to the artistic lampshades, to the fabulous spread of cushions. Embrace the unusual, and go for style.

Did you like that Ideabook? Why not learn more about great accessory design with How to incorporate your vintage home accessories?

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