Design Tips: Contemporary Living Rooms

Traditional living room furniture often fits one of two patterns. First, there was the formal parlor sometimes with plastic slipcovers on the long-coveted “good furniture” that was often just for show. Children and pets were forbidden almost all the time and even the grownups only used the room a couple of times a year, such as having guests over for the holidays. Second, you had riotous displays of chintz and other clutter from travel souvenirs to the umpteenth “pretty collection” of something, in its own way as off-putting as the parlor. With today’s casual, friendly approach to life and open floor plans, such living room arrangements have become a thing of the past. Living room furniture from Furniture Distributors is meant to be lived in, truly USED. Your living room is part receiving area, part true lounge both for family and friends, part homework and music-practice location, and even more. Contemporary living rooms are both inviting and uncluttered, also reflecting Asian ideas about living spaces as popularized by feng shui and downsizing maven Marie Kondo. Here are some design tips to get the most joy out of your modern living room and its furniture.

Clarity and Focus: Zen-Like Simplicity

One approach to contemporary living room furniture comes from the idea that the best-looking living rooms, of those with the most affluence and taste, resemble art galleries with the spare purposefulness of the decor, as clear as a Zen garden. Yet the space is eminently livable, reflecting the modernist idea last century of the home as a machine for living. Many living room pieces and sets fit this idea. One example is a living room sofa in black leather, its stark lines accentuated by its gleaming chrome frame. An ideal companion piece for this sofa would be a coffee table with a tempered glass top. It doesn’t take too much imagination to fill in the rest of the decor details, from ultramodern accent lamps, the bulbs seeming hanging from metallic stalks or ensconced in glass balls, to Patrick Nagel prints, car posters or even fine original signed and numbered art on the walls. Another approach nods to the recent past, popularized by TV shows such as “Mad Men.” Midcentury modern, also called Danish modern, was considered unhip a couple of decades ago and thrown out; now decorators can’t get enough of it. Thank goodness you don’t have to comb vintage shops to find a fragile old sofa or bar to make this decor statement. Choose among the top brand furniture in our stores to channel your inner Don Draper or Joan Holloway.

Spot Color to Add “Pop”

Once you’ve got the noble-simplicity vibe going in your living room furniture, it’s time to have a little fun. Why not an accent ottoman or pouf in faux fur dyed fuchsia? Maybe an accent chair or armchair in hubba-hubba electric line green or ice-cream shop orange. The possibilities for spot color as an exclamation point to your decor statement are virtually endless!

Get started on fitting out YOUR dream contemporary living room furniture with the help of our Newport, NC store and other Furniture Distributors locations.