Timeless Charm: How to Style Your Living Room Vintage

Adding a touch of vintage flair to your living room can create a cozy and inviting atmosphere that is both unique and classic. The key to achieving this look is to mix old with new, incorporating vintage pieces alongside modern elements to create a harmonious blend of styles. This blog post will explore how to style your living room with a vintage aesthetic.

Start with a Neutral Base

To create a vintage-inspired living room, begin by choosing a neutral color palette as your base. Opt for soft, muted tones such as cream, beige, or light gray to provide a subtle backdrop for your vintage elements. This will allow your antique pieces to stand out and shine as the focal points of the room.

Mix Old with New

The key to successfully styling your living room with a vintage aesthetic is to mix old with new. Incorporate vintage furniture pieces such as a distressed leather sofa, a weathered wood coffee table, or a retro armchair alongside modern accessories like sleek metallic lamps or abstract artwork. This juxtaposition of styles creates a visually interesting and eclectic space.

Showcase an Antique Grandfather Clock

One of the most iconic vintage pieces you can incorporate into your living room is an antique grandfather clock. These timeless timepieces add character and charm to any space, and serve as a functional and decorative element. Place your grandfather clock in a prominent spot in the room, such as against a wall or in a corner, where it can be admired and appreciated by all who enter. Don’t forget to have grandfather clock maintenance to make sure it’s always in the best condition. 

Add Vintage Accents

In addition to furniture pieces, incorporating vintage accents such as ornate mirrors, antique rugs, or vintage-inspired textiles can further enhance the vintage aesthetic of your living room. Look for unique pieces with intricate patterns, rich textures, and aged finishes to add depth and character to your space.

Personalize Your Space

To truly make your vintage-inspired living room feel like home, be sure to add personal touches that reflect your unique style and personality. Display family photos in vintage frames, showcase treasured heirlooms or collectibles, or incorporate handmade items that have a sentimental value. These personal touches will make your living room feel warm and inviting, and truly reflect your individuality.

Styling your living room with a vintage aesthetic is a wonderful way to infuse charm and character into your home. By following these tips and incorporating an antique grandfather clock as a statement piece, you can create a timeless and inviting space that is sure to be a conversation starter. Remember to mix old with new, add personal touches, and most importantly, have fun with the process. Embrace the beauty of vintage style and watch as your living room transforms into a space that feels both familiar and unique.

How To Make Your Small Living Room Feel Bigger

Does your home have a small living room that you often struggle to decorate? There are tons of tips and tricks to be able to make your area look more spacious. If you’re looking for some design inspiration, here are some ideas on how to make your small living room feel bigger.

Build Shelving

When you want to adorn your room with photos, vases, and other knick-knacks, finding places to put them can be challenging, especially when dealing with a small area. To achieve this, install built-in shelves on the walls. This saves space while putting your special items on display.

Add a Large Mirror

One of the oldest tricks in the book is using a mirror to make a room feel bigger. If you have a free wall, add a large mirror to open up the space. This creates an illusion of more space due to the mirror reflecting light throughout the living room.

Use a Light Paint Shade

If you want to do a complete redesign, opt for adding a light shade of paint to the walls. For example, light gray, sky blue, or tan are great choices. Consider matching your ceiling color with the walls to extend and elongate the room even further.

Maximize Storage

When dealing with a small area, adding as many well-placed and hidden storage compartments as possible is important. An ottoman or coffee table with drawers are practical options that double as furniture and storage solutions.

Furnish With Intent

Select furniture that both enhances the room and saves space. Consider using a loveseat instead of a large sofa since a couch often takes up most of a living area. If you have a television, mount it on the wall to avoid the need for a large stand and cable box.

When designing your gathering space, be sure to follow these tips on how to make your small living room feel bigger. This will allow you to maximize your free area and make your guests more comfortable.

Tips for Cultivating a Functional Living Room

As a homeowner, you probably want your living room to look nice and tidy. On the other hand, being a busy mom can make it more difficult to keep a clean home. Although it may not always be possible to have a spotless house when you have kids, you can keep a tidy but lived-in space. You don’t have to choose between style and functionality. Check out these helpful tips for cultivating a functional living room.

Declutter the Space

The first step to creating the ultimate living room is decluttering the space. If you have too many items in the room, it may be impossible to transform the space into what you want it to be. Consider removing everything unnecessary from the room and starting over to cultivate your family’s perfect spot to relax and unwind.

Sell or donate anything you don’t want or need to add to the finished room and organize everything you plan to keep accordingly. Decluttering is the most effective way to start fresh.

Determine the Best Layout

Deciding on the layout is one of the most important steps in creating a functional living room. After all, it may not function the way you want without the proper setup. If you want the room to be suitable for conversation and visiting with friends and family, consider putting your sofas, armchairs, or ottomans around the coffee table to make it easier to chat with others in the room.

Use Multifunctional Furniture

There are many things to consider when choosing living room furniture, but one of the most important factors for a comfortable living room is using multifunctional furniture. If you have a small living area, you may need to choose a sofa and coffee table with hidden storage space to house your blankets and other living room essentials. Furthermore, selecting a couch that transforms into a bed is an excellent choice for those who have frequent guests.

Place Your TV Correctly

Your TV is most likely the room’s focal point if you plan to use the space to watch shows and movies, but you should be sure to place it correctly. Positioning your TV and sofa can be challenging, but putting your couch at least 5 to 10 feet away from the TV is the best choice. Additionally, set the TV at the right level—your eyes should naturally hit the center of the TV when sitting on the sofa.

With these tips for cultivating a functional living room, you can make the best space for your family to spend time together. You’ll most likely spend most of your downtime in the living room, so make it into a space you want to spend time in.

How to Design a Gender Inclusive Living Room

In the US alone, about 5% of adults identify as transgender or non-binary. That might not sound like a lot, but it equates to roughly 3 million people. And as awareness around non-gender-conformity grows, so does the community of people who identify within it. 

Designing a gender inclusive living room (and home in general) simply means designing an interior that’s not dictated by traditional gender roles and stereotypes. 

Instead of reserving pink hues for women and shades of blue for men, why not push the boundaries of gender and explore a more neutral atmosphere altogether? At the end of the day, everyone deserves to come home to a living room that feels open, comfortable, and inclusive, both physically and otherwise.   

Need a helping hand creating a stylish living room that everyone feels comfortable in? 

Let’s explore some useful tips for designing a gender inclusive living room through the mindful selection of color, shape, texture, and form. 

Embrace Open-Plan Design 

An open-plan design can help create a sense of spaciousness and light in your living room. When furniture and décor are too closely stuffed together, it can feel cloying and claustrophobic—two things no one wants to feel in their designed chill area. 

Instead, try to position your major furniture such as sofas, coffee tables, or bookshelves in a way that allows movement to flow freely throughout the room. 

Give your walls space to breathe by keeping them relatively minimalistic and being selective about what you choose to put on them. The less clutter and noise there is, the easier it will be for you and your guests to unwind and allow the atmosphere to organically shift based on who’s in it. 

Keep The Bones Of The Room Neutral 

If you love ever-changing trends or don’t have a set style you follow, avoid making bold home design choices that can’t easily be changed. You can keep your living room feeling open to different gender identity expressions by using neutral bones that suit a wide variety of feelings. 

In the home design industry, when people talk about “bones”, they mean the integral, structural elements of a room. This can include walls, doors, windows, and floors. 

Some examples of neutral colors include white, ivory, beige, cool blues, light ochre, and sage green. These gentle colors are not specific to any gender, and they work well in just about any home. By sticking to the basics, you give yourself more freedom to experiment with personal décor.  

Although neutral colors like bone or beige might seem boring to some, in the long run, they’ll allow you to be much more playful with unique décor and different color schemes. That way, you can change things up depending on how you feel, all without spending a fortune redoing the entire room. 

Let Plenty Of Light In 

Light plays an important role in any home environment. Not only does it allow you to see things better during the day, but it also adds an element of elevation and breathability to any room. If you’re looking for a simple, natural way to make your space feel more open, large windows and lots of light are key. 

Various studies show that natural light brings many benefits to indoor spaces. It can make you feel warmer, more relaxed, more productive, and possibly even more creative. 

If you don’t have big windows, that’s okay. You can still let more natural light in by using light color opaque curtains and avoiding clutter by the windowsill. If that’s still not an option for you, soft-wattage (warm) light bulbs in your lounge lights will make a big difference in the atmosphere.  

Avoid Traditionally Masculine Or Feminine Décor 

Society has developed some pretty strange ideas about what specific colors and items men and women should like. This can make it difficult for non-gender-conforming people to design an environment that feels truly free of those limiting ideologies. 

Historically, masculine décor has often taken the form of various metals, wood, and cool or hard colors like black, brown, and blue. Feminine décor does the opposite, encouraging women to adopt soft themes of pink, purple, lace, and floral patterns. 

If you feel ready to embrace a gender inclusive living room, you can throw all of these conformist ideas out the window. 

If you (or people you know) are non-gender-conforming, using traditionally masculine or feminine décor might feel regressive. Instead, opt for more gender-neutral colors like green, yellow, orange, or white. This can make your home feel more playful, diverse, and comfortable for all types of people to enjoy. 

You can also include décor that appeals to you and doesn’t have roots in gender conformity. A bookcase full of your favorite books, a rack filled with special bottles of wine, or a sideboard board stocked with board games all add to the aesthetic of a room and give it personality without gendering it.

Open Your Space To Different Types Of People 

Gender inclusivity is about accepting different people and different bodies for what makes them feel most themselves. By opening up your living room to different types of people, it will naturally become more gender inclusive. 

There are interesting people all around, and many of them (especially non-gender-conforming ones) may find it difficult to integrate into gender exclusive environments. But with the right attitude and willingness to explore, this doesn’t need to be the case. 

You can change your space for the better by making it as comfortable for your friends and family as possible. The more relaxed and at home they feel, the more they’ll want to spend time with you.  

The Feeling Is Neutral: Keep Your Space True To You 

When it comes down to it, designing a room that is gender inclusive just means doing things your own way rather than being guided by preconceived notions about gender. 

While positioning your décor and living room furniture, try to avoid thinking about whether it looks masculine or feminine. Focus instead on whether or not you think it looks good. After all, a living room is for resting and feeling comfortable. So, it should reflect the things that make you feel that way. 

Society’s rules about certain colors being exclusively for men or women are fading every day. It’s time to embrace gender inclusive design for home environments that every person can enjoy.