These Beautiful Decor Ideas Will Transform Your Apartment Living Room
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“A living room is usually the biggest and best looking (not to mention most expensive!) room in any house, and to me that means you should use it most,” says designer CeCe Barfield Thompson.
The question of how you plan to live in this room often informs how you decorate it—especially in an apartment, where every square foot might be at a premium and spaces might serve multiple purposes. Will the living room be a formal entertaining space or a casual hangout for your family? Will it be the primary home of your art collection or ever-growing library?
But that’s only the first of many decisions. There are practical choices: picking the right paint color or wallcovering, window treatments, flooring and rugs, lighting fixtures, furniture (a sofa, accent chairs, a coffee table, end tables, etc.), upholstery, and decor (pillows, lamps, and maybe a cozy throw blanket). What’s your style? Classic, contemporary, or a bit of both? Are you a minimalist or a maximalist? Are you trying to stick to a theme? Do you want to highlight a particular architectural element or a treasured family heirloom? How do you feel about mixing patterns? Then there are beautiful things that need curating or even commissioning to complete the space.
If you are a little overwhelmed by the task, then look to these 13 apartment living room ideas for inspiration to create a space that will evoke "whoas" and "aahs" from your guests.
“A living room is usually the biggest and best looking (not to mention most expensive!) room in any house, and to me that means you should use it most,” says designer CeCe Barfield Thompson.
The question of how you plan to live in this room often informs how you decorate it—especially in an apartment, where every square foot might be at a premium and spaces might serve multiple purposes. Will the living room be a formal entertaining space or a casual hangout for your family? Will it be the primary home of your art collection or ever-growing library?
But that’s only the first of many decisions. There are practical choices: picking the right paint color or wallcovering, window treatments, flooring and rugs, lighting fixtures, furniture (a sofa, accent chairs, a coffee table, end tables, etc.), upholstery, and decor (pillows, lamps, and maybe a cozy throw blanket). What’s your style? Classic, contemporary, or a bit of both? Are you a minimalist or a maximalist? Are you trying to stick to a theme? Do you want to highlight a particular architectural element or a treasured family heirloom? How do you feel about mixing patterns? Then there are beautiful things that need curating or even commissioning to complete the space.
If you are a little overwhelmed by the task, then look to these beautiful apartment living room ideas for inspiration to create a space that will evoke "whoas" and "aahs" from your guests.
Make It Functional
While function comes first for her busy, modern family, Thompson also wants her husband and daughters to be nourished by the beauty of each room of their Gramercy Park apartment in New York. In the living room, an oil painting by London artist Daisy Cook hangs over a nine-foot Schneller sofa upholstered in stain-resistant fabric (Perennials). The coffee table is crafted from a 19th-century Chinese screen.
Add Some Coastal Flair
Longtime decorator of Palm Beach residences Danielle Rollins took her cue from outside the living room window of this weekend retreat nestled in one of the town’s iconic apartment buildings. The textured wallcovering of the main living space is reminiscent of a palm tree’s trunk. The designer’s grasscloth wallpaper even covers the clever artwork above the sofa: a vintage Hermès scarf framed in a custom shadow box. Lamps, Hudson Valley Lighting. Pillows, Tillett
Try a Scenic Backdrop
New York real estate star Michael Lorber brought a cache of cherished antiques and art to his home. He chose his Park Avenue apartment in part because its living room was the perfect size for a generous Sultanabad rug. An Italian landscape mural (Iksel) makes a robust backdrop for his art collection, including Foot and Hand by Roy Lichtenstein (second from left).
Switch Up the Furniture
David Jimenez could have easily placed two chairs in the center of his centuries-old French manor house apartment’s salon, but the backs would have been to the fireplace. Enter a ticking-upholstered recamier. “I love using daybeds because they invite conversation without blocking anything,” says the interior designer, who dotted the room with stools as extra cocktail seating.
Play Up the Architecture
“I like to utilize the entire volume of a room,” says designer Anthony Baratta, pointing to a painting by Tomory Dodge and a custom floor lamp—both of which take advantage of this Upper West Side apartment’s overscale living room with its high ceiling.
Equally ample upholstered furnishings are clad in arresting colors and patterns, including cherry red velvet (Pierre Frey) and the sofa’s block-printed linen (Christopher Moore). Plaster and marble objects, like the bust on the end table (right), repeat the hue and classical tone of the original ceiling moldings.
Add Color Through Fabric
A Philadelphia apartment’s main living room artfully toes the line between old and new. An array of custom seating upholstered with fabrics by Cowtan & Tout, de Le Cuona, and Kravet is anchored by a sculptural midcentury Aldo Tura coffee table that designer Young Huh collected for the project.
Borrow Inspiration
Decorator Dorothy Draper installed the citron velvet sofas that still reside in the lobby of The Carlyle. When designer Garrow Kedigian moved to the storied 1930s Manhattan apartment-hotel, he carried that jubilant yellow up to his living room walls and chose black moldings to echo the iron doors and window mullions.
Incorporate Fun Florals
Pierre Frey’s Mortefontaine fabric launched Palmer Weiss’s design plan for the living room of a young family’s Montana condo. She covered two swivel chairs and several pillows in the floral, then distributed its nutty aubergine, soft brown, navy, and olive tones around the room to play off walls of shiplap paneling.
Go Bold with Saturated Color
The cobalt living room (Benjamin Moore’s Bermuda Blue with a custom glaze on top) of this prewar Upper East Side apartment features lemon yellow silk draperies and a raspberry strié velvet sofa crowned with contemporary artist Willa Nasatir’s Bite. The quirky piece picks up colors in the armchairs covered in Schumacher’s Rolling Hills fabric.
Play with Patterns
For a globally inspired Miami apartment, Brazilian designer Sig Bergamin unleashed some two dozen patterned fabrics in the living room alone. Surprisingly harmonious florals and tropical prints bloom on sofa upholstery, wicker chair cushions, and a profusion of pillows. Striped daybed fabric, Robert Kime
Create a Soothing Sanctuary
In designing a private sanctuary for a couple’s Flatiron District pied-à-terre, Robert Passal sprinkled diverse works of art and objects around the living room’s pale upholstered seating. A pair of 19th-century Italian sconces flanks a still life painting by Alec Soth. Visage clay sculpture, Pablo Picasso. Sofa upholstery fabric, Manuel Canovas
Bring in Couture Detailing
American tastemaker Susan Gutfreund enlisted legendary French decorator Henri Samuel to transform her 18th-century Paris apartment. She compared his concept to an “haute couture little black dress. You add the accessories and make it personal.” The living room was furnished with elegantly comfortable seating and decorated with objects ranging from a black lacquered Chinese scholar’s table to an antique Swedish clock to an embroidered silk wall hanging reputedly made for Versailles.
Try a Stately Style
The top three floors of a 1930s Chicago skyscraper were transformed into a stylish cosmopolitan pad by designer Alessandra Branca. In the apartment’s living area, she upholstered the bergères in Claremont damask and the Regency-style sofas in a Clarence House fabric.
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