How To Create a Welcoming Living Room Visitors Will Enjoy

When it comes to preparing to receive guests in our homes, we often spend a lot of time thinking about the guest bedroom. However, the fact is that most people prefer to sleep in their own beds, so most of your visitors probably will not even see your guest bedroom. They will almost certainly, however, be invited into your living room.

Your living room should, quite rightly, be focused on your needs. After all, you and your family will be the ones who spend the most time there. However, you should still give some thought to potential guests when you design it. Here are some tips to help turn your living room into an inviting place that your guests will love.

• The furniture: Firstly, there has got to be enough of it. Enough seating for each member of your family, plus one or two extra places for guests is a good starting point. Then, there should be enough reachable flat surfaces, such as a coffee table, on which to place bags or drinks. This must be balanced with it not feeling too cramped.
• For seats, many recommend some combination of sofas and armchairs. A sofa is a must, but if you are too tight on space for a big, cosy armchair, cafe-style bentwood armchairs are a sleek and comfortable alternative. They can also double as the seats around your dining table. Choose stylish and durable furniture where possible so that your living room will be ready to welcome guests for years to come.
• Form and function: Think about how you can prepare your living room for kids and pets, even if you don’t have any right now. You never know who you might meet and invite over in the future. For example, leather furniture tends to be easier to wipe down, and a rug can be more easily removed and cleaned than a carpet. You may also want to choose tables and other items with rounded corners rather than pointed ones.
• The colour: You may wish to choose a colour scheme that reflects your personality. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with this, you should remember that, as interior designers know, the colours can affect the mood of those inside the room. If you want your guests to feel calm, greys and blues are usually the most effective. Meanwhile, whites and creams create a fresh, bright feeling. To add interest, consider an accent wall which has a different colour, pattern, or texture.
• Welcoming touches: Once you have the overall look and feel of your living room out of the way, there are some small things you could add to make it especially pleasant and cosy. The good news is that these will all benefit you too.
• Pillows and cushions can not only help your guests get comfier, but you can also use them to add accents or interest to the room’s colour scheme.
• Dimmer switches and lamps can be used to create inviting soft light in the evening.
• And don’t forget about the scent. Plug-ins, diffusers or scented candles will ensure that your hard work designing a guest-friendly living room does not go to waste due to a bad smell that puts off guests.