Month: January 2022

Why Decorators Arrange Living Room Furniture That Way

Contemporary living room furniture arranged in a semicircle around the TV
Image created with RoomStyler

If I were to name one issue that jumps out as I look at online forums and discussions about decor, it’s furniture arrangement. This isn’t always what commenters are explicitly asking about. A lot of times, the questions are about what to do with walls, or what color to paint something. But what jumps out at me is how the furniture is arranged. The average DIY home decorator shoves their furniture against the walls, leaving the middle of the room empty. Why is that a problem? Keep reading!

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Where to Buy Art: Home Stores

A lot of online forum commenters ask, “What do I put on my walls?” While it might be interesting to talk about the different styles of art out there, it probably isn’t a very practical answer to this question. So let’s talk instead about the various places you might go to buy art and what you’re most likely to find there. (You can also have a look at my videos on what to do with empty walls both here and here!)

In this first article, let’s visit the home store. (In subsequent articles, we’ll visit several other places you can shop for art.) This may be a furniture store or a big box store with a furniture section.

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What Does Home Decor Mean?

Sunlit living room
Photo by Spacejoy on Unsplash

What does “home decor” even mean? If you’re asking this question, you may have recently moved into an apartment, condo, house, or other space of your own. A friend or relative may have tossed out the phrase with a comment like, “You need help with home decor.” Or maybe this is the first time you’ve ever thought seriously about decorating your home. In any event, you want to start at the beginning. Kudos to you for seeking out the answer! As a working definition, let’s start here:

Home decor is the way your space is attractive and useful for you.

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8 Outside-the-Box Ways to Decorate a Bay Window

A traditional way to treat a bay window seat is with a seating cushion fitted to the bay window shape. But what if you already have plenty of seating and you want to do something different and unexpected with your bay window? Here are some ideas you can use as a springboard for your own brainstorming:

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6 Ideas for Casual Family Room Rugs

Rugs are a great place to start building a room design. They help define conversation areas, they can separate functional areas, and they make open-concept floor plans feel more practical. But what if you’re decorating a casual family room? Won’t a rug make it feel formal? Not necessarily. Let’s look at some casual options.

Note: This list is primarily intended to give you ideas for creating a casual look. It is not intended as a comprehensive discussion of rug types, construction, quality, and care.

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4 Ways to Do Casual Living Room Curtains

Curtains are a great way to introduce color and texture to a room while also giving it more visual height. But what if you’re worried that adding curtains will turn your casual living room into a dark and stuffy Victorian parlor? You also don’t want to fall for the quick fix of putting up cheap, flimsy curtains in a hasty attempt to maintain a casual appearance; this can draw attention to your curtains for all the wrong reasons.

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5 Ideas for Casual Dining Room Table Decor

Do you have a dining table that looks ready to host a board room meeting and can’t loosen up for pizza night or a chat over coffee? Here are five simple, affordable ideas to help your dining room look less strait-laced.

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8 Ideas for Casual Dining Room Wall Decor

When your home has a dedicated dining room, and you live a casual lifestyle, it can feel detached, like a lost room of sorts. So how can you make your dining room look more integrated with the rest of your home? One option is simply to repurpose your dining room for an entirely different function—as a library or a family game room, for example. You can check out a video I made about that here. But if you’re just looking for ways to make your dining room feel less stiff and intimidating, the answer might be to soften the wall space.

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What Makes a Casual Room?

Living room with casual decor
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels

If you’re creating a casual room, you probably know the descriptions you want to avoid: stiff, formal, stuffy, aloof, cold, delicate, fragile, pretentious. Casual implies a different set of descriptions: relaxed, unassuming, welcoming, warm, sturdy, comfortable.

Casual isn’t really a style. It’s a mood. It’s a feeling that nothing has to be perfect. If the pillows get scattered around the room, it’s OK. If books are open around the coffee table, the room isn’t aghast at the unsightly mess.

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How to Become a Better Decorator

Living room before and after
Does your living room always feel like a “before” image and never quite gets to the “after” image?

Do you feel like your home decor doesn’t live up to the vision in your imagination? I believe that with some exploration and practice, you can develop a keener eye for what makes good home decor—even if you think you’re not very good at decorating!

Everyone deserves to live in a home they enjoy that reflects who they are. The whole idea of Roominess is to give you easy steps to follow so you can create these kinds of spaces for yourself. But if you’re looking for some extra help, start here.

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