30+ Stylish Living Area Ideas To Rock This Season

Designing an open floor plan can be a great way to make your living areas seem more spacious. Without walls to visually divide the space, the entire area will seem larger. Even when the square footage is exactly the same, most people will perceive a room with an open floor plan to be larger than a divided space. Depending on the current layout of your living area, transitioning to an open floor plan can sometimes require major construction or wall removal.

In both of these cases, it is best to consult with a building expert to avoid potential problems. However, there are also a number of decorating tricks you can use to create the illusion of an open plan living area. If you’d like to give your living area a more spacious look, here are some tips you can use as inspiration.

If your living room is quite large, you might actually be wasting the space by using it only as a living room. Instead, you can simulate the look and feel of an open floor plan by dividing the large space into smaller living areas. For example, if you currently have your living room furniture arranged against the walls of the room, try pulling some of the pieces in towards the center. Instead of widely spaced pieces, create a smaller and more intimate living room area. You can then use the rest of the room for other purposes.

For example, you could create a small dining room area in one corner of the living room, thus creating an open floor plan between these two “rooms.” Or, create a small home office, family library, or reading area in a similar fashion. You might be surprised how much larger the room seems after you’ve divided it into two different living spaces. This arrangement is also quite useful if you do a lot of entertaining, since you can effectively create several intimate conversation areas instead of one overly large room.