When it comes to sprucing up your living room, some people assume they need to either go big or go home. They hire an architect, an interior designer and an interior decorator, pull all necessary permits, knock out walls, take up floors, and come out the other side with a living room that’s literally brand-new.
While you’re welcome to take that approach if you have the money and the time, transforming your living room can actually be a much simpler endeavor. From buying a stained glass piece for your largest window to deciding on a new sofa, here are eight ways to completely transform your living room by making a single purchase.
1. A New Sofa
While it may not be the case in some living rooms, for the vast majority of homes and apartments throughout the United States, the sofa is a centerpiece of both design and practical comfort. Whether you prefer a vintage look or more modern design, a new sofa will go a long way in redefining your space. Whether you utilize a popular furniture store’s credit card to earn rewards when you get it or you keep a daily lookout at the Habitat ReStore for a used option, so long as the sofa you get is radically different in color, print, shape, or form from your old one, your living room will look and feel like a totally new space.
2. 5 Gallons of Paint
Few things change a room up as quickly as a coat of fresh paint, and for most living rooms, five gallons or less — especially if you choose a brand with a built-in primer — should more than ensure your walls get covered. Even if you go with a similar color but choose a different sheen, painting your living room will make it seem as though you moved into a new place.
3. An Area Rug
A well-chosen and well-placed area rug can remake a living space in an instant, regardless of whether you have hardwood floors or carpet. Choose something that draws at least a little attention to itself, whether it almost matches your color scheme or complements it. Because area rugs can also add an element of warmth and comfort to a room, be sure it’s something that feel good to bare feet as well.
4. Stained Glass
Stained glass isn’t just for sacred spaces, and whether you buy a vintage piece or commission an artist to design something for your living room’s largest window, hanging stained glass will have an amazing effect on your living room. Besides being another piece of art in your home, stained glass changes throughout the year and throughout each day because of the ways in which light and shadow affect it. When you hang stained glass on a window, the light in your living room will never look or feel common again.
5. Move Things Around
This option doesn’t even require a purchase, and it’s one of the fastest ways to transform your living room. Rearranging the furniture, whether you do so according to the tenets of feng shui or your own mad impulses will refresh how you feel about your entire living space.
6. Get a Chandelier
Who says chandeliers are just for dining rooms and the nouveau riche? A beautiful chandelier can totally recreate a living space. Not only will it cast new and different light when it’s on, but it will add an element of decadence that will be fun to try and live up to. Brand new and pricey or antique and bizarre, a chandelier is the kind of purchase that no one in your circle will be able to overlook.
7. Taxidermy
Would you like a stuffed pheasant? A deer head? A bobcat at the ready? Taxidermy, especially when you aren’t a hunter, can add a fun and unique feel to a living space that might otherwise come off as perfunctory or prosaic. Hunt for taxidermy that suits you on Craigslist, at peddler’s malls, flea markets, and garage sales. Let the sky be the limit when it comes to what you’ll accept. It will truly transform your living room to include a regal, stuffed animal.
8. Curtains
Changing your curtains, or adding curtains for the first time, is a simple and straightforward way to let your living room shift its identity to something more exciting. Whether you make them yourself, purchase them from a local maker, or just grab something at your local department store, dressing up the windows in your living room will definitely make your space feel new.
Don’t resign yourself to living day in and day out in the living room you’ve had for years. As these eight examples show, with one simple purchase, you really can remake the entire space.
