Small Living Room Ideas on a Budget

Large and small rooms come with their own strengths, but they also come with unique difficulties. Here are a few small living room ideas to help give life to your living room on a budget.

Filling a small living room

A common mistake with smaller rooms is to keep the room as empty as possible to make it seem more spacious. For small rooms, this actually has the opposite effect! A very sparse space emphasizes the size of the room, because your eye has nothing to be pulled to.

So save up your spartan tendencies for a full-level open floor plan, and start covering up your floor and walls. The biggest change that I made to my small living room was to add a light-coloured carpet under the couch, and it immediately made the space feel bigger and more luxurious.

A neutral rug, like the Anzali 4′ x 6′ Shag Area Rug in Cream, is an easy way to add coziness to a space that already has a lot of prints in it. But if most of your furniture is covered in solid colours, a simple, Moroccan lattice print like in the Shaughnessy 4′ x 6′ Shag Area Rug is a great way to add interest. It’ll make the room feel bigger, and it’ll make it visually more interesting, too.

If you’re working with a carpet to begin with, skip the additional rug. Instead, create a focal point in the room with a big, colourful throw over your couch. No couch? No worries! You have two more options: patterned drapes and thoughtful wall coverings, like the ones below.

Hiding the walls of a small living room

Just like hiding the floor makes a room feel bigger, “hiding” the walls will make it feel more lived-in. A tiered set of shelves, like the Maine 3-Piece Wall Shelf, gives you lots of space to rest photo frames or home décor on. Or, alternately, a wall shelf with hooks gives you the option of hanging up coats or sweaters to save space.

Wall hangings will be just as effective in making a room feel more lively as shelves, and they won’t shave inches off the sides of the room, either. If you’re decorating on a budget, I recommend buying your frames in a set, like the nexxt Fuse Collage Photo Frame. It’s cheaper than buying them individually, and the matching frames will be easy to collage.

Decorating a small living room

Finally, make your living room feel well-loved by adding a few key pieces of home decor. I always recommend buying functional objects if you’re decorating on a budget, like a great vase, lamp, or table.

I have my eye on the wood-look accent tables available at Best Buy, which fit in well in a small room due to their slim profile. The metal bases add just the right amount of visual interest, and they’re handy to have around for living room hangouts or solo meals, too.

When that table isn’t in use, it’s a great place to leave a little succulent or a stack of books. Or, you can leave a little basket in rose gold or seafoam blue on the table and fill it up. These Fable baskets are a great place to let fruit rest, and can hold hobby objects like yarn as well!

It’s easy to make a small living room feel cozy, and you don’t need a big budget to do it. Explore home décor at Best Buy today.