Empty Living Room

The living room is one of the most important rooms in the house and is often the first room that is seen upon entering a home. It is the room where family and friends gather to visit, play and relax. Filling the space in your living room in a way that is visually pleasing, yet functional might feel intimidating, but it is not as difficult as it may seem.

If you're facing the question of what to do with empty space in the living room, there are several possibilities to consider:

  1. Play with the seating arrangementsFurniture Size
  2. Include beautiful floor coverings
  3. Display collections
  4. Showcase artwork
  5. Set up a reading nook
  6. Incorporate plants
  7. Add antiques
  8. Organize study area
  9. Perfect a play center

Finding the perfect way to fill the space in your living room can be a fun and enjoyable way to increase the beauty and utility of your home. Keep reading for more details and ideas on how to incorporate the ideas above.

Interior of a gorgeous Boho-themed living room with indoor plants, How Do I Fill Space in My Living Room (9 Actionable Steps)

1. Play with the Seating Arrangements

Wondering how to fill empty floor space in the living room? If you've just moved into a new place, your first consideration would be the seating arrangements. The biggest impact in the living room would be the furniture that you chose for your seating, and how it is arranged.

Furniture Size

The most important consideration when choosing furniture is the size of the room. Furniture needs to be the proper scale to the size of the room. If you choose too small furniture in a large room that is large, then they will appear even more diminutive. Too large furniture will disrupt the flow and make your room look cluttered and congested.

When arranging your seating, you want the occupants to be able to see each other when holding a conversation. The usual pattern is to arrange the seating around a coffee table, in a configuration like this:

A white wall living room with a beige sectional sofa with beige throw pillows inside a white wall living room

In a smaller room, however, you might need to get creative with situating one small sofa or sectional for everyday use, then incorporating seats that can be stowed or have alternate uses when you don't have company.

Below are a couple of examples of how to use a small sectional to maximize space in a tiny room. There is not really any space for additional seating options that are part of the everyday decor, but with a little creativity and a quick search of the internet, you can easily find suitable options.

Interior of a white walled living room with picture frames hanged on the wall, a sectional sofa, and two round coffee tables

This coffee table by Signature Design comes with four nesting seats that stow under the table when not in use. This would be perfect for a small room like the one above.

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Seating Options

When most people are looking at furniture for a living room, so often they opt for a living room set comprised of a sofa and a loveseat and/or an armchair that are all in the same pattern and style. While a stylish and comfortable sofa is pretty much a necessity, there are a lot of different options for auxiliary seating.

This storage bench can be used for seating, and also holds two seats inside it that can come out when company arrives.

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Instead of being matchy-matchy, pick up a couple of armchairs from a flea market or antique store. These will add character and charm to your room.

2. Display Collections

A great way to incorporate your personality into your living space is to add a tastefully done display of your collectibles. It is important to do this neatly, on a bookshelf or glass front case. Collectibles can look like clutter if they are not arranged with purpose and design.

Take the time to display your collections with care so they add to the decor; whether you love to collect horses or tiki mugs!

Choose a tasteful piece of furniture to showcase your collection. This well-crafted and classic cabinet from Howard Miller will keep your living room looking classy, instead of like a teenager's bedroom, regardless of what you love to collect.

You can also show off your collections by hanging them on the wall like photos. This collection of money from various countries has been framed and displayed like works of art for a beautiful and interesting visual effect.

3. Showcase Artwork

Another great way to fill your living room is to create an art display. Show off your beautiful paintings or sculptures, even if they were crafted by your favorite little artists, instead of famous names.

One way you can do this is to create a wall of art. Mount a collection of paintings, drawings or photographs on a bare wall. Use a common theme, like black and white photos of family, or watercolor paintings of landscapes.

You can also create cohesion between items that do not go together by installing them in frames that are similar in colors or styles.

You can also display pottery, sculptures or other 3-dimensional art on shelving, or mounted directly on the walls, like these beautiful masks.

4. Set up a Reading Nook

If you have a really large room, you might want to consider setting up a small library corner or reading nook.

Tuck a large comfy chair or recliner into a corner with a small side table with a lamp, along with a couple of bookshelves with your literary favorites. Add a soft pillow and a big fuzzy throw blanket and you will have a cozy corner just perfect for losing yourself in other worlds.

A bright and well lit reading area with a small wooden chair and a reading area on the background

This reading nook was created by making a window seat out of a bench with cushy pillows and a lofty bookcase, creating the illusion of a private corner.

A reading area with a small chair, white brick stone wall, and a dark bookshelf with books

5. Incorporate Plants

Indoor plants make a room feel tranquil while working hard to clean the air inside your home. There are so many wonderful ways to add plants in your living room.

You might prefer to place plants in various locations throughout the room, or as in the case of this room, turn an entire wall into a southwestern themed wall of cacti.

Different species of plants placed on top of tables inside a blue wall living room

Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets are a wonderful way to incorporate plants into your living space without taking up precious square footage. They can bring the eye up, and even help create the illusion of a taller room. Hang plants from hooks that are securely in the ceiling, or as in the picture below, you can install a line of metal pipe in front of a window.

If you are uncomfortable with hanging baskets of plants from your ceiling, you can also use a plant stand, like this one from Panacea.

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Using plant stands enables you to rearrange to suit your mood or the plants lighting needs throughout the year.

Living Green Wall

A more recent trend that is usually found in outdoor urban spaces or office complexes is the living green wall. This is a vertical garden that is planted in such a way that an entire wall or portion of the wall is obscured by plants. While covering an entire wall in your home could be costly and high maintenance there you can easily recreate the look by installing smaller wall mounted versions that you create yourself, like this succulent display.

To copy this look, start with a frame kit like this one from Succulent Gardens and just follow the instructions. This kit includes everything that you need to create your own living wall art.

If you do want to have floor to ceiling plants, you can use a waterproof plant like this:

This planter is designed for indoor use unlike some similar kinds of pocket planters. It is important to keep water off your walls or from dripping on the floors as this can cause damage to your home.

Large Floor Plants

If you have an open well-lit corner, or just want to add a pop of greenery, you can always opt for a large floor plant. There are lots of plants that thrive indoors, that can grow fairly large and bountiful.

For easy care, try a snake-plant or a focus. Neither of these is particularly high- maintenance and do well with indirect light.

A huge indoor plant inside a white living room

If you have a large, sunny window that you can sit your plant by, try your hand a small citrus tree, or a palm.

Modern Scandinavian inspired white living room with lots of indoor palm trees, and a long relaxing chair

Wall-Mounted Planters

You can also mount planters directly on your wall. Use your creativity to artfully display your plants in your a planter that will accent your room's decor.

There is any number of different styles to choose from ceramic to tin, like these rustic galvanized wall planters from Arbor Lane.

If you don't like the rustic look, these cute ceramic planters will go with almost any design aesthetic.

Shelving Display

If you want lots of plants and have space, go for a tall plant stand or shelf situated near a bright window.

6. Add Antiques To Your Living Room

When carefully curated, antique furniture or large collectible items can be a wonderful way to fill space in your living room.  A beautiful hutch can be used as a display case for dainty china, or a handsome sideboard can double as a console table.

A small ancient chest on a beige colored living room

Quilt racks covered in hand-sewn artistry can add old-fashioned charm to your room.

7. Organize A Study Area

If you have school-age children, a study area is a great use of space in the living room. Place a desk or table with at lamp in a corner away from the main gathering area so the student can concentrate.

A study area of an apartment with wooden flooring

This set up is especially useful for parents who prefer to oversee what their children are accessing on the internet. Parents can be involved and engaged in their children's studies as needed, while still being available to the rest of the family.

You can recreate this clean, modern look with the TOPSKY Computer Desk.

Click here to buy this product on Amazon.

8. Perfect a Play Center

For parents of small children, it can be helpful to set up a play center in an open corner of the living room. Not only will this provide your little one with a place for her toys, but it can help prevent painful foot injuries from finding small plastic bricks the hard way!

Set up a bookshelf and nice set of cubbies to hold bins of toys, books, and games where they can be neatly stowed when not in use. A soft rug or a bean bag chair gives your child a place to snuggle or play that is softer than the bare floor.

9. Share Your Hobbies

Regardless of the decorating style that you choose, remembering to incorporate the things that you love and love to do in a beautiful way will always make your home more comfortable and enjoyable.

Use space in your living room to set up a hobby area. A simple table can be used for puzzles and games, creating art, jewelry making, building models with the kiddos, or sorting baseball cards. Set up an easel  (or two) and paint little trees with your little ones. A couple of guitars and a music stand can turn into an impromptu musical concert on a Saturday night.

How to fill an empty corner in the living room

Empty corners in the living room can be particularly challenging. They are often formed when placing two pieces of furniture at a 90-degree angle to one another. What you should do is make the most of each wall, by setting up the furniture properly. The living room corner is best used for placing an accent chair, in a diagonal angle to the corner itself. Here are some ideas –

A rocking chair with a blanket on the corner of a living room

Alternatively, simply fill up space along one wall, leaving space available in front of the display so that your guests or you can get closer for a better look.

Another solution for the empty corner in a living room is to place a single large decorative item on the floor there, along with some nice wall decor items.

Plants – mentioned above – can be great corner fillers! You can create a centerpiece of houseplants using that empty space, like here.

Last but not least, you can actually place a corner bookcase or shelves unit there, making the most of the spot.

Check out this gorgeous item on Amazon.

Fill Up Your Living Room By Incorporating What You Love

So often when decorating, we get caught up in following inspirational photos from the internet or ideas that we see on television because we want to recreate a certain look. This is wonderful, but the most important aspect to remember in decorating is what makes a house a home, and that is you and your family!

Use the suggestions above to fill your living room with the things that you love or to set aside space for activities that are important to your family.

Empty Living Room

Source: https://homedecorbliss.com/fill-space-living-room/