In almost every home, the family room can be the most used space in the house. People gather there to relax after a long day, watch TV, huddle around a fireplace, read a good book, play a board game, or simply build connections with each other. Whether you only use this room with one other person in the home or plan to open it up to guests when you host, how the family room looks determines how everyone will experience it.
What can you do to improve your family room and turn it into a relaxing escape from the rest of the world? How can you make it an oasis that provides comfort and peace for your family and your guests? How can you foster better relationships with the design and layout choices of the space?
These questions are all important to consider when making decisions about your family room. Let’s take a look at some interior design tips that you can use to elevate this crucial space in your house.
More Light
Lighting in a family room is critical to the atmosphere of the space. Better lighting can make it feel more open and larger, while reduced lighting creates a more intimate setting. Natural lighting is a feature that your family room should take full advantage of. If you have an exterior wall that faces the fun, then installing new windows or larger ones can bring additional light into the room during the day. Another strategy is to add some large mirrors to the room which will reflect the light that is coming in while also making the room feel bigger. Lastly, you could install a skylight that allows sunlight into the room from above.
Take Advantage of Structural Features
Some homes may have structural features that are a part of the family room that cannot be removed. However, they can be decorated or disguised. Say you have a structural pillar or column in the room. You could decorate this living room pillar with a wood exterior, mirrors, surrounding plants, or other materials to give it some aesthetic appeal. If there are wood beams exposed in the space, don’t be afraid to highlight them and let them stand out as a unique feature. Since you cannot get rid of these elements that are a part of your home’s framework, you have to make the best of them with unique design choices.
Paint an Accent Wall
Most rooms contain four walls of the same color. Color is a design element that provides you with many possibilities. A fresh coat of paint can create a drastic change to a room if it is a new color. One idea to incorporate color into your family room is to paint an accent wall. This color should contrast well with the color of the other three walls so that it stands out without clashing. Accent walls are popular design choices that can add a little more brightness to a particular room, and the family room is a great space for this method.
Decorative Drapes/Curtains
Ideally, you have some decent-sized windows in your living room. Leaving them plain can certainly be aesthetically appealing, but maybe you want to add a little more color and a privacy feature to the room. Drapes or curtains are the perfect solutions. Dressing up your windows by hanging some ornate drapes from a drapery/curtain track can be a simple way to balance out the family room with more color and texture. Plus, you can close these drapes or curtains for more privacy or to darken the room for movie night when the evenings are still fairly sunny.
Match Various Features by Color
As mentioned before, color has a big impact on the overall feel of a room. Let’s say your chosen color palette for a room is white and cyan. These two colors can mix together well for a beach-like theme for your family room. A third color like red or orange can be a great complement to those initial two, and matching multiple features with the same shade can make the space feel unified. Perhaps you can get some pillows for the couch and lampshades that are the same shade of red. A cyan blanket could match similar-colored drapes really well. If multiple elements in the family room are the same color, it creates an aesthetically pleasing effect where the space feels cohesive.
Make it Your Own
While you should certainly conduct research to figure out how to elevate your family room, don’t get too sucked into other people’s ideas of design. You can find inspiration for your family room by browsing Pinterest, Instagram, or other visual platforms, but you should not shy away from adding your flavor to the design decisions of the space. It is, after all, your home, so it should reflect your personality rather than a stranger’s. Find ideas for changes to make to your family room and then feel free to customize them so that they fit within your vision for the home.
