Your living room is probably the most used space in the home. It is where we prefer to lounge, enjoy time with guests, socialize, play games, and more. Thus, the living room must be lively, otherwise, it must remodel to create the welcoming and unique vibe. This article will tell you what you need to know if you want to begin remodeling your living room today.
What Is a Living Room Remodel Project?
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You will remodel your living room if you change its layout, style, or structure. In addition, a remodeling project can include updating floors, walls, ceilings, windows and doors; among other projects such as paint, furniture pieces, and fabrics updating. It will be a living room with so many benefits that you’ll have a new looking living room.
Remodeling your living room will make your living room attractive and warm to be in and you can even improve your living room and raise your home's value if you plan on selling it in the future. But before carrying out a renovation on a house, experts recommend looking factors like its location and design, so that new buyers can be convinced to pay more for the property.
If you’re wondering where to start your living room remodel project, then start here. Before we do anything, we recommend first understanding the following.
Factors to Consider Before a Living Room Remodel Project
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If your living room seems outdated and you want it changed, there can be some factors to consider that will affect the extent of work included and adds to the general cost of the remodel. Therefore, you will know you’ll save time and money, and at the same time you’ll create a beautiful and unique living room which you will enjoy.
a) What Do You Want to Change?
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You need to determine what about your living room needs to change. So, what part of your current living room do you not like? Is it furniture, paint, layout, construction materials, lighting, size – what exactly??
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The amount and scope of remodeling and whether you need a professional or not depends on understanding what you need to change.
For example, if you want to change the living room size or the layout, you are going to need someone who has a certification to knock down walls and take care of the wiring. In the other hand you may need someone to repaint or install new furniture.
b) Is It Your House or a Rental?
There are things in your living room you want to be different, but know if you can (or are willing to) change them. Is it a house, or is it a rental? You can change so much of this that the former may not make sense. If you’re remodeling a rental living room then you will need someone’s permission, such as a landlord.
If you can’t change the layout or the size in a rental, you can always go ahead and update other elements like paint or furniture to give it a distinct feel.
c) Scope of Remodeling
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There are two broad scopes of living room remodel that you can go for, which are full or partial. A full remodel involves breaking down walls or floors, and is a time and labor consuming endeavor. As much as you might like to save money and do the job yourself, it is not something that the average homeowner should undertake. You will need to hire professionals to complete the project and in the end you may even need to vacate the house while the remodel is done.
A partial remodel isn’t particularly time or labor intensive. You can also need contractors for this job, but you don’t have to move out for them to work. Partial remodels often involve repainting, new lighting fixtures, wallpaper, new furniture and upholstery and new window treatments.
d) Functionality
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When you’re planning to remodel your living room, consider the traffic of the room. For example, you may be looking to make the room more child friendly or make it into an entertainment center. Knowing what the sum is for lets you know how to go about selecting the right style, layout, and furniture.
This is especially important if you are looking for furniture that won't get easily ruined is child friendly furniture for example if you want to arrange your living room in such a way that you can use a child-friendly living room. If you’re looking for an entertainment room, you’ll have to arrange it in a way that makes good use of the right lounge, gaming, and movies watching furniture.
e) Cost of the Remodel?
The cost of your living room remodels will depend on a number of things, including labor needed, materials required, and other incidents such as moving out of your house to let the remodel begin. In consequence, prior to kicking off the remodel, reserve a budget for the scapegoat costs and an emergency fund for the dilemmas you might face throughout remodeling the room.
Living Room Remodel Tips
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Before you start your living room renovation or remodel, here are some tips you can use to plan the project better:
a) Choose a Design Style
What kind of theme are you looking for your living room? If so, you can pick from many interior design styles, including:
- Contemporary style
- Traditional style
- Scandinavian style
- Craftsman style
- Shabby-chic style
- Eclectic style
- Mediterranean style
- Victorian style
- Modern style
- Rustic design
If you can’t pick your favorite style from the list above, perhaps look for inspiration elsewhere. In addition to this, you can surf magazines to find the interior design elements that you would love to have in your new living space remodeled living room space.
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In addition, You may also need to consider any existing living room elements you love and want to keep when you remodel. Among your favorites may well be the things you love. The furniture items, wall decor and even the rugs you don’t want to part with just a few things that will tell you what style you’re working with here.
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However, if you do come across a style you’re into, you don't have to get caught up on labels. So, if your style weighs heavily in a traditional or rustic style, that does not mean every piece of furniture or decor has to fall into that category. To complete your remodel, you want to enhance warm and visual appeal of your room, and if you find combining different styles brings life into your room, consider doing that.
b) Keep a List
When it comes to deciding how much remodeling you’ll really need, it’s best to take down a list of all the essentials you want to get so you can plan a proper budget. If you don’t have any of these items, the first thing on the list is probably to consult with a contractor as to what to buy to furnish your living room – living room furniture and decor items you want to spread around.
You have to ensure that you pay more attention to important items, then set a contingency fund that will accommodate for all other expenses you might encounter, more so on the finishing touches.
c) Do It Yourself or Hire a Contractor
Once you know what design aspects you are looking for, the next is to decide on how you are going to go about the whole remodeling project. Can you do it yourself or should you hire a contractor? In case you plan on finishing the project in a timely manner, it is best to settle for a certified contractor with a team of workers and complete the project faster.
Further, as many living rooms have been handled by custom home designers, they will know the questions to ask you and they will ensure the design elements that you may have overlooked above are incorporated. They also have interior design solutions for you; from where to get the best furniture or decor items, you can save some costs.
Living Room Remodel Ideas
Once you have considered everything above, here are some living room remodel ideas to inspire your best design.
1. Synchronize a Color Palette
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Living room is the room where you welcome guests and relax, hence, you have to be very detailed about the color theme you choose to paint there. According to the experts, when designing your interiors, you must work with a color theory for the perfect color harmony that will positively affect moods and ambiance. As you do the remodeling, therefore, pick a color theme so that you have something to work with.
Not sure which colors to work with? If you decide your neutrals will be beige, grey, or white, you can match these with bold colors such as earthy orange, black, gold, etc. You can pair bold colors like gold and emerald green, or neutrals like sage green and lavender for an example.
After picking paint colors, a few ideas to incorporate the combo in your living room are going to be needed. Then, you can paint an accent wall in deeper, darker color and center your entire living room remodel around that wall for example you can repaint the whole room in your favorite colors.
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Alternatively, you could paint your house in neutral colors then install darker wallpaper on one of your wall like an accent wall. Another is to have a room theme, using one dominant color on throw pillows, vases, frames and the like.
Picking colors is still important as you want to know which can help sell your house faster when you choose to sell your home. Therefore, when you choose personal colors, think about what types of colors would interest buyers with differing tastes.
2. Modernize Your Fireplace
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Do you have an outdated fireplace that makes it hard to repurpose various sections of your living room? When remodeling your living room, you have two options: Take out the fireplace or work with it so it seems modern.
In case you are doing an entire living room remodel, removing the fireplace will be good, and your contractor will need to demolish the whole structure and install a modern wall instead.
If you do not wish to remove the fireplace, you can work around it to modernize it.
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You can try to repaint the area around it, building a new panel molding around it, and installing a wall sconce above the fireplace to help mute it a bit. Be sure to use the preferred paint.
3. Rethink the Layout
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Sometimes, all a living room may need to look new is a new layout. Therefore, you might think about moving furniture from your current living room and develop the space around one high impact room make, for instance, a work of art, a fireplace, a TV or a chandelier.
Alternatively, you can relocate your sitting room to another room with more space for the various design elements you want. But there are some things to watch out for that may keep this from happening. So, for example, if your current living room includes a fireplace, or it an sitting in an open plan space shape, then you might not be able to move your living room. The process of remodeling such a room would inevitably include breaking of walls to completely alter the home layout.
If your house is an old house, probably, it would probably be smaller than you need, so you have to create more space where you can living. Living rooms used to be built small so as to save energy, but over the years, most homeowners have come to love having space between their furniture and other everyday items. Recently, we thought we would share with you some ways in which you can create more living room space.
You can remove some furniture items. Think about the functionality of your living room, and how many occupants will be using it at once. If you have more seats than you need you can remove them to make space for your new design ideas.
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You could also place area rugs to turn certain subspaces. When you’re using this method, an area rug’s corners will determine how far into a lounge or dining area in an open plan living room extends. You can also add bookshelf to define subspace in your living room.
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If the two options above don’t give you more space than you need, you can tear down an interior non loading wall for more space.
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If, for example, you have no trouble remodelling your living room to turn into an open plan that connects with the other room, dining room or kitchen, then this plan would be helpful.
4. Improve Lighting
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The living room is a vital space in your house, so you’ll need the lighting to be fine. Turning your living room into a brighter, cozier space can also be done by bringing more light fixtures to the ceiling or the wall. These are the fixtures you should — if you haven’t already — attend to such as recessed ceiling lights, chandeliers, and wall sconces.
Moreover, you can tear down the walls to create more spaces for living room windows that will let in more natural light into the space. If you pick this idea, see to it that you make large windows that bring in abundance of organic light and also maintain the area airy.
5. Maximize a Small Living Room
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Here are some ideas to start your remodeling if you need more space for a small living room design.
- Remove most weight from the floor by getting chairs with high apportion to make the room look larger.
- Indoor subspaces division and area functionality should be treated with vintage rugs. So, it is advised to place a vintage area rug underneath a sofa or coffee table to define the territory.
- If you are really struggling with the floor, then paint the living room white so that it would also work into making it easier to design a gallery wall to avert attention from the floor.
- You should point towards the existence of a kitchen or the dining area by using a sliding glass door.
- Change floor lamps to wall mounted sconces to take the load off the floor. However, make sure you have determined each part of your sitting room because you will need to place the sconce light above the largest sofa.
- For perception of more space in a small living room, try mirrors on walls.
- Make furniture like a glass coffee table and it has a light feel within the room.
- Do away with black-out facilities to admit most of reflected light. Therefore do not buy most of the blackout curtains, and if you can, knock down all the walls to provide enough space for the higher windows.
6. Consider Better Flooring Options
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There are many reasons that you may need to improve on your flooring options. For example, coming up with new living room look requires replacement of a damaged floor. It also might be more desirable to refinish the floor for appearance or increased security. If you feel your family room needs an updated floor, you can:
Get a new carpet. Updating the look of the living room floor is easy, cheap, and secure if done in this manner. Furthermore, a warm and cozy carpet safeguards the floor surface below it as well as the texture is easier to maintain than most floor types on the market. If you have any old carpet flooring, you can always hire an industrial cleaner to come in and clean them the right way to look new again.
Install hardwood flooring. This option is more expensive than a carpet, however, it is a more serious and long term decision in floor design. Otherwise, it is possible to resand old wooden tiles that were scratched by furniture, for instance. After re-sanding your floors, you only need to apply the best stain and your floors will look new.
Install ceramic or porcelain tiles. They are comparatively affordable, more convenient to be used and sustainable as compared to wooden floors. These tiles are easy to blend with your living room colors since they are available in various colors to create seamless color match. For those who already have this type of flooring, you can take the following steps: regenerating, rebuffing and resealing them if little damage is discerned on the surface of the floor.
Lastly, you could also opt for vinyl tiles which are much simpler to install than hardwood or porcelain tiles. But they're not among the most durable flooring choices and don't have the most appealing visual aesthetic.
7. Improve the Ceiling
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Most living room projects includes works to be done on the ceiling including changing color palettes and even with adding lighting. Ceiling should be painted same tone as living room; think about installing different type of light fixtures, for example recessed, drop, cove light that will make more lighting available.
A poorly painted ceiling can also be improved by remodeling the ceiling to make the new gypsum boards fit in better than the older ceiling boards.
Additionally if you want to replace your drop ceiling with a drywall or wooden planks and beams or even ceiling tiles and such you might want a whole new ceiling design.
8. Use Decorative Moldings and Trims
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Another swift ways of introducing proportions in the sitting room is by adding ornamental patterns on base Mantels, ceilings, cornices, and window sills. They come in different designs, thickness, and even material, therefore you should ensure that you select them based on their ability to enhance the outlook of your family room and the amount of money you are willing to lay out on them.
9. Accessorize
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Tthere are numerous alternatives when it comes to living room decoration or adding accessories. It also suggests that you can begin with accessing accessories for sofas, floors and the walls. Since you should already have a living room color scheme, you will have to cover your sofas with matching colored throw pillows or blankets.
On the same note, it is advised that some regions be brought out with area rugs. When choosing the rugs, scale and proportion of the rugs will be important in addition to realizing that you have to acquire high quality rugs. Scale means, how many items can we place on the rug or how much part of living room this covering will take.
On the other hand, proportion refers to way in which the rug fits the room and even all the furniture in that particular room. Hence when placing a rug you should ensure that it is not too large or too small for the room and the furniture.
Also, it is also best to put some greenery around your living room and they should do it. Buy new houseplants that are healthy and produce a good burst in color and living room’s indoor air quality.
Finally, incorporate pieces of art or heirlooms that reflect your style and passions.
10. Upgrade the Furniture, Furnishings, and Electronics
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After you have therefore got to the walls, floor, and ceiling, what will follow will be the installation of furniture and equipment to top it all.
Its types are built-in and free standing and these are things like sofas, book shelves, tables, TV cabinets, love seats, reclining chairs and many others. You will want items that convey what the show is all about and the feel of the room. When you are positioning your furniture you should then select an area to focus on, for instance a painted wall, a television unit or a fire place and then get a good sitting arrangement around it.
When you have your furniture and furnishing, curtains, walls hangings, rugs and others in order also know what kind of equipment you would like to put in. For instance, you might want your living area to be used as a media room, and therefore you must have a location for viewing television.
Living Room Remodel Cost
Remodeling a living room may cost between $1500 to more than $20000.
Your project cost largely depends on the type of work to be done in a project. The cost will be considerably less if your intention is to repaint and refurbish or redeploy existing furnishings. On the other hand, the cost will be high in major remodeling that includes new lighting, floor, ceiling, windows, repainting or designing study built-in entertainment center amongst others.
Here are some factors that affect the cost of a living room remodel project:
- The living room size. It is also important to know that most people charge their renovation on the basis of the size of the place being worked on, so the price for a larger living room will be higher.
- The scope of work involved. The average costs also depend on the amount of work to be done. Some of the work that leads to high costs include: rewiring walls & storage and lighting, window treatments, new furniture/electronics, ceiling/floor/ new windows/doors.
- Labor costs, especially when you hire a contractor.
- Permits.
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