Living Room Organizing & Decorating Tips For The Holiday Season

Happy holidays! For many, this time of year means social events, home get togethers, relatives visiting, and lots of entertainment in the home living room. So the question then becomes, is there a way to revamp the space to make it as functional and ready for the holiday barrage as possible? And the answer, thankfully, is a resounding yes! Organizing, furnishing, and decorating your living room as a kid-friendly, stylish, functional, and enjoyable space is not only a great idea to get the most out of your home’s potential but also a great idea to create the best memories for years to come.

You can do this by first making sure your living room ‘foundation’ is organized with appropriate furniture, and then by making your decor the centerpiece of your holiday set-up. Creating a well-designed living room space that balances style and functionality is a challenge. With a little planning and some decor tips, you can turn your living room into a welcoming respite.

Consider The Rooms Usage

The first step in planning your living room’s layout is to consider what exactly you will be doing in this space. How will it be used and how do you want it to feel?

• Will you be entertaining in this room?
• If yes, then think about adding additional seating that can be easily moved around or rearranged as needed.
• Will you be having many holiday movie nights with friends and family?
• If yes, you may need a larger sofa, and or a larger TV. You may also need to hang or relocate the TV so the entire room can easily view it.
• Will you be having several sets of visiting relatives?
• If yes, you may need a sleeper couch.
• If young children and pets are in the mix, be sure to consider the durability of the furniture pieces, plus give some thought to adding additional storage for kids and pets toys.

Identify Your Decor Style

Unless you already have a strong sense of your home’s decor style, it would be useful to first establish what you gravitate towards at the same time as considering your lifestyle.

• If you’re having difficulty nailing down a specific style (Americana, Asian, Napa, Gothic, etc.), looking through home styling websites or magazines does wonders for your imagination.
• Keep track of the images that you go back to again and again, the ones that speak to you.
• Modern minimalism might look great in photos, but will it be applicable in your lifestyle?
• Do the aesthetics of the Beach Cottage Style work for your space and family’s needs?.
• Most importantly, how does your taste in decor make you feel? Energized, relaxed, productive, formal...you get the idea.

Foundational Pieces Come First

After you have determined your decor style and how you want to use the living room as well as how you want the atmosphere to feel, you can now choose the larger foundational furniture pieces that will anchor the space.

• Number one: a quality sofa. Go for a piece that has a sturdy, neutral colored fabric or one of the faux leather materials.
• Choosing a timeless piece also has its advantages as you can make it work no matter how many times your style evolves.
• Other foundational pieces could be reclining chairs, installing a mantel and fireplace or heating element, and something like a built-in shelving unit for displaying all your treasures.

Lighting

Any good designer will tell you that lighting is one of the most important design elements; don’t let this feature just become an afterthought.

• Select the right kind of lighting fixtures.
• Be mindful of light color, temperature, and intensity.
• All these elements dramatically impact the mood and aesthetic of your living room, not to mention the actual way you need to use light (for reading, eating, playing games) in the space.

BONUS: Designer Tricks

• Focus on uplighting your ceiling to create a glow throughout the room.
• Keep bulbs at a warmer color temperature to create that cozy feeling.
• Well-placed wall sconces and pendant lights make for interesting accent lights, moving beyond standard table and floor lamps.

Function Tips for Smaller Sized Living Rooms

1. Pull the furniture away from the walls. This type of layout actually makes a small room feel larger.
2. Provide multiple seating options for guests to choose from.
3. For additional seating and/or a storage bonus, use an ottoman in lieu of a coffee table.
4. Hang curtains high and let them fall naturally to the floor.
5. Bookshelves make great backdrops, adding depth and visual scale to the room.

Large Rooms Layouts

1. If you have a very large open space for a living room, you can easily divide it into two separate areas by placing a table in the middle to divide two spaces.
2. To bring an oversized room down to a human scale, creating smaller sitting area vignettes works wonderfully. Like having two or three smaller living rooms in the same space.

Multi-Functional Furniture & Storage Tips

Another super practical idea for making your living room as functional as possible for the holidays is to install or swap out any single use furniture pieces for multifunctional ones that have additional storage built in. Such as:

• Coffee tables that double as storage for living room necessities: games, toys, blankets. This makes for an easy clean-up and a clutter-free living room.
• Sectional sitting pieces that are super flexible for seating arrangement.
• Ottomans that double as footrests and extra seating; some even come as storage pieces too.
• A buffet style cabinet unit along one wall can act as a storage unit as well as a serving buffet or station for any holiday items you want to display.

Mount Electronic Equipment

To make the most of the space you have available in your living room, it might be best to hang your electronic devices: TV’s, sound systems and speakers, plus anything else that can be moved off the floor and onto the walls.

• Floating bookshelves is another fun design element to mount as well as being a functional addition to any room.

Add Rugs for Usable Floor Space

Large area throw rugs are not only stylish and can make a significant impact on the decor setting of your living room, but they are also highly functional. They designate hangout areas, and if you have a soft and comfy rug, the floor can also become a sitting and laying area.

• Add some large throw pillows and you will have more than enough seating for everyone on the holiday movie nights. 

FUNCTIONAL TIPS FOR HOLIDAY LIVING ROOMS

Tree Size

If a Christmas tree is part of your holiday traditions, then it will be the star of the show when it comes to setting up your functional living room for the season.

• Choosing a size that’s not too big or too tiny is actually an important component to making the space feel comfortable.
• Measure your ceiling’s height and then subtract 12 inches to find your ideal tree size (those extra inches take into account the tree stand and the tree topper).

Start with a Blank Slate

It really only takes a few minutes to grab some cardboard boxes and pack up the accessories around your living room for the holiday season.

• By removing all the tchotchkes from your shelves, side tables, and any other surface allows you to present holiday collections and decor.
• Now your holiday collections can shine throughout the space without feeling crowded.
• Adding fresh branches of greenery to fill in any open spaces will pull the whole look together.

White Out

Or red or green or silver or any monochromatic tone that resonates with your style.

Choosing to focus on one color throughout the space is a gorgeous look but also functional in the sense that it keeps things simpler, less chaotic, and makes for a relaxing atmosphere.

• When shopping for pieces to add to your living room, sticking with all white tones (ivory, cream, or off white) is a classic choice that is timeless and will work forever.
• Don't forget to add plenty of little white fairy lights to give the monochromatic room a warm glow.

Follow Your Existing Color Palette

To remain functional when decorating for the holidays, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. If the color palette of your room is purple, blues, or oranges, you can easily mimic these tones throughout your holiday decorations.

• There’s no rule that says you need to decorate with only red and green.
• Let the color palette of your living room inspire your holiday decorating.
• Choose ornaments that coordinate with your furniture accents.
• Use the same shades of colored ribbon and add it to the Christmas tree, wreaths, or mantel display.

Window Dressing

This is another hanging tip, meaning a way to add holiday cheer while keeping your floor and other flat surface space free for necessary guest service.

• Hanging wreaths in windows is a lovely look that brings the holiday decor physically up.

Mix Metallics

Silver and gold are gorgeous together and can give your living room a glam holiday upgrade.

• Mixing metals with glass and crystals creates a kind of a holiday wintery wonderland.
• Incorporate glassware from other rooms of the house to hold metallic ornaments and to accent the sparkly decor.

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