The place we all spend most of our time at home is undoubtedly the living room. Whether you’re hanging out with friends or spending time by yourself watching TV.
So, it’s no wonder that we often want to make that room as cozy as possible. And I don’t mean only having a couple of details adding to the coziness, I’m talking about going down a full cozy aesthetic route!
Quite often though, certain mistakes make all of that coziness fall apart and the warm feel of the home diminishes in a second! In order for that not to happen, I’m bringing you 12 cozy living room mistakes you should always avoid when decorating your cozy space!
1. Uncomfortable Furniture
The first rule you have to know when it comes to cozy living: coziness = comfiness!
Once we mention cozy living, we imagine being able to relax both mentally and physically, and no one can relax on uncomfortable furniture!
Just imagine a couch that’s so hard it feels as if you’re sitting on a rock! Or a tiny chair in which you can’t even sit back properly!
A much better choice would be a proper sitting area that’s going to make you feel as if you’re sitting on a cloud! Binging movies or sitting around with friends won’t be an issue at all with those!
2. Cold Color Palette
Coziness doesn’t only equal comfiness though, it equals warmth too!
Plenty of things can impact the warmth of the room, but a super important one is a proper color palette!
You never want to choose a cool palette when it comes to cozy living! Dark blues, greens or grays may look luxurious and fancy, but they will take the coziness out of every place!
Instead try out warmer tones such as yellows and reds! Something simple as changing a color tone can turn your entire room upside down!
3. Bad Lightning Choice
Most of the time the lightning used in the living rooms is the overhead lightning. However, I’m also noticing quite a rise in those LED strips that go around the entire living room.
They may look cool, but most of the time they give off hues of white and even blue. If you’re planning on making a cool and modern space that’s great, but if you’re opting for cozy living, try avoiding those!
Instead, add a bunch of lamps with warm lightning! And when I say a bunch, I mean a bunch! Adding a big amount of light but in softer and warmer tones has an ability of completely shaping the room!
We don’t want our living room looking like a mall with such strong lightning, do we?
4. Formal Layout
You’re not in school or at work, not everything needs to be at the right angle!
It may make us feel good once we see furniture strictly opposite each other or when the couch is distanced from the table by the same amount on all sides. If that’s what you prefer then great!
But, you’re allowed to play around! Things don’t have to be proportional. You can turn one part of the sofa a little bit to the side, or put 2 chairs on one side and 1 on the other.
Use your imagination, creativity and make your own space! No need to play by the formal rules!
5. Too Matchy
A common misconception is that everything has to match everything these days. That’s not true at all!
You don’t need your sofa, chair and a couch looking exactly the same! It might actually be fun to switch things around and get different ones! Different things can be paired together perfectly well!
So why not experiment a little! It will make your room seem way more fresh and lively!
Here’s an idea: a super comfy beige couch, a round orange sofa and a dotted red chair. Those colors are all friendly with each other and would make an amazing team despite all of them being different!
6. No Personal Touch
You can choose amazing furniture, add a whole bunch of different comfy sitting areas and arrange it all flawlessly, but it will miss that special X factor if there’s no personal touch!
Cozy living is like the embodiment of personal touch when it comes to the interior design world!
Put up your favorite artworks on the wall, display books that you always reread, spread out decor that speaks to you all around!
Show yourself in your living room, and turn your cozy house into a cozy home!
7. Too Cluttered
Be careful though, don’t go overboard!
Cozy rooms are usually filled with plenty of things, from decor to personal items. However you must be cautious and not make it too cluttered! Things can easily go out of hand and turn the entire place messy!
Your best friend when it comes to cozy living are surely going to be shelves. Use them to their fullest extent! From floor-to-ceiling ones to floating ones, it doesn’t matter! As long as your decor is nicely displayed on them and not throughout the entire room.
Of course you can experiment with other storage ideas too such as cabinets or those aesthetic mini boxes! They’re a great way to store plenty of things such as kids toys or your hobby essentials like knitting equipment!
8. Ignoring Windows
The smallest things can change the room from bland to cozy, such as curtains. The right ones, of course.
If you have big windows, don’t simply leave them out just like that! They’re an amazing opportunity to play around and add life to your space!
You can add some light, flowy curtains which are going to add even more texture to your home! If they have some colors or textured details, they can even play with the sunlight and paint your apartment in fun designs!
Imagine some light, pink curtains gracing the entire place with pink hues! It would look magical!
9. Art Is Hung Too High Up
You certainly don’t want to enter your living room and feel as if you have entered a gallery or a museum.
The best location of an artwork hung up on the wall is at eye level. You don’t want to look down on it, but you definitely don’t want to strain your neck looking up at it either!
Do keep in mind that there are various possibilities of artwork displayed on the walls! You can choose to have only one big framed photo, or a mini gallery wall too! Those are beautiful, especially in cozy spaces!
10. No Carpet
A carpet is something you don’t want to leave out of your layout plan when you’re planning cozy living.
Those hardwood floors are great, but they’re better off in the background of a perfectly proportional, soft carpet!
I’m sure you’d rather want something soft under your feet when you’re walking around your place rather than a hardwood floor, especially during the cold winter time!
Beware though, you don’t want it being too big or too small! The right carpet is worth gold!
11. Hard Surfaces
Living rooms like these look stunning, they do, but they’re anything but cozy!
Brick walls, too much glass or metal feels so cold! You can’t sit back to read a cozy fantasy book with all this going on in the background! It would ruin the whole atmosphere!
Rather replace them with some soft textures such as wool or velvets, they will immediately make your place that much softer!
A great thing to imagine when thinking about things like these is sleeping. We want to make sure we are super comfy and cozy once we’re off to dreamland. And are there any hard materials with us in bed? Nope, just the soft blankets and comfy pillows!
12. Too Much Minimalism
One last thing, but way far from the least, is to avoid minimalism!
Minimalism is okay to an extent, but when it comes to cozy living rooms, that extent is very small!
You’ll want fun decor which brings warmth, personal touches which tell a story, fun textures which soften the area. All of them are needed for the ultimate cozy space! Minimalism won’t get you far in the cozy world!
Now that you’ve seen all 12 cozy living room mistakes you should always avoid, you’re ready for cozy living!
How about making a little to-do list when planning out your cozy space and checking out all of the boxes of these 12 mistakes once you’re sure they’re out of the way? That would be of great and very practical help!