Is your living room decor looking a bit dated? Trends come and go, but after a few years, what you thought was timeless design may have actually gone past its prime. You don’t need to completely gut your room in order to modernize it and update it with current trendy styles, nor do you need to spend a small fortune redecorating. Here are some tips on how to update your current living room decor.
1. Paint the walls
Even if it’s only the redecorating you choose to do, a coat of paint can really freshen up your space and breathe new life into it. Changing the wall color, especially in a gendered room (this trend is long gone!), can drastically change the feeling of the room. If you aren’t looking to replace or repaint your furnishings to match your new wall color, consider picking something neutral or in tune with the same style, so it doesn’t clash, and you immediately regret all the work you just put into the painting.
The 2019 Pantone Color of the Year is Living Coral, so ultimate trend-setters would pick this as the color for their walls and design around it. However, if it’s too much vibrancy and pink for your tastes, consider painting an accent wall instead of all four walls – as long as the rest of the room matches.
2. Get rid of the carpeting
If your living room is carpeted, it’s time to tear it up and move on. Having wall-to-wall carpeting in your living room can be cozy and comfortable under your feet, especially during the colder months, but it can also be covered with dust, dirt, pet hair, and random stains from over the years. Hardwood or laminate flooring, tile, and exposed concrete are much more stylish and trendy than carpet, so if you’re looking to modernize your decor, start there.
If you pull up the carpet and realize you have concrete floors, you don’t need to cover them with hardwood to make a stylish statement; you can just stain your concrete instead. Acid stained concrete floors are trendy, especially in bohemian-style dwellings with exposed piping and brick, and don’t need to be limited to porches or garages. They look just as good indoors, and, when sealed, can protect against furniture scratches as well.
3. Add some greenery
Bringing the outdoors in is a big 2019 trend in decor, with so many decorators and designers adding indoor plants to any room. If you’ve got the space, go with a big statement plant like the popular Monstera plant (but be warned, they grow quickly and will fill whatever space you give them) or a Bird of Paradise. If not, a few small plants scattered around the room can have the same effect. You could even hang some in front of a window for that indoor jungle feeling.
Unless you’re plant savvy, buying houseplants as decor can turn into a disappointing situation quickly if you aren’t sure how to care for them. Start with some easy, low maintenance plants before diving into more finicky ones and you’ll be able to turn your living space into an indoor garden in no time.
