How To Style A Small Living Room

Thank you to Urban Barn for partnering with me on today’s post.

We’ve been self isolating since early March, when Covid-19 started, getting groceries when we need to and doing little walks around our quiet neighbourhood but other than that we have been hunkered down at home. I don’t know about you but I’m a furniture re-arranger, I love moving furniture around lol, especially when I’m bored at home. Since self isolation started, I’ve rearranged the kid’s rooms and closets, our whole unfinished basement was organized, our ensuite closet was purged and I’ve been organizing the kitchen drawer by drawer… and NOW I’ve started on our living room! I partnered with one of my favourite Canadian home stores, Urban Barn, and have given our living room a mini makeover. We have a pretty small living room and a very open concept home. It can be hard to arrange our furniture and style our living room but I’m sharing how I created a cozy space that’s functional for our family of 4 (with 2 small children) while being stylish and practical.

When we first moved in to this house,

I built some DIY floating shelves that instantly added character to this room (check that easy DIY here). They started off as a stained wood and eventually I painted them white. We had the area rug and couch from our old home here, you can see the rug is a little too small and the couch is too big. It still looks nice but the dimensions are all off lol. I slowly moved things around, added blinds and curtains plus plants (plants make everrrythang cozier).

Step one: Have a plan of attack

We were on the hunt for a smaller couch so when Urban Barn reached out to me about working together, the timing was perfect. I created a design board (nothing fancy but it’s a great way to put a room together and see how furniture looks with your decor at home). We have a white piano and our large brick fireplace so I included a quick snap of those in the design board and added in items until I found a style I liked. Creating a design board before ordering furniture and decorating your space is a total game changer. It’s so much easier to see what works together when you have it all in one space. I use PicMonkey or Canva to make my design boards (both free to use).

Mix and match your seating:

Because our living room is open to the dining room area and kitchen, we need something that defines the space. The sectional we had was too overbearing and obviously, too large lol. Instead of another, smaller sectional, I wanted to have a medium sized couch with two separate armchairs.

I chose the the Santana sofa in Giovanna Moondust as well as two of the matching Stellen armchairs (one is reclining and one is stationary). We have the same amount of seating this way, but it’s far more versatile and we can move it around easily if we need too. This is a great option if you have a small open concept living room, plus the Crosby coffee table I chose was made for our small living room. It has a rich stained wood top with a visible grain and is very modern and minimal on the bottom.

Is it hard to keep white furniture clean?

There is a lot of neutrals and whites in our house, and yes we have pets and two small children. I get asked all the time over on my Instagram how we keep our home clean with so much white. Honestly, we live our life and nothing is *too* precious here that I’m stressing out like crazy over it BUT that being said, we have rules of course! We eat at the table and not usually in the living room. The kids have snacks like popcorn or pretzels on the couch, but apple sauce or liquidy snacks are a hard no lol. I’ve had crazy spills on the rugs and couch in there before and use a spot cleaner and steam cleaner to clean it up, it works great! However, I really prefer that the kids eat at the table lol. The pets are up on the couches and stuff too, but if our dog Jersey is out and walks in mud or is really wet, we wipe her down before coming in the house regardless. I don’t want mud and dirt being tracked in no matter what kind of furniture we have.

We are Canadian as well and wearing shoes in the house isn’t something people do in Canada lol. I can’t wrap my head around people who are used to doing that! Seems so crazy to me! So no one wears shoes in the house (maybe indoor slippers but no outside shoes ever). Kiel and I are also both naturally very tidy people, so most things in our house have a home. I organize and go through things maybe once a month to keep clutter at bay and we tidy throughout the day so it doesn’t look like a bomb has gone off in our house by bedtime.

The kid’s don’t have a play room or anything and our house is small, so if we didn’t tidy throughout the day the floor would literally be blanketed in toys and a total disaster. The kid’s toys are in their bedrooms (and some downstairs as well), if you are wondering. The bedrooms are right off the main floor so they are easy to access and the kids bring out whatever they want to play with in the living room.

Quick tip for living in a small home: I love this Finley side board for storing board games and puzzles plus the drawers are perfect for candles, pet toys and our placemats and napkins we use. It’s a great, versatile piece when you don’t have a ton of closet storage.

The TYPE of couch fabric is also important if you have kids…

Honestly, I don’t think I could go with a straight white cotton couch. It’s so easy to get dirty and surprisingly, I have a limit with how much white I have in my house LOL. Like I said, I don’t want to live my life stressed about decor and furniture in my home, so I choose items that work for us, not against us. The Santana sofa has a textured white/grey fabric and it’s easy to clean and hides any smudges that might make their way onto the couch. It’s low fuss and is perfect if you want something lighter in your home but are worried about a high maintenance couch.

How to add texture and layer area rugs:

Since we have a lot of whites in our home, I wanted to make sure there was a lot of texture so it didn’t feel so cold and sterile in here. It’s easy to do this and it’s all in the details. I swapped out our old rug for this chunky knit Victor wool area rug (ours is 108″x144″) and layered this printed, smaller area rug over top to add interest. Then I added some chunky, cute throw pillows, a faux sheepskin on the back of the couch, hung this leaner mirror on the wall plus a faux wood side table and plants.

Here’s the before and after of this space

(Obviously in real life there are blocks and toys strewn about and the pillows are usually on the floor as a fort for the kids lol, but it’s been tidied and styled and I’m wearing jeans here haha). What do you think though! I love how open it feels and it’s so much lighter and cozier now. If you have any questions feel free to email me or shoot me a dm over on my Instagram ♥

My friends at Urban Barn have given me a special promo code to share with you. Use THEBLUSHHOME at checkout to get 15% off regular-priced furniture and accents, extended until May 10^th!

Use online promo code ‘BLUSHHOME’ to receive 15% off regular priced furniture and accents. This one-time, non-transferable offer is valid until May 10^th 11:59 PDT. Offer excludes custom furniture and promotional priced furniture and accessories. Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion.