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      Picture for blog post Airy Aesthetics: 5 Open Plan Living Room Ideas

      Airy Aesthetics: 5 Open Plan Living Room Ideas

      Perhaps you started out with an open layout in new your home, or maybe you are about to take a pnuematic hammer to your non-load bearing walls. Either way, you may find yourself bewildered by the vast range of things that can be done with the enlarged space. To help you narrow down the options and decide on a design approach that suits your needs, we assembled our panel of designers and came up with this list of the top five decorating ideas for large spaces.

      1. Borderless

      If you have a surplus of square-footage in your living room, and are not keen on acquiring more furnishings to fill in the space, we recommend flaunting it. Try arranging living and dining furniture in their respective corners, with plenty of walking room and a sprinkling of subtle decorative features in between to demarcate the spaces. Since urban living became the norm for most of us, nothing speaks of luxury as much as wide walkways bordering expansive spaces - being generous with empty space is probably going to be your first approach if extravagance is the vibe you are aiming for. There is a caveat to be wary of however: leaving too much empty space makes for unpleasant acoustics and an uncomfortable living space - solve that by including additional soft furnishings such as carpets or drapery, and building up wall façades to absorb sound.

      Designer: Beverly Home 2. Division by Furnishing

      In the event that the space for wide walkways is lacking, consider arranging your living room furniture so that the largest piece (typically the sofa) serves as a divider. This enables the room to be visually subdivided, and for the additional space to serve a different function in close proximity. This arrangement can be accomplished with a conventional sofa, or an L-shaped living room set with slightly more space, resulting in an effective division without other visual cues. The colour of the dividing furniture will affect the visual weight of the separation when compared to the palette of the room - so go dark for prominence in a predominately white space, or light for subtlety to preserve the sense of air volume.

      Designer: Pocket Square 3. Decorative Walls

      A more commonly seen method of dividing spaces can be spotted on walls. Easily implemented wherever space is at a premium, different textures and shades can be presented on thin façades or wall projections to serve as visual cues between spaces. Even though walls are typically missing from an open layout, we recommend building up false wall projections or retaining a portion of existing projections to form small corners in areas with less foot traffic - if there is adequate space. While these projections will deduct from the open layout experience depending on their size, they can often be made to serve both visual and practical functions - such as providing additional shelving space and better acoustics while acting as demarcation.

      Designer: Design Base 4. Faux Archway

      Tie together disparate shades and textures on walls with the formation of a non-structural and purely aesthetic archway. In addition to serving as a visual cue, even an archway of minimalist design creates another plane that can be adorned with decorative features such as reflective panels to visually enlarge the space.

      Designer: Metrics Global 5. Demarcating Ceilings and Floors

      In lieu of any other dividing elements, details on the ceiling and the approximate size of those features being mirrored on the floor in the form of tiles or an area carpet, will result in your separate spaces being distinctly defined. Because of their visual prominence and requisite size, these features work best in an adequately large space decorated with a unified colour palette. If you have the space to spare, aim for lighting in oversized geometric shapes on the ceiling and a large deep-pile carpet on the floor to envelop your seating lounge in cosy light and textures.

      Designer: Q1 Interior Concept Is your seating lounge the kind with an extra-high ceiling? Read about how to select lighting for these cavernous spaces here.

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