Unique Ways to Decorate your Living Room

From asymmetrical walls and oddly shaped windows to a sunken floor plan, you need to look at these architectural details not as if they're decorating dilemmas, but as if they're interior highlights that need to be creatively accentuated. Here's an example of three unique living rooms features and what you can do to turn a decorating dilemma into an aesthetic showcase.

Window Placement

The style and shape of the windows in your living room can present dilemmas. Whether they're too big and letting in too much light, or oddly shaped, there are ways to incorporate them into your decor plan. If the sun is simply too much, you can add a glass darkening tint or go for custom treatments. Vendors today can provide made to order drapery, curtains, blinds or plantation shutters in a huge array of colors and materials. With this many options it shouldn't be hard to find a look and feel exactly like you want for your living-room windows.

However, the unusual shape of the window is a bigger aesthetic challenge. Instead of trying to seamlessly fuse the window into the rest of the living room's decor, why not make it the focal point? Look at the window as a painting. It's a free piece of art, however unusual or abstract it might be.

Configuration Style

Popular during the '60s, the sunken living room is experiencing a renaissance. Whether you find it tacky or retro-chic, it's a unique and distinctive look. However, the biggest problem with this type of configuration is that people always forget there is a downward step into the living room, so trips and falls are common. In other words, when you have people over and they are unfamiliar with your house, a cocktail party can turn into a lawsuit.

One way to remedy the problem is to stain or paint the step, bringing attention to the room's sunken configuration. Once the safety measures are in place, concentrate on the living-room decor. When you have a sunken configuration, it's important to have tables, chairs, sofas and consoles of varying height, as this will create space and dimension. A variety of contrasting colors will help add depth to the room.

An Odd Shape

What do you do if you have an oddly shaped living room? For example, asymmetrical walls are common. It's not unusual to have three rectangular walls and one sharp, asymmetrical slant. There are several ways to highlight this feature. You could hang an asymmetrical drapery or a piece of abstract art that mirrors the slant of the wall. Use bold paint colors and patterns to accentuate the walls, or stick with beiges and cremes and use your furniture as the room's focal point.

Finally, buy furniture with upholstery patterns that match the angle of the wall. Once you have a few matching features in the room, an unusual detail will no longer stick out.

From octagon-shaped living rooms to eyebrow-curved windows, not everything on the market is cookie-cutter. At first, these unusual spaces might seem like a dilemma, but the joy of owning a home is figuring out the type of decor that will make these rooms shine.