Open Concept Living Spacious and airy open floor plans are becoming more and more popular – and we cansee why. This arrangement lets light flow freely through the home and merges separateliving spaces together to create flexibility of function. Typically, an open concept floorplan is reserved for the kitchen, living room, and dining room to create a feeling of morespace, making it ideal for entertainers. While we love this style, it isn’t without its fair share of challenges.
Define Separate Spaces With Rugs This may sound contrary to the fundamental essence of an open concept space, butstick with us. Having all your rooms adjoined is amazing, but you also want to establishyour living room and dining room as their own spaces. Adding an area rug under yourdining room table and in your living room not only adds texture, warmth, and colour, italso creates visual separation.
Pick a Cohesive Design Style Creating a flow between your living room and dining room doesn’t just stop at knockingdown walls, you also need to create flow with your design. While you don’t have to besuper matchy-matchy with your furniture choices, everything should feel like it goestogether. An easy way to keep things cohesive is to incorporate similar textures and materials throughout your home, and stick to a similar colour palette or accent colour. Italso helps if you have a good idea of what design style you’re attracted to. A minimalistdining room paired with a maximalist living room will feel disjointed and off-balance –instead, choose the same design style for the entire open concept space, or mix twodesign styles than complement, rather than compete with, each other.
Pick a Low Profile Sofa, and Use it to Divide the Rooms A lot of people rocking an open floor plan have the urge to push all their furniture upagainst the walls to keep their home feeling as open as possible – but often times thiscan end up feeling like one big empty space, sort of like a warehouse. Instead, werecommend using your sofa as a divider between your living room and dining room. Italso acts as an anchor for your other furniture, and creates a clear focal point in yourspace.
Keep it Uncluttered Because there are no walls in an open concept living space, you can see everything –yes, everything.
That means that any clutter in your home will be visible from the second you walk in the front door, so keeping tidy is a must. Cabinets and sideboards are great choices because their doors let you be a little messier in your storage than open shelves do, and being organized 100% of the time isn’t realistic. And of course, choosing furniture that doubles as storage doesn’t hurt either.