When it comes to choosing the upholstery for your furniture, you demand nothing but the best. The decor of the living room plays a vital role in making a statement of your style and lavishness.

The living room has evolved into a multifunctional room meant to welcome guests, sit and relax comfortably while reading a good book or watching TV, spend some time with the family, chat and gossip with friends and for entertainment.

Tips for a perfect living room

• Your first living room decorating task is to make a list of every activity that will occur in your living room.

• You can use area rugs to cover up unattractive areas of carpet and floors and define seating areas of the living room.

• Don’t move all the furniture against the wall because guests need to sit close enough to talk to one another.

• The floors should be a little darker than the walls. This provides a pleasing balance to the space.

• Modern living room decor includes items as such as bookcases with wide shelves for DVDs and other collectibles.

• Layered lighting plan is best for living rooms so that you can spotlight the reading area or the entertainment area.

• Curtains or drapes look best in the color or dominant color of the largest piece of furniture. The drapes or curtains should compliment the design style you have chosen for the rest of your room.

• If you are fond of mirrors then always hang them in such way that people do not see their reflection in them all the time. This may make them uncomfortable.

• Plan a “zone” for each great room activity: cooking, dining, entertaining, media viewing, conversation, play, and, importantly, unobstructed passageways around and through the room that won’t disturb ongoing activities.

• A small fishpond and a fountain are charming additions to living room décor.

• You can bring lots of color into your neutral room with pillows, accessories, or art.

• Putting art on the walls will help you bring the room together and add a personal touch. You can choose painted canvases that can look great all on their own or a framed print in shades that compliment your color scheme.

The living room is a place where you can show your style to the world. Once you get started, your living room decorating ideas will flow and you will surely be able to do a good job of it.

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Living room is a place full of activities. Good lighting can pronounce each and every activity happening in your living room. Here is how to arrange the lighting fixtures in your living room. General lighting: General Lighting provides an area with overall illumination. General lighting radiates a comfortable level of brightness, enabling one to see and walk about safely. It can be accomplished with chandeliers, ceiling or wall-mounted fixtures, and with lanterns outside your home. You may require general lighting for entertaining and watching television. The electronics such as TV, video games and computers require low-level general lighting to reduce the glare as you watch the television or play video game.

Miniature track lighting is also good options which provide both general and accent lighting. Install them under the shelves to bring about the effect. Choose from accent spots, mini-lights, and compact or linear fluorescent light sources.

Task lighting: Task lighting fixtures are used to perform specific tasks such as reading, sewing, homework, hobbies, games, or balancing your checkbook. Place portable lamps such as floor lamp either at the right or the left of the reading chair of your living room. Make sure that the task lighting fixture is free of distracting glare and shadows and should be bright enough to prevent eyestrain.

Game tables require bright, even overhead lighting. Shaded pendants equipped with either incandescent bulbs or energy-efficient compact fluorescent tubes are one solution. Or, install two recessed down lights over each half of the table.

Down lights: Highlight the fireplace in your living room with recessed down lights installed in the ceiling over the mantle. Place wall sconces in each side of the fireplace which is really attractive. This draws attention to the fireplace area.

Picture lights: Highlight the wall paintings with low-voltage, highlighted with low-voltage, tungsten-halogen picture lights. These are best to enhance the look of your wall painting because these frame-mounted lights spread a beam of bright, white light across the face of the painting.

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