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Unorganised living room? Declutter the space with these simple tips

It's easy to make your living room a dumping ground for all the decor items. By embracing the basic ‘less is more’ mantra, one can elevate their living room.

Updated on: Mar 2, 2025, 18:00:56 IST
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The living room is the heart of the home. It's an intersection of the outside world for guests to be welcomed into and the inner world of family members lounging together. The space should strike a balance. Often, people treat it as a dumping ground for their prized decor and souvenir pieces. It turns into an overstimulating place with mismatched furniture, clashing artworks, and devices like home speakers and TVs. As per the biggest design mantra, ‘Less is more,’ it's time to move away from this hodgepodge and let the space breathe. At the same time, it’s also important to avoid being completely bare and devoid of personality. A balanced approach is required.

Living room clutter should be avoided. (Shutterstock)
Living room clutter should be avoided. (Shutterstock)

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Amita Trehan, Founder, Bravur’a Design, shared some essential tips on how to decorate your living room and striking that careful balance.

She shared these tips:

Identify the usage pattern

The space near TV can be decorated. (Bravur’a Design)
The space near TV can be decorated. (Bravur’a Design)

This means, are you going to watch TV here, or is it a place for the family to chill and unwind without the screen? This lounge or living room should reflect the utility along with the personality too.

Maximising space

If the focus here is family time and not the television, the seating area can be maximised to accommodate more people. Try adding a swing here to create that ultimate family experience of joy and comfort. Pro tip for adding a swing is that it should face a window, balcony, or outdoors.

Create a story

It means bringing in the personality and quirks of the family here, whether it’s books, musical instruments, yoga mats, souvenirs from travels, family pics, etc. Every member should find themselves in this area.

ALSO READ: Top 16 hottest home decor and interior design trends to give a larger space illusion to your home

Design, not dump

Mindfully pick and curate the items or pictures that truly make you smile every time you see them. Only those deserve to be here. Dedicate a wall for family pictures, and for souvenirs, add some shelves strategically. Being mindful is the key to creating timeless spaces. The go-to mantra is creating clusters of 3 on shelves, these could either be similar or different items, but they look beautiful together. If you have an avid reader in the family, a simple bookshelf can create such a vibe in the lounge, sometimes it may even double up as a partition.

ALSO READ: Old furniture to carpets: Repurpose these unused items and create something new for home decor

Furniture, furnishings & colour

All the furniture must be super comfy, meant to cuddle and give comfort. A recliner can be a good investment for a later date, and ottomans to put up your feet. Bouclé fabric on sofas and cushions is a great addition; throws can create a warm feeling. The colours can be soft, but add some drama with graffiti cushions with humorous quotes.

ALSO READ: Complete guide to wooden interior decor: Design tips to incorporate wood; from furniture, panelling to lighting

  • Adrija Dey
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Adrija Dey

    Adrija Dey’s proclivity for observation fuels her storytelling instinct. As a lifestyle journalist, she crafts compelling, relatable narratives across diverse touchpoints of the human experience, including wellness, mental health, relationships, interior design, home decor, food, travel, and fashion that gently nudge readers toward living a little better. For her, stories exist in flesh and bones, carried by human vessels and shaped through everyday endeavours. It is the small stories we live and share that make us human. After all, humans and their lores are the most natural and raw repositories of stories, and uncovering them, for her, is akin to peeling an orange under a winter afternoon sun. Always up for a chat, she believes the best stories come from unfiltered yapping, where "too much information" is kind of the point. A graduate of Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, and an alumna of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, Adrija spends her idle hours cocooned with herbal tea and a gripping thriller, scribbling inner monologues she loosely calls poetic pieces, often with her succulents in attendance. On lazier days, she can be found binge-watching, for the nth time, one from her comfort-show holy trinity: The Office (US), Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or Modern Family. Dancing by herself to her peppy playlists, however, is an everyday ritual she swears by religiously.Read More

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