Interior Design for L-Shaped Living Rooms: Creative Solutions for Awkward Spaces
Decorating an L-shaped living room can be surprisingly challenging. When you have to fit your decor into strict limitations like an L shape, you might find you just can’t make some concepts work.
But just because you have to work around your room’s shape doesn’t mean you have to compromise on making it feel exactly how you want it to. With the right design approach, you can make your L-shaped living room feel just as functional, visually cohesive, and comfortable as any other living space. It’s all about working with what you have to bring out the best in your style. Let’s talk about how to make that happen.
Understanding L-shaped Living rooms: challenges and opportunities
L-shaped living rooms require a bit more thoughtful planning than a traditional, more open living room, but they also offer some unique design possibilities.
Common challenges of designing L-shaped spaces
L-shaped spaces' most obvious challenge is that the awkward corner at the turn can be tough to plan around. It creates a natural focal point it feels like the entire room is “pointing” toward and demands that you plan walking routes to accommodate it.
This challenge is compounded by the fact that your “L” probably doesn’t quite split the room in two evenly. Instead, most L-shaped rooms have more space on one side than the other, creating uneven wall lengths.
These qualities can make an L-shaped living room feel like two distinct “zones” instead of one cohesive room – which can, in turn, make the room feel disjointed or awkward to navigate.
Opportunities in L-shaped rooms
Thought of the right way, each of the challenges referred to above can also be unique opportunities. Try leaning into the fact that your “L” splits the room into two zones to design two distinct “sub-areas” within your living room. For example, you could devote one-half of your L to electronic entertainment while setting up a more intimate space for conversing in the other half.
Similarly, you could use the fact that your L naturally directs foot traffic to create intuitive pathways through your home. You could even make the most of the asymmetry your “L” naturally emphasizes. Have one half of the L play off of the other to create interesting visual and spatial dynamics that further illustrate the thoughtfulness of your design. For instance, if you’re going for a modern organic look, you could emphasize the modern on one side and bring out the organic side on the other.
Space planning: creating functional zones in L-shaped living rooms
Creating sub-zones within your L-shaped living room won’t take as much planning as you might think. A few smart choices can make all the difference.
Mapping your space: How to measure and plan your L-shaped room
The first thing you should do when planning any room is ask yourself what you need the room to accomplish. Answer this question both in terms of your practical needs (i.e., it needs to contain your TV and couch) and your emotional or aesthetic needs (i.e., it needs to feel welcoming and comfortable). Consider making a prioritized list of these needs and wants to give you a place to start.
Next, compare your needs to your space. Where are the natural traffic patterns in your living room, and how can you plan around them? Look for the major areas you don’t need to keep open for walking and start planning around how to fill them. Start with your largest items (such as your TV and couch) and work your way down to smaller things.
Effective zoning strategies for L-shaped rooms
After you’ve defined your needs for your whole living room, you can repeat the process for any sub-areas you want to create. If you want to create a place to watch TV, for example, consider where your TV will fit and how to comfortably place furniture around it for viewers.
While you’re arranging, look for the focal points of each sub-area you’re creating and center your decor around them to create a balanced look within those areas. If you’re creating a TV viewing zone, then you could look for a natural place to put a coffee table between the TV set and couch or chairs you set up nearby. This would give the zone a balanced look and provide a place for your guests to set snacks or drinks while watching.
Design elements that unify L-shaped rooms
When you’ve defined your needs and your sub-zones, it’s time to bring it all together. Try incorporating a couple of these design elements into your L-shaped living room to make it feel like a coordinated, connected space.
Connect distinct areas with color
If you’re creating a few distinct sub-zones within your living room, there’s always the risk that your space will end up feeling disconnected. Color theory can help you combat that perception. By uniting each of your spaces with a common color palette, you can help them feel more compatible.
To kick things up a notch, you could even use color to guide the eye through your space and lead visitors through different zones. Try using different accent colors to highlight the different areas while keeping the room’s primary color palette consistent to subtly add a distinct character to each zone without making them feel too distinct.
Creating visual continuity through architectural elements
You can also use the natural shapes and features of your space to better unite the elements of your L-shaped room. For one, the curve in your L creates a natural transition from one space to another. You could use this transition to introduce a different design philosophy or sub-area naturally.
You could use doorways or even just large, centralized pieces of furniture to do the same thing. Float furniture away from walls to create natural walking space suggesting space continuity, or place furniture against walls to accomplish the opposite and close in a space. Put up a wall decoration at the edge of one area to signal its boundaries and begin the transition to the next zone. Thoughtfully arranging the elements of a room can help create natural flow and continuity from one area to the next.
Custom rugs: The perfect solution for L-shaped living rooms
One of the best ways to help make an L-shaped living room feel more cohesive and comfortable is to accentuate it with an L-shaped rug. By placing an L-shaped rug to follow along with the curve of the room, you’re creating a natural walkway and focal point for your living room in one.
An L-shaped rug will help your living room’s design feel more intentional and cozy and give you something to unite the rest of your style decisions around. Try creating your ideal L-shaped rug with our custom rug designer by measuring your space and then choosing the type of fiber that suits your living room best. By the time you’ve chosen a fiber, color, texture, and size, chances are you’ll already have plenty of ideas for how to bring out the best of your new rug with the rest of your design decisions.
When you’re ready to order your new L-shaped living room rug, all you have to do is put the design you just chose into your cart. If you have any questions or want any help getting started, our experts are always happy to take your call.
