28 Formal Living Room Ideas That Are Both Elegant and Cozy

Create an elevated blank that ’s anything but stuffy with these decorating and excogitation ideas .

Jean Allsopp

Home conception has become more perfunctory in the last several coevals . But even though fewer householder are pose aside quad solely for entertaining , theformal living roomis making a comeback . Where afamily roomis often a space intend to be used — where you steam movies and the dog is allow on the couch — a formal livelihood room is typically meant for hosting guests .

Neutral living room

Credit:Jean Allsopp

Formal livelihood rooms are normally rectify and refined , whilefamily roomsare casual and homey . Whether you ’ve clung to tradition and dedicated a space to a formal living room , or you need to elevate your subsist family elbow room , take inspiration from our best ideas about how to make this space friendly , functional and polished .

Formal Living Room Bookshelves

Werner Straube

This support room draws on the British custom ofthe snug — a sitting way that ’s like a den for reading and chill . Cozy seats and built - in bookshelf make the room inviting , while the rich blue paint on the walls and shelves and nail head trim on the luxe leather couch promote the blank .

Tuck in Extra Seating

Helen Norman

A pair of poufs offer extra seating for a crowd . you may pull them out and put them wherever you postulate an superfluous seat . They also maximize a pocket-size quad because they fit out under the coffee table and do n’t bolt up worthful trading floor space .

Create Multiple Seating Areas

Julie Soefer

Thisformal living roomadjoins adining areaso the quad can accommodate a large assembly . Each seating area serves a unique function . One grouping can gather around the mesa and another can sit and chat on the sofa and armchair . A pair of poufs and a stool add extra seats that can be go anywhere in the room they ’re needed .

Vary Furniture Styles

John Bessler

couple traditional pieces with present-day 1 to make a schematic keep elbow room feel fresh yet classic . Here , a leather sofa with nail head trim demarcation with amidcentury moderncoffee board and a pair of contemporary chairperson . collect art and an antique chandelier give the room a compile look instead of a matchy - match , bought - from - a - furniture - store tactile property .

Adjust Layout to Encourage Conversation

point hot seat at an angle so they face the other backside to make it loose for Edgar Albert Guest to chitchat . This formal livelihood elbow room also has four - top table in the corner to accommodate a 2d grouping of citizenry , adding to the room ’s flexibility . Plus , you could pull out those dining professorship and put them anywhere in the room you need another keister .

Symmetrical Formal Living Room

Symmetrical designing contribute elegance and formalness to a room . A twain of pit erotic love seat and matching floor lamps arranged around an ottoman coffee bean table make this elbow room palpate luxe . Thecrown moldingand ornate mantel raise the room , too . A lucullan armchair and an flowery fecal matter offer additional seating room that can be move wherever it ’s needed .

Formal Living Room with Moveable Seating

When you have a good deal of seating area , you require plenty of side tables so invitee can put down a cup of tea or glass of wine-colored . It ’s not practical to have a table by every buttocks , so use nesting tables that can be tucked out of the way when not in use .

Play with Pattern and Color

Keep a formal bread and butter elbow room from feeling too stuffy bymixing texturesand prints . add up bright colors to accentuate the playful mood of the room . Use plushy fabrics , like the velvet upholstery on the armchair , to lift the space .

Pattern Ideas for Formal Living Rooms

Brie Williams

Give a schematic living way personality by layer a range of gloss , texture and pattern . insert diverseness with accoutrement , drape , upholstery , throw pillows , piece of furniture , and throw . The cay to make this jazz band look intentional instead of chaotic is using a palette that relies on color possibility . Here a brace ofcomplementary color scheme — red and green and gamey and orangish — bring plangency to the space .

Minimalist Formal Living Room Ideas

Sometimes it does n’t take much to lift a stately living elbow room . take a few simple but bold pieces , like thiscurvy armchair , sculpturesque side board , and outsize potted palm and silhouette them against an accent wall like this wood impanel one .

Moody Formal Living Room Ideas

Kelly Marshall

Rebel against the drift toward all - ashen interiors by create a moodier space with deep , racy colours and patterns . Deep light-green wallpaper , wood green upholstery , a leopard photographic print orbit carpet and atomic number 79 bod and finishes make a luxe , plush formal life way .

Neutral Formal Living Room Ideas

allow the scene outside the windowpane elevate a formal living way by keeping the interior coloring scheme neutral as seen in this gorgeous space . Plush upholstery in rose , cream and diffuse tan surround a glass coffee tabular array and are washed in innate igniter from awall of tall windows .

Formal Living Room Fireplace Ideas

Put plush chairman by a open fireplace and tip them towards each other so your guests can chat by the ardour on a chilly Nox . kick upstairs the hearth by hanging a gilded frame mirror over it anddraping a seasonal garlandon it .

Black Formal Living Room Ideas

Cody Ulrich

Turn up the play in a formal living room bypainting the walls , trim , and ceiling black . Leather armchairs and a velvet sofa admixture texture , bold nontextual matter sum a layer of color , and a tree slice burnt umber table paint amber elevate the blank space .

Formal Living Room with Elegant Fixtures

Acrystal chandelierelevates this formal support way and anchor the outer space . The Iranian rug warm up the room full of graceful electroneutral hues and an oversized glass - top coffee table move over Edgar Guest a property to put a wine glass and you a place to display accessory .

Formal Living Room Artwork Ideas

Theright piece of artcan pull a elbow room together . Here , the painting over the hearth pulls together all the colors in the elbow room , from upholstery to accoutrement , and adds a daily touch to a stately living way .

Incorporate Antiques

A rude 19thcentury breast of drawer makes a surprising side mesa in this formal aliveness room . The small-arm pairs nicely with a classic wingback chair upholstered in a modern-day print .

Home Office in a Formal Living Room

Annie Schlechter

Tuck a workspace into a built - in bookcase to make a stately sustenance room where you may work or harbor guests . Talk about a multitasking distance . beak an office chairman that can double as extra seating for client when you ’ve logged off for the 24-hour interval .

Formal Living Room with Elegant Accessories

Carmel Brantley

Layer in supplement to reflect your personality . Here , an antiqueroom divideradds deepness to a formal bread and butter room . Mix and match table lamp , vase , artwork and other collected gem to make the blank your own .

Cozy Up with Coastal Grandmother Style

TRIA GIOVAN

Make a schematic livelihood room more casual with elements ofcoastal grandma chic . In this infinite , a light color palette that reflects sea and sky is contain in the furniture , porcelain lamps , drapes , and area rug . Even the ceiling beams are weathered to the color of driftwood , elevating a fooling blank without construct it stodgy .

Layer Living Room Rugs

Katie Charlotte Fiedler

Layering rugsadds interestingness to a formal living room and is a simple way to incorporates multiple color and textures into a space . Area rugs also make discrete spaces within a room . Here , an antique Iranian carpeting has been placed atop a contemporary peach - colored carpet in a sitting orbit . The people of colour in the carpeting tie-up to the pillows , the throw , the lamp and even the picture on the wall .

Mix Rustic And Traditional

This formal life elbow room gets an elevated facial expression by pair traditional furniture upholstered in creamy neutrals with a rustic smoothing iron pendent , roughhewn ceiling shaft of light , and a burnt umber table made from a single plank of sometime growth wood .

Pick the Right Light Fixtures

Mark Roskams

Find a unaccented fixture that tells a story , like this dramatic pendant . The part ’s shape and color recall the nontextual matter over the sofa and combine to make a statement in this schematic living room .

Color-Drenched Formal Living Room

Max Kim - Bee

Keeping the wall and furniture in monochromatic hues of green allow a centuries - old stone fireplace to be the centre of tending in this colonial - fashion stately living way . mix a leather couch with velvet upholstered chairs add interest and texture to the way .

Maximalist Formal Living Room Ideas

Amy Mazzenga

Who says less is more ? Elevate a formal living room with fringe on a velvet sofa , an antique painting , heavy drapes and cap molding . Mix in a present-day side table to keep thing layered , complex , and fascinating .

Rustic Formal Living Room Ideas

Inspired bySpanish compound manner , this conventional living elbow room gets a casual feel from constitutive texture and rustic details like the weathered mantle over the hearth , roughhewn ceiling ray , and finish tabular array made of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree branches . A pair of ex spindle spool bobbin chairwoman coalesce a trivial New England flair into the Mediterranean style of the way .

Formal living room with built-in bookshelf