Many homeowners spend significant amounts of time living and entertaining in their living rooms. To ensure that your living room serves as an aesthetically pleasing place to do both of these things, take care when decorating this space. By creating an area for gathering, and placing uncommon, attention-getting accents in your living room, you can set it apart and make your primary room to live in more distinctive and reflective of you as a designer.

Striped Accent Wall

Create a focal point and an aesthetically uncommon accent wall in your living room space. Many home decorators opt to create an accent wall by painting one wall in their space a dominant hue. To make your space unique, modify this practice and paint your accent wall with stripes. Use two contrasting hues for your stripes, or opt for two shades of the same hue to create continuity while still focusing on one dominant color.

Bold-Print Accent Pillows

Dress up your living room sofa with the addition of some bold accent pillows. Regardless what aesthetic you are working to create in your room, you can find accent pillows in a bold hue to fit with the theme. For example, if your living room is decorated in French provincial style, place busy floral pillows on your solid-colored sofa. If your room is more contemporary in nature, opt for geometric prints in bright colors on a white or gray sofa. By using accent pillows to add dramatic color, you can bring excitement to your space without creating a busy room.

Rug-Defined Seating Area

Create focus in your living room by using a rug to define the seating area. Select a rug sized appropriately to fit into your space, and flank it with your seating pieces. When picking your rug, ensure that it is small enough that it doesn’t overpower your room, yet large enough that it doesn’t look too petite and out of place. This practice is particularly apt if you have laminate or hardwood flooring as the addition of a rug can add softness to your space.

Shadow-Box Wall Art

Step away from the standard wall hangings by creating shadow-box wall art. Instead of selecting pictures to hang on your wall, purchase small shadow boxes and cluster them on a living room wall. Place vases, sculptures or other accents in these boxes to create a dimension-rich wall display to add visual interest.

Glass Accent Display

Add some detail to your living room coffee table without making the surface look cluttered. Create a glass accent display using glass containers of an assortment of shapes and sizes. Assemble these containers in the center of your coffee table, and fill them with plastic gemstones, small glass beads or attractive marbles. This coffee table accent will glimmer and draw attention without looking overdone. And this concept can be used to enhance both contemporary or traditional living spaces.