If your living room is feeling uninspiring and you want to improve the design credentials of your room, here are 5 ways to update a lounge.

1. Tiled Faux Chimney

This idea is perfect for a blank wall where you want to add visual interest. The floor to ceiling faux chimney draws your eye up the wall and makes the room feel taller. Tiling the chimney adds texture to your space, which can be really useful if your room is lacking in contrasting materials.

Demonstrating this nicely is this installation in Findon, where the rough textured split-faced brick tiles contrast with the gloss floor tiles. This brings a more natural, homely feeling to the space. Similarly you could introduce a pattern in the tiles if the rest of the room is plain, or a smooth surface if you have a shaggy carpet or rug on the floor.

This is a fireplace with patterned tiles AI mock-up for a client.

2. Chimney Built-ins or Alcove Joinery

If you have a chimney in your lounge, adding alcove joinery is a good idea. This creates useful storage in the room and allows you to add character and personality with your display items. A combination such as this one works well. The closed storage below hides away less pretty items, and your treasures can be displayed above.

In this installation in Horsham the shelves and mantlepiece are made from real oak, and the lower closed cupboards are paintable MDF. This helped to balance the budget and give a nice clean finish.

3. Plastered Faux Chimney with Recesses

The benefits of a vertical design feature in a lounge are relevant whatever the size of the room. Designing for this rectangular-shaped lounge the faux chimney provides a welcome focus point half-way down the room. In this Haywards Heath installation recesses were built to accommodate the television, an electric fire and a slim space at the base for logs.

Plastering the faux chimney and painting it the same colour as the wall gives a seamless finish, perfect for a modern lounge.

4. Built-in Cabinetry

A large piece of built-in joinery puts to use a plain wall in a lounge and adds a grand feeling to a space. Adding more furniture to a room helps it feel spacious as your eye is drawn to the outer points of the space, enabling you to appreciate its volume. Additionally, large furniture provides useful storage and display space in an organised, visually balanced way.

Designing bespoke built-in cabinetry allows you to organise the space to fit a specific collection or item exactly. In this Broadbridge Heath project the joinery was designed around this piece of artwork.

5. Colour or Wallpaper Feature Wall

The feature wall is still relevant and a very useful tool to up the design credentials for your lounge. The feature wall needs to tie in with the whole lounge design scheme, so think about how you relate the colour or the pattern to the rest of your room. Your brain ‘enjoys’ linking elements across a space, which is why you enjoy spending time there. Remember the colour scheme ratio rule and define your colour or materials palette before you start.

Designing for this lounge, the chimney is painted in Little Greene’s Pleat to contrast with the light-toned walls and sofas. This colour is repeated in the curtain and blind fabric to pull together the visual cues.

In this Horsham lounge example the chimney has been wallpapered in a small leaf print that is repeated on the opposite wall. The light green tone from the wallpaper is picked up in the carpet and accessories and contrasted with the dark green sofas.

Conclusion

Your lounge is where you spend the most time relaxing in your home, so improving your experience in there will positively impact your life at home.

Although these updates require the use of a carpenter and potentially other trades, they are relatively small projects that are likely to take a week to complete. The design impact on your lounge will be significant. This can set you up for layering in further design touches to complete your lounge update.

If you would like to undertake a project such as one of these five ways to improve a lounge – an interior designer is the perfect person to consult.

In the projects above I listened to how homeowners wanted their lounge to look and feel and then I created a design scheme which met their needs and included unique ideas. I project managed the carpentry, plastering, tiling and decorating so the clients had a stress-free experience. If this sounds like the kind of small project you would like to undertake in your home, please contact me using this form and I will be in touch about your very own transformation.

Many thanks to Janis at FTR Home Improvements for the joinery in these projects.