Living Room Decor

Around the end of October the living room starts to feel wrong. Nothing changed in the room. The light did. It’s dark by six, the overhead light is suddenly doing all the work, and a room that felt airy in July feels bare. You don’t need new furniture to fix that. Most of what makes a room feel right in winter is light, texture and where things sit. Here’s the order I’d tackle it in, over one weekend. ...

Carved pumpkins are done by the first week of November. Painted ones aren’t. A pumpkin with no cuts in it can sit on a shelf or a table for six weeks or more, which is why I’d rather paint than carve when the goal is decorating rather than a jack-o’-lantern for one night. The other reason: if you choose your colors right, the same pumpkins carry you from Halloween straight through Thanksgiving. ...

In December the light is gone by five o’clock, and a room lit only by its ceiling light feels bleak. String lights fix that faster than anything. And they don’t need a tree: some of the best uses of Christmas lights are nowhere near one. A few rules first, then the ideas. Three rules Warm white only. Cool white LEDs look blue and harsh indoors. Look for “warm white,” around 2700K. Colored lights are lovely on a tree, but around the rest of the room they quickly become a lot. ...

A rental living room usually comes with beige walls, a ceiling light that’s too bright, blinds instead of curtains and floors you didn’t choose. You can’t change much permanently, but a few things that come with you when you move make the biggest difference. Curtains, hung high Almost every rental has blinds and nothing else. Add linen curtains (on Amazon) on a rod mounted as close to the ceiling as you can and a little wider than the window. The window looks bigger and the room looks taller. A few screw holes for a rod are usually considered normal wear, but check your lease; tension rods work if you can’t drill. ...

Taking Christmas down in the first week of January can leave a room feeling bare, right when it’s coldest and darkest outside. You don’t have to go straight from full Christmas to nothing. Take down what’s clearly Christmas, keep what’s just winter, and the apartment stays cozy until March. What comes down Anything red and green together Stockings, Santas, reindeer, nutcrackers Ornaments and the tree, if you had one Christmas-print pillows and towels Anything with “merry” or “noel” written on it Pack ornaments into a divided box (on Amazon) so they’re not broken next year, and wreaths into a wreath bag (on Amazon). ...

Fall in a living room is mostly about texture and light, not orange. A room with heavier fabrics, lower lighting and a few natural things on the surfaces feels like autumn even without a pumpkin in sight. Then a couple of pumpkins on top of that look like a choice rather than a theme. Change the fabrics first Pillow covers. Swap two or three covers for something with texture: corduroy (on Amazon), wool, velvet, chunky knit. Rust, olive, camel and cream all work, and none of them shout “fall” so they can stay out until spring. Covers are cheaper than new pillows and store flat. ...

Everyone takes a picture of the table before they sit down. Most of us set it in a hurry while the rolls are in the oven, though. A table that looks effortless is mostly a matter of layers: linen on linen, a low centerpiece, candles at the right height. None of it needs a florist. The base 1. Two layers of linen. A plain cloth in cream, oatmeal or soft grey, with a runner (on Amazon) in a different texture on top: burlap on linen, plaid wool on cotton. Too narrow a runner disappears under the centerpiece; too wide and it crowds the plates. ...

In December the sideboard does a lot of work: extra plates, the dessert, the candles that didn’t fit on the table. Decorating it is mostly about planning for that, so there’s still room to set a dish down. A sideboard is low and long, so it needs some height. The wall above it does half the job. The base A garland along the top. A faux garland (on Amazon) the length of the sideboard, hanging 4 to 6 inches over each end. Everything else sits in it. Faux rather than fresh, because fresh garland drops needles into the food. Fluff every branch out before you start; a thin garland makes everything on it look thin. ...

A Thanksgiving mantel is about plenty rather than sparkle: wheat, pumpkins, dried leaves, candlelight. It’s hard to get wrong. And since Christmas decorating starts more or less the day after Thanksgiving, it’s worth setting the mantel up so it can change over without starting from scratch. Harvest Wheat and pumpkins. Dried wheat (on Amazon) laid along the mantel with small white, orange and green pumpkins (on Amazon) between and three pillar candles at different heights. Dried wheat costs very little and keeps for years. ...

Friendsgiving can be looser than the family version. Nobody’s checking the place settings, half the food comes from other people’s kitchens, and it’s usually in an apartment without enough chairs. So the decor should be relaxed, and some of it should help the potluck run smoothly. Keep it casual Eat on the floor. If there aren’t enough chairs, don’t pretend there are. Layer blankets and rugs in the middle of the living room, put floor cushions (on Amazon) and pillows around a low coffee table, and you can fit ten people in a studio. It also looks great in photos. ...