5 modern living rooms we love

Give your living room a swish, modern update with some inspiration from our favourite living spaces

As the living room is the largest space in the house, it makes sense to invest a considerable amount of time and effort to ensure it looks a certain way. The idea is to move away from clutter and crowding the space with a lot of accessories for a more streamlined, minimal look. This not only makes the space look bigger but will also give you room to move around freely.
The modern living room typically has only the bare essentials – sofa, centre table, rug and armchairs in terms of furniture. Accents are kept minimal, just enough to fill in larger gaps.

For more inspirations on styling a modern living room, browse through our gallery below

Take cues from Anjali Mangalgiri’s sleek all white living room with a linear visual impact. We love how the sideboard, long central bench and sofa line up. Also, the bright purple injects a healthy dose of colour, complemented by the freshness of the greens in the corner.

An interesting way of using up corners is to go vertical – a smart trick employed in this house. The long chandelier in the corner doesn’t just light up the room, but also doubles up as a focal point. Cushions, chairs and ceiling have been cleverly used to inject colour into the white space. Keep the furniture to a minimum to avoid crowding the space.

The star of Jason Wadhwani’s living room is the chevron print rug, which immediately pulls the eye and sets the tone for the black and white colour scheme used throughout. The L-shaped seating arrangement, completed with a sofa and two pouffes forms the larger part of the seating area. Alternately, you can replace the monochrome rug for a bright, solid colour one for a dramatic effect.

Having a modern living room doesn’t mean you have to forego colour. For instance, Swapan Seth’s vast living room is a light grey, offset by a powder pink, L-shaped sofa. We love the linear side table propped with an alchemist’s tools, which makes for an edgy décor choice. Also, a handy tip to decorate barren walls is to fill them with artwork – either in monochrome or technicolour.