5 Designer-Approved Ways to Decorate a Large Living Room Without Breaking the Bank

We all love a spacious living room, but too much of a good thing comes with its own set of challenges. If you’re looking to decorate such a large space, but want to do it on a budget, there are affordable ways to make the room feel cozy.

We asked three designers to share their best large living room decorating tips with our readers, and they delivered. These ideas will make a big impact on a small budget.

Create a Focal Point With Art

If you want to add art to an expansive wall, you have two options. You can anchor the canvas with large art, or you can group several smaller pieces together to make a gallery wall that serves as the room’s focal point. Both approaches are designer-approved, but the latter option takes a little more effort to get just right.

“I prefer a more straightforward approach to displaying art,” Eric Ross, founder and principal of Eric Ross Interiors, says. “I like larger art on larger walls, or a concise series of 6 to 9 in a very organized grouping.”

Danielle Domingues, owner and principal of Collins and Co. Interiors, echoes this sentiment and points out that large-scale pieces give your eyes a place to rest.

“Not only does this create a sense of calm, but it helps to make the room feel more intimate,” she says.

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Stick With Solid-Colored Walls

When it comes to wall treatments in a large living room, interior designer Laurie Gorelick always suggests going with a solid paint color. Not only can applying wallpaper in a large room add up in price, but it can actually overwhelm the space.

“I prefer not to use patterned wallpaper in a large living room,” she says. “It’s better to keep the walls a single color, perhaps with contrasting trim, than to search for wallpaper of the right scale that won’t compete with furniture.”

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun with wallpaper. Gorelick says solid-colored, slightly textured wallpaper can add interest to the space without looking too busy. Or, use your ceiling as a plane for a little pattern play and apply wallpaper there.

Accessorize With Pattern

Don’t avoid patterns entirely when decorating your large living room. In fact, Ross highly recommends infusing prints into a space to make it feel cozy, personalized, and lived-in.

“Solids take a more trained eye to create a layered effect,” he says. “I love prints and patterns because they can quickly achieve a more approachable look.”

Fabric is a wonderful and affordable way to apply patterns in a living room. Think upholstered furniture, throw pillows and blankets, curtains, and rugs.

Create Separate Zones

As with any big project, break up the task of furnishing your large living room into smaller pieces, or as Domingues puts it, zones.

“Furnishing a large living room can feel a bit daunting at first, but the key is to think in zones rather than trying to fill the space all at once,” she says.

For example, start by prioritizing your main seating area. If you’re left with extra space once you set up your sofa and accent chairs, look for an opportunity to create a secondary seating area as soon as your budget allows.

“This could be a pair of chairs by the fireplace, a reading nook near a window, or even a game table tucked into a corner,” Domingues says. “These smaller zones not only make the room feel thoughtfully designed, but they also give the space flexibility for different types of gatherings and everyday use.”

Complementary rugs can also do wonders to visually anchor two separate zones in a cohesive way, and Domingues suggests keeping a similar color scheme in both areas.

Bigger Furnishings are (Mostly) Better

When decorating a large living room, it’s much easier to make the mistake of selecting rugs, furniture, light fixtures, and art that are too small for the space rather than too large—but there are some caveats here.

“Scale is important, but I find people buy larger pieces for larger spaces, but don’t consider how many people need to be able to sit in a room,” Ross says. “So, they’ll have a large sofa and two large chairs, but that only seats four adults. Six is the minimum number you want to easily seat in a [living] room.”

This is why Ross warns against excluding smaller pieces of upholstery, which would allow more seats to fit into the space.

When it comes to rug size, Gorelick recommends keeping an 18- to 24-inch distance between the edge of the rug and the perimeter of the room.

If your budget doesn’t allow for a rug this big, Domingues has a workaround.

“You can have wall-to-wall carpeting cut to size and the edges bound, whipstitched, or trimmed in a myriad of different ways,” she says. “And often at a fraction of the cost.”