These are the very best 31 small apartment living room ideas that will take your living room from cramped to comfortable.
Designing a small living room can be a daunting task. You may be looking at your space and thinking “there is absolutely no way I can make this room both look stylish and feel comfortable with such little room.”
While there is a fine line between maximizing your living space and crowding your room, the good news is that even the smallest living rooms can be comfortable and functional with the right planning.
Here are 31 breath-taking small apartment living room ideas that are guaranteed to kickstart your small living room design planning into gear.
This post is all about small apartment living room ideas.
BEST SMALL APARTMENT LIVING ROOM IDEAS:
1. Small Apartment Living Room Layout
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See how stunning even this small living room is? Keeping your living room light and airy is a guaranteed way to give the illusion of a bigger room. Use a small sofa that seats 2-3 people comfortably but doesn’t take up the majority of your living room. This is a small living room layout that can be replicated in any style!
2. Minimalistic Table Decor
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While you want to use decor in your living room to prevent it from looking bare, you really don’t need to go overboard with your decor! Pick a few picture frames, lamps, and coffee table books that you like and organize them on your coffee tables or cabinets. This is a simple but stunning way to decorate your living room that won’t clutter up the look of your space.
PS. Coffee table books are one of the most popular ways to style on top of living room furniture but they can be priceyyy (no idea why). If you want to save money you can always find cheap books at Goodwill or use ones you already have lying around by flipping the covers inside out or removing the sleeve entirely. This is a cheap hack that gives you the same stunning look but at 1/10 of the cost!
3. Wall Shelves
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Buy on Etsy
If you are working with a small living space you have most likely already considered wall shelves. They give you extra storage space as well as shelving to decorate with frames and other decor.
So with that being said, you’re probably on board with using wall shelves and this small living room inspiration is the perfect example of how to flawlessly use them in your space. Plus, most wall shelves are completely renter-friendly!
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4. Use An Entryway Piece Behind Your Couch
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Buy on Home Depot
When I was designing my apartment living room I was initially thinking there was no way I would end up with a living room I loved this much. Did it take a ton of patience, searching furniture websites for hours, and trial and error? Yes. But did I end up with a stunning living room that I can both entertain friends and family and cuddle up alone to watch Netflix in? I sure think so!
The key to designing a small living room is knowing exactly how you want to use your space and sticking with furniture and decor to support that goal. In general, you can’t go wrong with a comfy sectional, coffee table, and throw pillows/blankets. One of the best decisions I made in my living room was this black “entryway table” that I used behind the couch. Using an entryway table behind your sectional will give you extra storage space as well as a “side table” to put drinks on when sitting on your couch.
If you want to see allll the furniture and decor I bought to decorate my small apartment living room, you can check out the post here:
{RELATED POST: Apartment Living Room Tour}
5. Mount Your TV And Decorate Your Console
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Buy on West Elm
It is always a good idea to mount your TV, but especially if you are designing a small living room. Mounting your TV clears space on your TV console that you can use to decorate with. Plus, doing this will hide unsightly wires that would otherwise clutter up the look of your space.
6. Incorporate Natural Light
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Buy on Target
Buy on Target
Want to know the best way to create the illusion of a bigger room? PS. It’s free!! Just incorporate natural light into your space!
Natural lighting instantly brightens up your room to make it feel much larger and more inviting. If you have windows in your living room you 100% need to be taking advantage of them.
7. Scale Furniture To Your Space
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Buy on Target
Buy on Wayfair
While this living room may look huge, it really isn’t that much larger than many standard apartment living rooms! The key to this illusion is the use of smaller furniture and natural lighting.
When working with a small living room, don’t buy huge furniture! Purchase furniture scaled to or smaller than your space so that there is ample open space. This will make your living room feel 10X bigger and save you money. Opt for smaller pieces to save your wallet and your living room space!
8. Maximize Storage With Baskets
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Buy on Target
You can never go wrong with using baskets in any room, especially living rooms! Baskets are the perfect way to keep your living space organized and clutter-free in the most stylish way possible!
9. Create An Accent Wall
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Buy on Urbanwalls
While creating an accent wall may not magically make your room bigger, it is one small apartment living room idea that can be done in literally any sized room! Depending on your style, buy peel and stick wallpaper or decals to place on a wall in your living room. This is a fun and easy way to create an eye-catching centerpiece in your space that is completely renter-friendly!
10. Buy A Cushioned Coffee Table To Double As Seating
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Buy on Joss & Main
Make the most of your small apartment living room by buying furniture that doubles its use! You will definitely need a coffee table in your living room so why not buy one that can be used as a footrest or additional seating as well?
If you do decide to use a cloth coffee table, make sure to buy a serving tray to steady decor and drinks on as well!
11. Renter-Friendly Shelving
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Buy on Songmics
Want to make the most of your living room space? Purchase free-standing shelving! While you can’t build shelving into your apartment walls, you can add a ton of extra storage and decorating space by using furniture with shelves.
You can buy this exact shelving unit from Songmics or a smaller but similar version like this one from Amazon!
12. Create A Dining Area Behind Your Couch
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Buy on Target
Buy on Walmart
Even the tiniest living rooms can have a functioning dining area with the right furniture and layout! Buy a small dining table and use it in the area behind your couch or any other free space in your living room. Use a padded bench for comfortable seating that can easily be pushed under your dining table when you aren’t using it.
13. Floor Plants
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Plants are every interior designer’s go-to recommendation when it comes to designing a space. Want a pop of color in your room? Add a plant. Need to fill the space in the corner of your wall? Add a plant. See? You just can’t go wrong.
If you want to spruce up your plants even more, place them in a wicker basket to add to their design and keep your floors clean from water and dirt.
14. Tiny Living Room Furniture Layout
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Buy on Pottery Barn
Buy on Overstock
Okay, now this is about as small as apartment living rooms get but this space still looks so comfortable and open! This small apartment living room idea is one you can fully take inspiration from while planning the layout of your room. All you need to recreate this is a small sectional, small coffee table, and a couple of chairs. You will have ample seating space for you and your guests as well as a cozy lounging area for binging TV series that will make you completely forget about the size of your living room.
15. Mix And Match Pillows
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Buy on Target
Buy on Target
Your living room pillows 100% do not all have to match (they look better if they don’t actually!) Have fun mixing and matching different patterns and colors with your pillows. Target, Home Goods, Amazon, and Society 6 are always safe bets when it comes to throwing pillow purchases.
16. Hanging Pendant Lights
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Buy on Serena & Lily
If you are designing a lounge area in your sunroom/patio, this is the exact inspiration you need! If not, it’s okay most of us don’t have the luxury of sunrooms in our apartment either.
The good news is that you can still take stunning inspiration from this outdoor living room design. This is a small living room layout that can be recreated with a couple of stools that function as side tables, an L-shaped sectional, and a buffet-style table.
Aside from the layout, the focus of this living room is the eye-catching pendant lighting. While some pendant lighting requires built-in electrical outlets, you can also find many that are renter-friendly!
17. Use A Small Accent rug
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Buy on Pottery Barn
While your first instinct may be to buy a huge rug to cover the majority of your living room, many times using a smaller rug can actually make the rest of your living room look bigger. Using a smaller rug will give the illusion of a divided space in your living room that you can use to create a dining area or leave as open walking space.
Long explanation short, use a larger rug if you want to fill the space in your room (or just really hate the color of your apartment floors) and a smaller rug if you want to create separate spaces in your living area.
18. Simple Entryway Design
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Buy on Target
Here is my entryway decor if you need a little inspiration for yours! I kept pretty simple decorating with a few large frames and minimalistic table decor. This has kept the look of my entryway clean and organized as well as given me the ability to decorate with different holiday decor during the seasons. If you love the look of this entryway, I have an entire post dedicated to my entryway design so that you can find all the furniture and decor I used!
{RELATED POST: Apartment Entryway Tour}
19. Add A Pop Of Color With An Accent Couch
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Looking to add color to your living room? Add a fun colored couch! Statement furniture has become super popular in the past couple of years so it should be no surprise that it ended up being on the list of small apartment living room ideas!
Green isn’t your thing? Totally understand. You can still add color contrast by using furniture in colors such as pastel pink, blue, or even dark grey!
20. Neutral Colored Living Room Aesthetic
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Buy on Home Depot
Buy on Pottery Barn
If you are an avid reader, you know just how much BSL loves neutral color pallets when it comes to home design. This small apartment living room is the perfect combination of boho and minimalist design that you will love the look of in your apartment.
In general, neutral colors are always a safe bet when it comes to buying pieces for your home that you can guarantee will never go out of style. Plus, it gives you a blank pallet to accent with throw pillows, lamps, rugs, and blankets.
21. Small Living Room Furniture Design
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Buy on Target
Buy on Target
Here is another one of those small apartment living room ideas you won’t be able to get out of your head (in a good way). Between the plush rug and the natural wood elements, this living room is one you are guaranteed to want to copy.
While this living room has a little western twist added to it with the horse and cactus photos, you can replace the pictures inside the frames with photos you like better. Regardless of the contents inside the frames, this is the perfect neutral-colored living room inspiration!
22. Create Additional Seating With Floor Poofs
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What is one thing you can always count on when it comes to planning a small living room design? Floor poofs!
Additional seating is frequently needed in living rooms especially if you plan on hosting friends or family. Floor poofs are an inexpensive alternative to love seats that can easily be moved around and stored with no effort at all!
23. Easy Gallery Wall
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Gallery walls are the perfect way to cover blank wall space and make your living room feel homier. Create a gallery wall using a set of frames and include your favorite photos inside. This is something you can do in any sized living room so be sure to add this to your list of small apartment living room ideas!
24. Use Floor Mirrors To Maximize The Look Of Your Space
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Buy on Target
Every interior designer’s best advice: use mirrors to make any room feel bigger. Mirrors reflect light that brightens up your space and tricks the eye into thinking the room is bigger than it actually is.
Aside from the science behind why mirrors are one of the best small apartment living room ideas, floor mirrors are an aesthetic furniture piece that everyone should have in their living room (because who doesn’t love a good OOTD?)
25. Decorate A Bar Cart
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Bar carts are an insanely popular small apartment living room idea because of their functionality and style. You can use a bar cart to organize and design a stylish area for alcohol, or you can use it to organize blankets and other items.
This is how I designed my bar cart and I am absolutely in love with it. With a few cocktail books, bar utensils, glasses, and picture frames, you can recreate one just like it! I have an entire post on my bar cart decor here:
{RELATED POST: How I Decorated My Bar Cart To Look Expensive (While Sticking To A Budget)}
26. Or Have A Mini Bar Cart
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Buy on Target
Don’t have room for a full-sized bar cart? No worries! Just use a smaller-sized cart. Amazon and Target both have a ton of small bar carts that you can style as side tables or storage.
27. Decorate Your Entryway Table With Large Frames
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Buy on Target
If your living room is right off the front entrance of your apartment, you need to be including entryway decor in your small apartment living room ideas. Target has hundreds of insanely trendy pieces that will liven up your entryway.
{RELATED POST: How To Make A Small Living Room Bigger | 7 Life Changing Tips To Elevate Your Space}
28. Budget-Friendly Entryway Design
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Want to spice up your entryway on a budget? This is the perfect inspiration for your design. Using wall shelves as a replacement for an entryway table will save you space and money but serve just as well by your front door.
29. Create An Accent Wall With Wallpaper
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This black and white polka dot wallpaper has been all the craze in the design world this year. From college apartments to trendy homeowners, peel and stick wallpaper is the go-to way to create accent walls in any room without the hassle of applying glue. So, if you are looking for small apartment living room ideas that won’t cost you your security deposit this is the perfect solution.
30. Make Your Coffee Table Your Centerpiece
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Buy on Target
A stunning coffee table like this one is most definitely the perfect statement piece to use in any living room. To be honest, high-quality furniture like this usually is priced at upwards of $1000 so this coffee table from Target (although still a little pricey) is a great deal.
If you love the idea of using a coffee table as the centerpiece of your living room but just can’t get past the price, there are thousands of other options online that will give you a similar look. Check Facebook Marketplace for statement pieces too!
31. Use A Floor Lamp To Create Additional Lighting
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Buy on Target
If you don’t have room for a side table to put lamps on, resort to floor lamps! These not only provide ample additional lighting but also enhance the design of your space! Don’t ask why floor lamps look expensive… they just do .
This post was all about small apartment living room ideas.
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The post 31 Awe-Inspiring Small Apartment Living Room Ideas For Even The Tiniest Spaces appeared first on By Sophia Lee.
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