The Cure for Houzz Envy: Living Room Touches Anyone Can Do

In case you’re catching up, this series is about treating Acute Houzz Envy. This problem occurs when you look at beautifully styled photos of well-appointed rooms for a long time and feel forlorn and hopeless about your own home. The treatment is to borrow great ideas from the photos that you can do for little or no money.

Today we’ll be looking at the living room and how to channel our Houzz envy into sprucing it up into a space you’ll be extra proud of. Take a look at your own living room, then come back and see if any of these ideas spark anything. Let us know what you did, and please add any of your own tips in the Comments.

More Houzz envy cures: In the kitchen | In the dining room | In the guest room

Be comfortable. Before we start, let’s get real. A formal living room does not have to be fit for serving the Queen of England her tea. It needs to be inviting and comfortable. As long as your items are neat and well organized, they aren’t really clutter.


There are no hard and fast rules about what to display. Throw your ideas about living rooms out the window — no Ming vases or museum-quality artworks are required here. Unexpected items can be living room–worthy; this room looks brilliant, and there is an anvil on the mantel.

Shop your own home for a great new look


Approach your coffee table with a stylist’s eye. If you have a large table, you may want to mix stacks of books with flowers, your favorite glossy magazines and a tray. An antique box can be a great place in which to corral the remotes, a notepad and pen, and coasters.





Get the lighting right. Think about the time you spend in the living room. Do you avoid curling up with a book or catalog because there isn’t good reading light? Rearrange table and floor lamps, or steal some from another room to use in here. When it comes to table lamps, get the scale and height right with side tables.

How do you set the mood for guests? Would candlelight help? Swipe candlesticks from the dining room and play around with them, or hit Ikea or Pier One and pick up inexpensive tea lights and glass holders for them.

Learn more about how to get your lighting right


Give symmetry a try. You don’t have to have a perfect reflection of one side of the room on the other, but a general balance is very pleasing. Note the matching side tables, lamps, artwork and pillows along the back wall of this room. That is just enough symmetry to give the space a pleasingly balanced feeling.


Line things up. If your room is lacking artwork, create a series from favorite photographs. For example, it’s easy to turn some of your favorite personal photos into black and whites and frame them all with the same ready-made frames and mats.


Create a gallery wall. Grouping favorite photos, prints and other artworks makes for a pleasing composition that feels tied together.

Get more tips for arranging a gallery wall


I suggested this for the dining room as well; maps or flora and fauna plates from vintage books can be turned into a stunning collection of prints for a wall.


Layer rugs. If a favorite hand-me-down rug doesn’t seem like the right size for your living room, use it atop a larger natural-fiber rug to define a smaller area.

Learn more tips for layering rugs


Shine up the brass and silver. This takes some elbow grease, but it will make you appreciate your beautiful items all over again.


Restyle your shelves. First, empty all of your shelves and lay everything out in piles on the floor or a nearby table. If you have a lot of books, check out this guide on how to declutter your library. Give all of those shelves and objects a thorough dusting. Place some of your favorites back first, perhaps one per shelf. Step back. Do you want to keep filling, or do you like the spare look?

You can stick with a collection of one type of object (antique crocks, glassware, birdhouses … whatever you love) or mix in bowls, vases, books, sculptures and framed images. The key is to experiment a lot and keep stepping back to check out your work.

More tips for stylish shelves


Arrange plates on plate stands. OK, it’s become sort of a joke for me that I am going to suggest arranging plates in every room at this point. I just happen to come across great photos for each room that uses them, and I cannot stop myself.


Paint the shelves. You may want to paint only the backs of the shelves, or cover the backs, sides and shelves themselves, as you see here (it depends how they are trimmed out). Choose an accent color that will provide a backdrop for the kinds of things you like to display here.


Or wallpaper the backs of the shelves. I recommend this only if they are fairly spare. If the shelves are chockablock full (and there’s nothing wrong with that), the wallpaper will be blocked.

Here’s where Houzzer comments are such a huge help: In a previous Houzz envy ideabook, you suggested using cut-to-fit foam-core boards wrapped in a favorite wallpaper or other quality paper for a great look.


Rearrange your mantel. As with shelves, there are no rules for arranging the mantel. In fact, I was just thinking that a lot of designers tell me that grouping things in odd numbers is best. Then I looked at the photo I’d chosen as a favorite mantel and realized everything is grouped in even numbers (two candlesticks, two framed photos, four vases). So rules — throw them out the window. Having said that, my only rule is to keep stepping back to admire your work and assess where adjustments are needed.

Inspired ways to refresh the mantel


One large piece in the center with items balanced on either side is an easy way to start.


If a large piece of artwork or mirror is hung over a mantel, you may want to keep the mantel empty, or at least sparse.


Lighten up the draperies. Maybe you have heavy drapes you’re tired of, or you’ve been waiting to save money for something custom made. This is a solution that can go from temp to perm. Some of my favorite plain white window coverings came from Ikea; they cost $14 per pair, and the length is easy to adjust.


Add an unexpected texture. When it comes to living rooms, some might think everything has to be polished and luxe. Not so — look at how this driftwood mirror serves as a striking focal point in this elegant room.


Set up a bar cart. A well-appointed cocktail station adds a festive touch. It also lets you come home and feel like you’re on an awesome 1980s nighttime soap, like Dynasty. You come in from work, take off your coat, and some dark liquor is just waiting to be served in that beautiful crystal. If you don’t have a cart, a side table with a lower shelf will serve you just fine.

See how to spruce up a bar cart


Neaten up the fireplace area. Find a good way to arrange the tools; keep wood and kindling in a neat stack, in a bucket or other log holder; and keep things neatly swept.


Corral loose clutter in baskets. If toys, magazines, work stuff you like to keep handy, electronic devices or other items are cluttering up the living room, an easy system is to employ baskets.


Arrange your pillows artfully. It’s fun — swap them around, try out some from other rooms, maybe pick up a new cover or two in a new color to add to the mix. (You can just put them over those throw pillows you’re sick of.) Once you’ve mastered that, fold up your throw and try it in different places — over the back of the sofa, draped over the back of a wingback chair or “casually” tossed over the sofa’s arm. Sometimes looking casual isn’t so casual.


Finally, enjoy it. If you have a separate living room and family room, you may keep the living room rug perfectly vacuumed, with perfectly karate-chopped pillows, and use it only once in a blue moon. It’s a waste. While you may want some clear-liquids-only types of rules, the living room is a lovely place to gather in and enjoy. Haul some games, books and magazines in there and take advantage of all your hard work.

More: Simple Pleasures: Game Night Done Right

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