Decorating an Open Plan Living Space
When it comes to decorating your house, you may sometimes find yourself looking around the room and wishing it was bigger.
It would have more light, you could do more with it, fit more things in it - there are any number of reasons why people go for open plan living.
In the end, it is entirely up to you, but the fact is that when it comes to decorating, you can't beat an open plan arrangement for letting the maximum amount of light into every corner of your home.
An open plan arrangement is ideal for making your home as light as possible, so if you like light, go open plan and remember to decorate with maximum light in mind.
This means choosing light colors.
Make the walls, floor and ceiling as pale as possible, as well your main pieces of furniture.
Without large amounts of dark color the area will look more open and more continuous.
White and cream are excellent base colors, as you can then use any color as an accent.
Accents are important when you have a large, open space, particularly when it comes to breaking it up into distinct areas.
The fact is that you will be doing different things in different parts of your open plan living area, so it is important to break it up where necessary and you can achieve this with careful use of accents and decorative objects.
For example, on a long continuous wall, place a series of framed photos or pictures in a group where you wish to create a boundary of sorts between two areas.
The pictures will break up the wall into two parts, helping to create the impression of two separate areas, even though in reality there will be no boundary between the two.
Area rugs are also excellent ways of separating different parts of a space.
A large rug can be placed in an area, in front of the seating in the living area, for instance - the seating can even be placed on top of it if the rug is large enough.
This will lead the eye to believe that the seating area ends where the rug does, making it a self-contained area even without the existence of walls.
Alternatively, you can put down a group of rugs to achieve the same effect.
For instance, a group of four rugs evenly spaced with small gaps in between will give the overall impression of one large rug for the same effect.
What you do with your living space is entirely up to you, but some spaces simply lend themselves to open plan living while others do not.
It is of course your decision whether you decide to go open plan or not.
The results can be extremely impressive but the emphasis should always be on light and ease of movement, otherwise you will end up with a very cluttered space which doesn't look open plan, even if there are no separating walls at all.
The idea is to have only minimal separation of the different areas, a mental division of living from eating from cooking, rather than actual physical barriers.
It would have more light, you could do more with it, fit more things in it - there are any number of reasons why people go for open plan living.
In the end, it is entirely up to you, but the fact is that when it comes to decorating, you can't beat an open plan arrangement for letting the maximum amount of light into every corner of your home.
An open plan arrangement is ideal for making your home as light as possible, so if you like light, go open plan and remember to decorate with maximum light in mind.
This means choosing light colors.
Make the walls, floor and ceiling as pale as possible, as well your main pieces of furniture.
Without large amounts of dark color the area will look more open and more continuous.
White and cream are excellent base colors, as you can then use any color as an accent.
Accents are important when you have a large, open space, particularly when it comes to breaking it up into distinct areas.
The fact is that you will be doing different things in different parts of your open plan living area, so it is important to break it up where necessary and you can achieve this with careful use of accents and decorative objects.
For example, on a long continuous wall, place a series of framed photos or pictures in a group where you wish to create a boundary of sorts between two areas.
The pictures will break up the wall into two parts, helping to create the impression of two separate areas, even though in reality there will be no boundary between the two.
Area rugs are also excellent ways of separating different parts of a space.
A large rug can be placed in an area, in front of the seating in the living area, for instance - the seating can even be placed on top of it if the rug is large enough.
This will lead the eye to believe that the seating area ends where the rug does, making it a self-contained area even without the existence of walls.
Alternatively, you can put down a group of rugs to achieve the same effect.
For instance, a group of four rugs evenly spaced with small gaps in between will give the overall impression of one large rug for the same effect.
What you do with your living space is entirely up to you, but some spaces simply lend themselves to open plan living while others do not.
It is of course your decision whether you decide to go open plan or not.
The results can be extremely impressive but the emphasis should always be on light and ease of movement, otherwise you will end up with a very cluttered space which doesn't look open plan, even if there are no separating walls at all.
The idea is to have only minimal separation of the different areas, a mental division of living from eating from cooking, rather than actual physical barriers.
Source...