9 Living Room Design Ideas Designers Swear By

You want to refresh your living room design, but the idea of hiring an interior designer or contractor to revamp the space sounds daunting (and expensive)? Before you resign to spending yet another evening in a lackluster living room consider this: It’s possible to transform the core room in your home with a modest budget and minimal heavy lifting. Noz Nozawa, principal designer and owner of Noz Design, knows that little bit of design savvy can go a long way. “You can absolutely make meaningful improvements to your living space without completely overhauling what you have today,” the San Francisco–based designer says. Nozawa has rearranged, re-painted, and replaced items in her living room more times than she can remember.

Susannah Watts, owner and lead designer at Swatts & Co Design Studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan, echoes the sentiment that an outdated space can be spruced up with new living room design ideas. “You don’t need to knock down walls to knock the socks off your visitors,” she says. “A little paint, a little pattern, and a lot of daring and funky additions can totally recast a space.”

Ready to renewed and improve a living room space? Below, interior designers reveal their go-to tricks that update living room design without trying too hard.

Highlight the coolest feature

Pinpoint the main feature of a living room and draw attention to it, Watts recommends. It could be a fireplace, unique ceiling molding, a cool light fixture, or even not-so-boring window sills. Work with what you already have. “The options [for updates] are endless,” she says. To spruce up a run-of-the-mill brick fireplace, Watts’s design team painted the brick a metallic silver and added tiles around the hearth.

Rearrange furniture