The living room is the heart of the home — where families gather to play, talk, and spend quality time together. In many homes, the living room is the first thing visitors see as you welcome them into your home, while the basement might be the last room they see. (although that doesn’t mean you should neglect its design!) Most often though, the living room is the room we stumble into after a long day’s work for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.

Because the living room is central to the home, putting time and décor into your living room design can make the whole house feel more welcoming and comfortable, even if it’s just a small space. There are all kinds of ways to update your living room, from changing the home décor to repainting. Here’s how you can upgrade your living room into the perfect space for you.

Know Your Design Preferences

Before you go all out hitting the local department store for new home décor and make plans for renovating your living room, give careful thought to how you want it to look. Think like an interior designer. There are lots of different designs, depending on your preferences.

Do you like a busy room, full of mementos and decorations? Or do you lean more toward minimalism? Pinterest is your friend — scroll online looking at different living room setups to see what sparks your interest.

With that aside, let’s get into some budget-friendly interior design tips!

Tip 1: Curate Your Own Gallery Wall

Not only are gallery walls a great way to fill up empty wall space in your home, they’re also a way to display personal mementos, such as photos, playbills, drawings, and more. Having a gallery wall will give your living room a truly personal element.

The best way to go about making a gallery wall is forming a collection of treasured items—old letters, artwork, photographs, postcards, mementos from vacation trips, whatever speaks to you. Put them in stylish frames and mix and match them on your wall however you see fit. To hang up your gallery, you will need nails or picture hooks and a hammer.

Tip 2: Repaint the Walls

Color is an important element of your living room’s look. One way you can upgrade it is with a fresh coat of paint. You can choose to paint just one wall an accent color or go all-out painting the walls. Whatever color of paint you go with, light color is usually best because they naturally brighten up a room.

Don’t feel limited to just painting your walls a classic egg-shell white. Neutral colors can do wonders for a living room, and more adventurous interior designers might even go for a pale pink, saturated blue, or green. The latter three can also make great accent colors!

Tip 3: Breathe Life Into Old Pieces

Have any wood furniture that’s looking a little worse for wear? Giving old furniture some TLC can make the difference between a shabby living room and a stylish one. Furniture restoration can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Installing new hardware is a quick fix for wobbly side tables or just an excellent way to accent your drawers or cabinets.

You could even apply appliques or embellish old wood furniture to make it into an art piece or spray paint an old piece to make it a new color. Of course, you also can’t go wrong with a thorough polishing and cleaning.

Tip 4: Play With Color and Texture

Color’s importance in the living room doesn’t stop with the walls and floors. Instead of overloading the space with a mishmash of random colors or making everything from the walls to cushions beige, you can find a comfortable balance.

One way of doing this is choosing a cohesive color palette, and perhaps introducing one extra color to make things pop. For example, your room’s layout could have primarily earthy tones and wood elements, with a few blue items throughout the room and house plants to bring in more texture.

Introducing different textures into a room is also important — you can achieve this by decorating with plants, fluffy throw blankets, or woven baskets. Patterned throw pillows can also introduce new elements of both color and texture to an otherwise dull sofa.

Tip 5: When in Doubt, Hit the Thrift Store

An unexpected source of inspiration might just hit you at the thrift store. If you’re a fan of vintage, kitschy home décor, thrift stores are a great place to shop for home décor. But even if this furnishing style doesn’t appeal to you, you can still score great deals on stylish and trendy furniture.

The best finds at thrift stores are often just a matter of luck, but thrift stores usually stock new items at the beginning of the week. Get there early to find the best deals; you never know when you’ll find the perfect coffee table or chair. For a more curated experience, go to flea markets and antique malls in search of beautiful and unique home décor.

Tip 6: Get Creative With Storage

You can both de-clutter and decorate at the same time with the right shelving and storage units in your living room. Turn existing wall shelves into a tasteful display for your favorite décor. Off-the-peg shelving is easy and inexpensive, but on the other hand, free-standing shelving gives more space for bulkier items, like TVs, but takes longer to set up and may cost more. To optimize your storage space, put storage bins or crates in shelving space. This way, you have easy access to essential items that may not be fit for display on a shelf.

As you go through the process of arranging décor on a shelf, you may even get hit with more living room decorating ideas. Remember, when it comes to living room décor, it’s all about what makes you and your housemates feel the most comfortable and at-home.

Tip 7: Insulate Doorways and Windows

You probably already know how important basement insulation is, as it’s usually one of the draftier and colder parts of the house, but you want to keep your living room properly insulated from the elements too.

The best sealant for insulation purposes is polyurethane foam; it’s especially useful for protecting the home from cold drafts and outside moisture. Try our Expanding Foam Sealant, a unique closed-cell product that produces a better seal than open-cell foam. You can use the sealant around doorways and windows in your living room to keep the outside elements where they belong — out!

Start Your DIY Project With Silicone Depot

Starting a new DIY project on your living room is a lot of fun, and Silicone Depot has the tools and materials you need to transform your living room. Our selection of products are also ideal for repairs. Who knows, while you’re decorating, you may notice cracks, gaps, or holes around the home that need sealing!

Whatever the case, you always want to make sure you have the best sealant on hand at home. Silicone Depot has you covered. Our wide array of high-quality products is available at prices we work hard to keep low for our customers. Shop Silicone Depot today for your DIY needs!