In this blog post, you’re going to learn how to create a focal point in your living room.
Imagine walking into a living room where there is a beautiful fireplace adorned with a magnificent painting above and surrounded by built-ins that are thoughtfully decorated showcasing the personality of the people who live there.
The cozy seating arrangement around the fireplace invites you to sit down and relax, and the whole room seems to be enveloped by warm, ambient lighting highlighting all the textures and colors in the room. This is the power of a well-designed focal point in a living room.
A focal point is the eye-catching piece or area in a room that is made to draw your attention as soon as you enter that room, because it’s unique or special in some way.
Not creating a focal point in a room is a recipe for a design disaster. Without a focal point, there’s no real way to anchor the rest of the room.
It feels like the room is not cohesive and there is no flow. You’ll have a hard time finding a good layout or creating the kind of ambiance you want especially in a space like your living room. .
That’s why it’s important to identify your living room focal point and learn how to design around it. If you don’t already have something that can serve as a focal point in your living room, there are some ways to create one.
Let’s start by discussing three most common focal points in a living room and how you can build around them to create a beautiful living room.
Images via Pinterest.
Fireplace as a Living Room Focal Point
If your living space has a fireplace, this is most likely the focal point of the room. Whether it’s a beautiful floor to ceiling stone fireplace or small electrical built in, fireplaces tend to automatically be show-stoppers. That’s the good news.
But very often what I see and hear is how homeowners struggle to make it a focal point. What do you put above the fireplace? What do you do with either side? What if your fireplace is a corner fireplace or is asymmetrical?
One of the biggest mistakes we often see in spaces is that people ignore the space around the fireplace. Should you do a built-in? Or hang art? Just decorating the mantle and hanging piece of art or the TV above the fireplace doesn’t and will not make it your focal point. Well, maybe. But it will look weak. Or badly executed. Like you forgot something.
The great thing about fireplaces is that they tend to bring in a mix of materials like stone, brick, wood, tile and more. I like to really show off what’s already there and sometimes that may mean updating it slightly to make it more current.
Another great thing about a fireplace being your living room focal point is they usually have mantles and if not, you can easily add one. Incorporating a mantle above your fireplace is an amazing way to add another design element to your living room focal point.
Mantles allow us to decorate the focal point with items that will enhance the look. Like art, garlands, photos, vases, candles and more.
A great way to enhance this sort of focal point is also to incorporate lighting so that it stands out. You can do this with all kinds of accent lighting like sconces or even some carefully directed track lighting.
Images via Pinterest.
Television as a Living Room Focal Point
Okay, so this focal point may be a bit boring and not as stunning as a fireplace, but we need to discuss televisions in a living space, as they are often a living room focal point. And to be honest, you can make a TV focal point look just as stunning as a focal point with a fireplace.
If your living space is used for relaxing and watching movies, then you spend most of your time looking at the TV. That’s exactly why a TV makes a good living room focal point. It automatically draws your eye to it.
Your layout will rely heavily on where your TV is located and in turn, where seating will go. That means you’re going to be comfortable during those Netflix marathons! There’s nothing worse than having to crane your neck to get a good glimpse of the game or your favourite movie.
If your TV is your focal point, there’s no need to worry. There are plenty of ways to enhance the space around it so it’s not so, you know, boring.
The big mistake I see with a TV usually is similar to a fireplace. If a TV is just hung on a wall with nothing else happening on that wall, that is going to look boring. I’ve even heard people defend this choice as being minimalist. It’s not. Minimalism is about thoughtful design. And if that was the case, you wouldn’t have a TV on the wall or it would be hidden. Sorry, not sorry!
Oftentimes, a TV is placed above a fireplace mantle, which is a good way to amalgamate two focal points. But we are not the biggest fans of this approach. Although we realize sometimes this is the only option you might have.
Let’s look at options for how you can transform the wall behind the TV into something a little more interesting. The trick is to look at the whole wall behind the TV as a feature wall.
For example, you could use a textured or patterned wallpaper to create interest. Or wall paneling to create a unique accent wall. You could accent the wall with art or shelves to complement the TV. Or you can even combine all of these ideas on one wall!
And it’s 2024. So we no longer need media units but here’s a hot tip. Use a cabinet or a media unit under the TV anyway. This will give it added interest and you’ll also get some storage out of it.
The idea here is that if your TV is your focal point and you want to enhance it with a little more wow-factor on the wall. Transform the space around the TV to create something absolutely beautiful!
Images via Pinterest.
Sofa as a Living Room Focal Point
Let’s say your living room doesn’t have a fireplace and you don’t plan to watch TV in there. What then? How do you create a focal point in such a room?
That’s where we suggest using a piece furniture as a focal point. You can do that well specifically with sofas. Although you can use a credenza against a wall in a similar fashion too.
Perhaps you have a stunning sofa and you want that to be the centre of attention. Okay, the truth is your sofa doesn’t even have to be stunning for you to create a focal point around it.
First, you’ll want to ensure your sofa is the first thing you see when entering the room. And your layout and other pieces of furniture complement it.
Similar to the TV, you’ll also want to focus on the space around the sofa. A great way to create a living room focal point or area around your sofa is to incorporate art work or a gallery wall or a sculpture directly above the sofa.
Creating a show-stopping gallery wall or hanging a stunning piece of your favourite art will draw attention to this area of the room.
That means automatic attention on the sofa too. You can also consider making an accent wall behind the sofa by painting it in a contrasting colour to the rest of the room. Or using a cool wallpaper, like discussed above for the TV.
And hey, if you need help hanging the art above your sofa, you’ll want to read this post here.
And let’s not forget about styling your sofa beautifully with some throw pillows . Maybe even a beautiful throw that adds that perfect hit of interest to your focal point.
If your sofa is floating in the room, can it still be a focal point? Of course it can! Whatever you choose as your focal point, you want it to anchor the whole space. That means building and decorating around your sofa. You might try a console table behind the sofa and add decor to command attention to the sofa on that table. Use lighting strategically to draw attention to the sofa.
Your focal point can be anything, depending on what you use your living space for, what features you already have or what you’re willing to add. The idea here is to enhance your focal point by considering what you can add to the space around it to make it eye-catching and interesting.
So think about where your eyes tend to gravitate when you first walk into the room and how you want to feel when you are in your space. Then it’s time to get creative and make your focal point gasp-worthy!
We’ve shared some great ideas with you in this blog post but we know every space is different. If your room has multiple focal points like a fireplace, a TV and a picture window with a fabulous view, which one should you choose as a focal point? Or can you have multiple focal points? It all depends on the room.
This is where our Design Audit service might be a perfect fit for you. It’s a free service we offer where you send in some pictures of your space and answer a few questions. Based on the info you provided, we give you an idea or two on what you could do to immediately improve the space.
