Trending Living Rooms

The top trending living rooms provide a wealth of decorating ideas — whether it’s adding stylish wallpaper to the ceiling or embracing the power of symmetry. The ideas that follow come from the most popular living rooms  as measured by the number of people saving photos of them to their Houzz ideabooks recently. See if any will work in your home.

Chic ceilings

Like a cherry on top, wallpaper on the ceiling can put the finishing touch on a room. This Canadian living room features Cole & Son’s Malachite, from the Fornasetti collection, which adds whimsy and depth to the space.

Tone on tone

This sublime living room in Perth, Australia, shows the power of decorating a space in similar color tones. From the walls to the tufted furniture to the Greek key-bordered rug, this space is awash in shades of beige. The overall effect is soothing and confident.

Bold bookshelves

For the bibliophiles out there, having books integrated into living room design is often a must, but that doesn’t mean you have to be boring about it. This custom bookshelf in London is a great example of how shelving can be an exciting interior element.

Sensational symmetry

It has been said that symmetry is the key to beauty. If that’s the case, this Charlotte, North Carolina, living room designed by Chuck Frusterio is a knockout. The placement of the sofas, chairs, end tables and lamps is mirrored on both sides of the fireplace.

Vanishing TV

Placing a flat-screen television above the fireplace tends to be a love it-or-hate it proposition. A Séura television mirror might be the answer to make everyone happy. At the touch of a button, it transforms from a TV into a decorative looking glass — and no one is the wiser.

Showstopping chandelier

If you want to make a statement in your living room, there may be no better vehicle than a stellar chandelier. This minimalist Los Angeles living room designed by Lori Dennis features a Currey & Company light fixture that steals the show.

Modern approach

A reading corner in a living room often evokes an image of an overstuffed upholstered armchair and a traditional reading light. But this Russian living room shows that you can create a sleek reading corner with modern pieces like this leather Egg chair and Kyudo floor lamp.

Open space

Open floor plans have been popular for living rooms for some time, and this impressive living space in a former Boston area school converted by SWZ Architects is a terrific example of why the layout continues to draw adoring fans.

Eye-catching art

This Toronto living room designed by Catherine Alison Interiors illustrates how a piece of art can both unify the colors in a room and add an element that draws your attention without overpowering the space.

The bigger, the better

They say that everything is bigger in Texas — and this Fort Worth living room seems to confirm it. With its massive sectional, large flat-screen television and extra-wide gas fireplace, there’s plenty of space for a movie night with family and friends.

Special Thanks to Bryan Anthony Houzz Editorial Staff

Trending Now: Bedrooms We’d Love to Fall Asleep In

Looking for a comfortable and calm space? Consider some of the most popular new bedroom photos

Most of us want a calm, soothing vibe to permeate our bedroom. So it’s no surprise that the 25 most popular bedroom photos uploaded recently to Houzz portray that kind of atmosphere. A quick review of the key elements found in the following photos reveals some recurring design moves that deliver the relaxing look. When in doubt, employ gray and gray-blue tones, wood accents and layers of the most comfortable bedding you can find. Here are 25 ways to sleep tight in style.

Angle Investor

A soaring, cedar-clad ceiling punctuates this picturesque bedroom in South Carolina. Again, gray walls and bedding deliver a soothing, inviting atmosphere that doesn’t distract from the view.

All-Inclusive

This Birmingham, Alabama, bedroom features many of the recurring elements we’ve seen in this article: gray tones, painted wood ceiling, statement light fixture and layered, neutral bedding.

Keep Calm

A geometric ceiling treatment and light fixture set a polished, contemporary tone in this Orlando, Florida, bedroom, while simple furnishings and decor in organic tones establish a calm and comfortable attitude.

Silver Linings

Silvery grays ensconce this London bedroom, while a luxurious collection of bedding gives new meaning to the term beauty sleep.

All the White Moves

A generous dose of soft white paint creates a refreshing atmosphere in this Massachusetts bedroom. Meanwhile, built-in storage below the window seat and on either side of the bed and below it turns a tranquil space into an organization workhorse.

Water World

A watery blue wall paint envelopes this Florida bedroom, which is otherwise anchored in grays.

 

Art Attack

Designer LeTricia Wilbanks did a fantastic job pairing custom pillows with the triptych artwork to create a bedroom full of harmony.

Pastel Perfect

This bedroom proves that well-chosen colors and textures can transform any simple space into one brimming with character. Pastel colors set a soothing tone while touchy-feely fabrics beckon one to curl up and stay awhile.

Glass Act

Why sleep when you live in a dream world? Here, glass walls capture a stunning view of Laguna Beach in Southern California.

Trunk Show

Again, gray tones create a soothing vibe in this Parisian home, but it’s the ropy elephant piece that really sets the room apart.

Country Club

Shiplap walls and antique-style bed frames lend a farmhouse vibe to this South Carolina bedroom.

Movie Magic

The decor in this bedroom gives the impression of a moment in a movie that’s transitioning from black and white to Technicolor. Cool silvers and grays anchor the look while bursts of pink and turquoise vie for attention.

Pattern Recognition

A thoughtful mix of pattern, fabric and colors elevates this Florida bedroom to the next level.

Blue Horizon

This bedroom on the water in Florida employs a blue-gray color scheme, oak floors and wood slat wall cladding for a coastal look that’s anything but boring.

Luxe in London

Glamorous doesn’t begin to describe this London bedroom, which features a custom bed, soothing blue wall color, round metal nightstands and an elegant bench.

Dressed to Impress

This spacious San Francisco bedroom has a lot going for it. A cool gray color scheme, subtle mix of patterns, textured wallcovering on a feature wall, sliding barn door, rich wood floors and a delightful lounge seat (with breakfast) all come together to make this space a difficult one to leave.

From Russia With Love

Built-in bedside cabinetry, a window seat and a gray-blue color scheme create a winning combination in this Russian bedroom.

Beam Me Up

Here, gorgeous wood beams and window millwork lead the eye to a picturesque view of San Francisco Bay.

Snug Symmetry

A king-size bed placed against a feature wall with a vinyl wallcovering grabs attention in this bedroom in Calgary, Canada.

Coastal Comfort

Three built-in beds with drawer storage maximize space in this quaint Nantucket home.

Pretty in the Past

Traditional patterned draperies and a four-poster bed define this large Atlanta bedroom.

Heads Up

Hat tip to Meridy King Interiors for combining the casual-meets-rustic elements in this bedroom. And kudos to Greg Busch Architects for incorporating the character-heavy wood beams on the ceiling.

Let the Light In

A headboard wall and sleek, modern design up the appeal in this Palm Springs, California, bedroom. Meanwhile, a wall-to-wall window section above the bed cleverly frames a piece of sky.

Pop of Pink

A big, fluffy bedspread, elegant chandelier, soothing wall color and eye-catching bench make this New York bedroom by Jan Hiltz Interiors a hit.

Feel the Barn

A cool gray tone sets the stage for this exquisite bedroom, the highlight of which is a large wooden sliding barn door.

Special Thanks to Mitchell Parker Houzz Editorial Staff

Smart Ideas for Small Homes

Constraint breeds creativity. And in no place is this more true than in not-big homes. Give someone 1,000 square feet or less and he or she is bound to come up with clever design decisions that make home life more enjoyable. Here are 16 tricks from space-savvy homeowners to help get your creative juices flowing

Reconsider corners

In a tight space, sharp corners are your enemy. Avoid that awkward sidestep shuffle by going for round dining and coffee tables to create better traffic flow. It’ll make your space feel more open.

 

Consider wall-mounted lights.

In a cramped bedroom, every square inch of surface space counts. Instead of filling slim nightstand tops with bulky lamps, consider adding wall-mounted lights instead to free up that space for books, phones and more.

Stick to a color scheme for open shelves

In small kitchens, open shelving is sometimes inevitable. To make some sense of the madness, try sticking with only a few colors for any dishes on them. This will help cut down on some of the visual chaos. Here, the homeowners stuck to a pretty strict scheme of white, black, glass, copper and wood.

Get a clear acrylic desk

One go-to designer trick in small spaces is to incorporate barely-there or see-through pieces. A clear acrylic desk, like the one shown here, is a great option to create display space or workspace without too much visual noise.

Add a table for two

Sure, a large dining set for six might not make sense for your space and lifestyle, but a small table for two can have a big payoff. It won’t take up a ton of room, so you can tuck one in a tight corner or just off your kitchen. Being able to have a sit-down meal with your significant other or friend rather than sitting on the floor at your coffee table will make your home feel so much grander. It can also double as a work area, reading nook or table for a morning coffee ritual.

Get a hanging rack for pots

Small homes usually mean small kitchens. And that in turn means kitchen cabinets stuffed with food and utensils. A great way to free up vital cabinet space is to pull those bulky pans out of storage and hang them on a rack. It will put them within arm’s reach and even add a bit of shine to your space.

Hold out for furniture that has meaning

This can be true for any home, but it’s extra important in a small space, where the things you have are always in your line of sight from almost anywhere you are. Plus, in small spaces, you tend to interact with your furnishings more, as the pieces you own often do double duty — your dining table is your office desk, for instance.For the midcentury Danish teak dining chairs shown here, Mitchell Pride borrowed money from his parents and paid them back over time to get just what he wanted.

Embrace minimalism.

It’s kind of a no-brainer, but if you’re looking to make the most of your space, having less stuff to fill it should be your first step. Ask yourself if you really need that TV and media cabinet, or two bulky nightstands, or a large dining table. Embracing minimalism and thinking about how your home can extend into the city around you — the library, coffee shops, parks, and so on — might help you reconsider the things you think you need.

Add more countertop space

Don’t settle for the countertops you’re given. Look for carts, tables and cabinets that can offer more surface and storage space. Here, two thin wooden tables get the job done.

Provide flexible seating

If you don’t entertain that often — most of the time it’s just you, or you and your significant other or friend, lounging around on the sofa — you might wonder why you have so much bulky furniture. Instead, consider Chinese garden stools, benches and other flexible seating options that can be tucked away when not in use or can serve double duty as tables. That way you’ll have the extra seats on hand for when you do have people over, but won’t feel like your space is overcrowded with furniture when you’re just flying solo.

Splurge on a statement feature

Oftentimes in small spaces, the decorating budget gets spread out evenly among the design decisions. To kick things up, consider splurging on a statement feature, such as covering a fireplace wall in a stunning accent tile, as was done in this New York City living room.

Create an entryway

Just because you have a small home, don’t ignore the features of bigger homes. It’s important, for example, to create an entryway even if your space doesn’t exactly have one. Here, a slim shelf, a mirror and an urn deliver a big-home feature.

Special Thanks to Mitchell Parker, Houzz Editorial Staff.

Fabulous Fall Container Gardens

Celebrate the season with potted displays rich in color and texture. Embrace the bold tones of autumn with containers filled with eye-catching foliage in brilliant gold, fiery orange and deep burgundy. By choosing plants based on your climate, you can create dramatic displays that will last well into the holidays. In cold climates, select plants that are resistant to frost, such as conifers and coral bells, for long-lasting vignettes. In mild-winter climates, play up the colors of the season with succulents and perennials in rich fall hues. Here are 12 container combinations to add fall cheer to your porch or patio.

 

Autumn embers

Vivid foliage and hot-colored flowers nearly glow in two charcoal-colored containers in this Vancouver garden. A mass of bronze coleus leaves edged with chartreuse forms the middle layer of the composition in front of orange-flowering canna lilies (Canna sp.) and purple fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’). Spilling over the edge of the pot, pumpkin-colored Calibrachoa picks up the color of the canna blooms, while sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas) deepens the color palette.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun

Light and airy

Bright green tendrils of maidenhair vine (Muehlenbeckia complexa) pour over the side of this tall rectangular container to create an eye-catching cascade in Seattle. Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum ‘Thunderbird’), a Northwest native, provides dark berries in summer and copper-colored leaves in fall, as seen here. The larger green and bronze leaves of highland doghobble (Leucothoe fontanesiana) and variegated Japanese sedge (Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’) complete the display.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Partial shade to full sun

Dark chocolate

A dark monochromatic base palette can be particularly effective in highlighting bright accents. Bronze-leafed coleus, cascading sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Black Heart’ and ‘Blackie’) and burgundy canna lilies (Canna sp.) create a rich base to show off bright gold Coprosma, center left; a lime-green tuft of cape restio (Rhodocoma capensis), center right; and coral dahlia blooms, behind.
Water requirement: Moderate to high
Light requirement: Full sun

Understated elegance

A stately Hick’s yew tree (Taxus x media ‘Hicksii’) looks good year-round, with dark needle-like foliage studded with decorative red fruits. Underplanted with houseplants including purple inch plant (Tradescantia sp.) and bright orange ornamental peppers, the container looks festive from late summer into fall.

In winter, replace the underplanted houseplants with cold-hardy heathers (Erica spp.) or cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) and string the yew tree with twinkling lights.
Notes: All parts of yew are toxic if ingested, and only female trees bear fruit.
Water requirement: Moderate (yew tree requires little water once established)
Light: Partial shade to full sun

Structural succulents

In a tall bronze-colored container, the wavy stalks of upright aeonium (Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’) are just as ornamental as their deep purple flower-like rosettes. A mix of aloe and echeveria plants fills in around the base of the aeonium, while delicate tendrils of string-of-pearls succulents (Senecio rowleyanus) spill over the edge of the container. This frost-tender composition would be best for warm-winter climates.
Water requirement: Low
Light requirement: Full sun

Grasses and maples

Use subtle container plantings to balance dramatic fall foliage for a pleasing composition. Here, a pair of textured black containers filled with a wispy orange sedge (Carex testacea) and a dwarf false cypress (Chamaecyparis sp.) create a rich yet subdued accent along this gravel pathway. The real show in this garden is the brilliant foliage of Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) beyond.
Water requirement: Low to moderate
Light requirement: Full sun

 

Trio for fall

The addition of one pumpkin-colored pot updates the look of two summer containers for fall. The foliage of strappy purple cabbage tree (Cordyline sp.) in the tallest container picks up the dark purple centers of white-flowering Surfinia Blue Veined petunia (Petunia hybrid) and provides a sense of movement. Bronze-tipped succulents coordinate with the container glaze.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun

Black and gold

This bold container composition has an unusual mix of black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’), brilliant gold ‘Delta Dawn’ coral bells (Heuchera ‘Delta Dawn’), yellow-leaved ‘Baggesen’s Gold’ box honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen’s Gold’) and white-flowering heather (Calluna vulgaris).

The most unexpected part is the sweet, citrusy perfume of ‘Eternal Fragrance’ Daphne (Daphne transatlantica ‘Eternal Fragrance’), which blooms well into fall.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Partial shade to full sun

Fall flame

The aptly named ‘Sticks on Fire’ milkbush (Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’) lights up this potted succulent arrangement in Santa Barbara, California, with its branched, coral-like structure and brilliant orange color. Lean it against a post or provide sturdy stakes to support this tall, brittle plant.

The addition of deep purple aeonium (Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’) and purple New Zealand flax (Phormium sp.) creates a rich fall color palette that is perfect for warm-winter climates.

Green-leafed aeonium (Aeonium ‘Starburst’), blue chalk sticks (Senecio mandraliscae) and slender myoporum (Myoporum parvifolium) round out the front of the container.
Water requirement: Low
Light requirement: Full sun

Peaceful trio

This Asian garden-inspired trio keeps things simple with a single potted tree per container. Glazed black containers work well with both the Japanese maples (Acer palmatum cvs.) and the weeping blue atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’). A framed trio of garden photos hung on the rear wall would provide year-round interest even if other areas of the garden were more subdued.
Light: Full sun
Water: Moderate

Edible element

The brilliant leaves of edible ‘Bright Lights’ rainbow chard are just as stunning in a fall container composition as in the kitchen garden. To keep the arrangement looking good, and to encourage the chard plant to keep producing, harvest leaves at the base with a sharp knife or kitchen shears.

Also planted in this Seattle container are coral-colored hypericum berries (Hypericum sp.), ruffled red ‘Fire Alarm’ coral bells (Heuchera ‘Fire Alarm’), ‘Blue Star’ juniper (Juniperus squamata ‘Blue Star’), ‘Tom Thumb’ New Zealand flax (Phormium ‘Tom Thumb’) and ‘Rheingold’ arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Rheingold’).
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun

Bronze glory

A color palette of gold, copper, rust and green echoes the color of fallen autumn leaves in this container in the Northwest. Here, the leaves of heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) are turning bronze against a chartreuse lemon cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa cv.) at the back of the container.

In the foreground, copper-colored coral bells (Heuchera sp.), ‘Goldfinger’ New Zealand iris (Libertia ixioides ‘Goldfinger’), limey sweet flag (Acorus gramineus ‘Pusillus Minimus’), black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’) and orange-flowering pansies form a tapestry of rich fall colors.
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun

Special thanks to Lauren Dunec Hoang, Houzz Contributor