Decorating open-plan rooms is rarely straightforward. By definition, the open-plan room offers you a whole range of options, making it difficult to know what the best arrangement really is.
This means that open-plan rooms are hugely versatile, with the openness of the area offering up more space than traditional rooms, allowing for multiple purposes such as a combined living and dining room.
If you're struggling with an open layout, here are some tips to keep in mind when going all-in.
Choose a unified color palette.
In a disunified room, your color choices should tie the room together. Do this by painting walls a neutral color like white, cream, tan, gray, or taupe so that it's easy to incorporate a variety of accent colors.
How would this work in practice? Well, you could paint your room tan with an earth tone color palette for accents, like shades of chocolate brown, blue, green, and terra cotta in different areas.
If you go for white walls then you can opt for a coastal palette that makes use of shades like blue, green, tan, and yellow. Different shades can be emphasized in different areas of the room but a shared palette will tie it all together beautifully.
Divide and rule
Your open-plan room will probably be larger than most rooms, meaning you can open it up for multiple uses. You might want to create a cozy living room area in one section and a dining room in another. But without walls, how do you distinguish each area?
A great way to do this is to use folding screens or room dividers. They're an effective option for dividing a room with an open layout and can be easily moved out of the way when you want to open up a space.
Another way is to use furniture like sofas or bookcases to wall off different areas. If you don't want to disrupt the flow of the room by using large furniture you could instead opt for things like a large rug or a fireplace to define the zones of the room.
Think about scale
When dealing with a large room such as this, it's important to pay special attention to furniture size. Smaller pieces that would work in a room with a traditional floor plan can get lost in a space with an open layout.
That's why it often makes more sense to go for large items that have a presence in a room, such as large sectional sofas or floor-to-ceiling bookcases that can take up an entire wall.
If you're lucky enough to have high ceilings, try to find items with dramatic height like a tallboy to stretch out into that vertical space.
It's all in the lighting
An open layout offers many opportunities, but many potential problem areas too. You'll need to make sure there are no dark corners or overly bright areas, so paying attention to your lighting is key.
For general illumination, basic overhead lighting like recessed or track options work well. But if you want to define specific areas in the space, try using decorative features like chandeliers or spotlights to build a focal point.
You might want to add more functional task lighting to highlight certain spots depending on the room's uses. You could do this by adding things like desk lamps for places where you'd do paperwork or a tall lamp behind an easy chair where you like to read.
Open-plan rooms can be a fantastic feature in a home if arranged correctly. By following these tips, we hope that you can harness the powers of design to create your ideal room. Good luck!
