Here’s the Secret to Making Your Living Room Feel Like Home
You’re looking at your room, and it checks all the boxes you think it should: It has a sofa that’s stylish and comfortable. It has a coffee table that’s attractive and functional. And it’s painted a color that’s the product of weeks of decision-making and hours of taping. So why doesn’t the room feel as composed and cozy as the ones in your inspiration pics? The thing that’s missing is so obvious…but so easy to overlook.
The thing that makes a room click is how your decor “talks” to each other: all those pieces, big and small, that together create a narrative. It’s the patterns and textures and colors and lighting that work in harmony (and sometimes in dissonance) to make the room yours. If anyone has mastered this, it’s Ashley Wilson, who regularly offers tips for styling a home on a budget. We asked her to take a handsome but neutral room and give it a distinctive style using The Home Depot‘s decor collection. The Home Depot’s online store offers pieces from exclusive brands at affordable prices, with free delivery and returns to boot. (Delivery is free for all in-store pickup orders and for home orders over $45.)
The Foundation
The living room started with nothing more than a couple of handsome centerpieces. Just a big, comfy couch — the Brookside Clara 3-seater in faux leather — and an MCM-style coffee table with storage drawers. “For me, the most important part of a good living room is a comfy sofa,” Ashley tells us. “I love starting with a neutral sofa that’ll stand up to pets and kids and then layer on the fun color and personality.” Then came the fun.
A ‘Global Grandmillennial Chic’ Glow-Up
From that foundation, Ashley started adding the pieces that make the room feel like a home. Specifically, a home in her signature style, Global Grandmillenial Chic. “It layers a few trends like the boho end table and screen that give great texture and mixes it with the grandmillenial more formal rug and striped pouf for a fresh combination.”
What makes Ashley’s room so interesting is the way she juxtaposes design elements. The sofa, coffee table, and wainscoting that make the room’s base are all hard angles, so she’s balanced them with soft lines with those proudly pink scalloped armchairs on the left and the flamingos mingling over on the right. At the same time, the brass lamp next to those flamingos “talks to” the gilded sunburst mirror across the room while those pink chairs form a sort of “pastel triangle” with the sea-green striped pouf and the wall art up top. (The two pieces here are “Simple Shapes in Soft Colors” [left] and “April Morning” [right], both from The Home Depot.)
Ashley’s final touches are a few pieces that are just there to make her smile. “The finishing touches in a room take a space from feeling like a furniture showroom to being a home,” she tells us. “It’s the details that can be quirky and fun and bring in texture and really speak to who lives there.” You might have missed it, but the vase has a cheeky little face sculpture while the candle will make the gilding sparkle just so.
