9 One-Hour Ways To Boost Your Living Room This Weekend

Time is a precious commodity just about everyone wishes they had more of. While we don’t have any tips for increasing the number of hours in a day, we do have some quick room refreshers that will transform your living room so fast they will make you feel like you have more hours in a day. At the very least, they will improve the quality of your hours, and isn’t quality over quantity what we’re all striving for?

We’ve said it before: corners often go neglected when it comes to home design. If you’ve focused your attention on the larger spaces in between, consider cozying up your corners. This can be as simple as adding a plant or a floor lamp. Or, if you’ve got the space, a record station or a small reading nook with a chair and side table. Try items that are on the taller side, as height-challenged pieces may seem stunted. Indoor trees (like the dracaena plant above from Léon & George) and hanging pants are both great options for filling in vertical space.

Changing out the accent pieces in your living room is perhaps the oldest trick in the book (blog?) when it comes to refreshing a room’s design. Unfortunately, replacing all of your throw pillows can get expensive, even when it’s not done super well (hi, $247 Home Goods trip). The key to the perfect pillow set is high quality materials and variety (in texture and size), which is why we recommend sewing them yourself. This Interior Collective lumbar pillow DIY is a great place to start, and even includes a list of fabric retailers to help you find the perfect material. If you aren’t terribly DIY-minded, this quick no-sew tutorial may be more your speed.

If rearranging your furniture makes you feel better, you’re not alone. It’s a therapeutic experience that breathes new life into your space while also working your glutes (remember to lift with your legs). Take it a step further and map out your new layout with free floor planning software like Roomle before you do the heavy lifting.

Yes, accent walls are still a thing. Good design encourages the eye to move throughout a space, and an accent wall is a good way to create a focal point for the eye. If you’re stumped on a color, complementary colors are always a solid design choice. For instance, if your sofa is warm yellow, try drifting to the other side of the color wheel and opt for a cool blue hue. Or, keep it serene and monochromatic, as seen above.

Stack ’em, shelf ’em, prop ’em. Whether you have a bountiful library, or a modest collection, a little color coordination can have a huge design impact. If you don’t have enough to warrant a full rainbow wall, pull out a few in a specific color palette (neutrals count too) and place them on a coffee table, console, or even stack them on floor.

Odds-and-ends tend to gather sloppily on living room surfaces over time. Find a surface in your living room that could use some love and design a new vignette. With finesse and a few guidelines, this design moment can easily be sourced with items you already own. Try these simple, foolproof tips for styling the perfect vignette to get your vignette vinyasa flowing.

In just 20 minutes, you can knit a 6-lb oversized yarn blanket using just your arms. This means you could technically make 18 lbs of blanket in one hour. Not only will this save you money and give you a custom statement piece for your living room, it will also make you feel like a tiny person making a regular-sized blanket for a giant, and who doesn’t want to do that?

While you may have taken 8,468 new photos in the last six months, when is the last time you printed one? Framed photos are underused in this digital age, making many homes feel impersonal and generic. Online companies like Framebridge and Artifact Uprising make it super easy to print and frame your digital photos, but did you know the Walgreens app allows you to print directly from Instagram? Even better, you can pick them up at your local Walgreens the same day, making your one-hour living room transformation possible. If you’re lucky enough to have an IKEA close by, these square matted frames make displaying your instas easy peasy.

Weekends are precious. Squeeze in one (or all) of these one-hour living room refreshers in this weekend to maximize your quality home time.