You want a living room you can proudly show your friends when they come calling and a comfortable space where you and your family can watch television or spend the whole day just chilling. The problem is you have yet to decide what living room furniture to buy to get there.


Choosing furniture can be genuinely challenging. While you probably have an idea about the types of furniture you need (for instance, a couch is usually a given), the wide range of furniture types and styles available can make picking your living room furniture a daunting, seemingly impossible task.


This is why many people would rather leave their living room design and furniture selection to professionals. Working with an interior designer will certainly make things easier. However, if you’d prefer doing things yourself, read on. Be guided by our recommendations on how to choose furniture and related designing tips for the living room.

1. Determine Your Preferred Style

One of the reasons choosing living room furniture can be so arduous is because, while you have a wealth of options, you can’t pick just anything. Plushy velvet sofa sets in cream and brown may look great on their own, but they may not go so well with a black top-grain leather chair and ottoman set and an antique brass and gunmetal table lamp.



This is the reason interior designers are so popular. They know which furniture goes with which; they studied design theory and have innate creativity to make correct furniture-buying judgments. That said, you can do it if you have a definite, preferred style.


To determine your style, check out Pinterest boards on interior design or do a simple Google check using keywords such as:


  • Modern
  • Traditional
  • Contemporary
  • Minimalist
  • Mid-Century
  • Bohemian
  • Farmhouse
  • Southwestern
  • Scandinavian
  • Muji

2. Familiarize Yourself With Your Chosen Design Style


Doing the first step several times will help you gauge your style preference. In this step, your goal is to familiarize yourself with or immerse yourself in your chosen design genre until you have an intuitive grasp of which furniture belongs and which does not.


To do this, do more Pinterest and Google searches on your selected style. If you’ve determined from the first step that you like modern and contemporary, you should focus on online interior edits on modern and contemporary interiors.


3. Give Your Living Room Design Some Context.

Interior designers are not only capable of designing beautiful interiors. They are also trained in crafting functional spaces.


Likewise, you should also think about the function your living room will serve.


To some people, a living room is just a place with a sofa on which they can lie down to rest when they get home too tired from work or a business dinner somewhere. To some, it is a gorgeous space, designed for entertaining visitors and friends. Yet to others, it’s a daytime playroom, a place where the housekeeper can fold some laundry while watching some TV and the baby. For some more, it’s all that in equal measure.


This brings us to our next tip: Think about what you will mainly do in the living room. Your answer will guide you on how to design your living room.



To illustrate, if your living room is primarily for entertaining family, friends, and colleagues, you will need plenty of seating. If you have a high-ceiling and particularly large space, you can divide it into a couple or several seating sections. Each can be a collection of sectionals, loveseats, chairs-and-a-half, and recliners interrupted by a side table here and there and gathered around a center table.

You may also want to install a minibar in your living room. In this case, you will need a bar counter with a hanging rack for your wine glasses and a hidden sink. You will also need a bar cabinet for your Collins and highball glasses, your drinks-making equipment, your stock of garnish decoration, tableware for appetizers (plates, tiny forks, etc.), a refrigerator and freezer for keeping things cold and storing ice, and others. You may also want some bar stools so your guests can come to talk to you as you prepare their beverages.


Indeed, knowing what function your living room will serve will give you a shopping list of furniture to purchase.

4. Measure and Buy for the Space Available.


Once you know what furniture you need and the style you’d prefer them to be in, you’ll find choosing furniture to be much easier. However, you must be precise in your furniture shopping.


Thus, before you head to the furniture showroom, measure how much space you have available. Next, draw your living room to scale, then place your planned assortment of furniture, also to scale, on it. Doing this will ensure that you know how big a sectional or chaise longue to get.


5. Shop Quality Pieces

Once you’re ready with your laundry list of furniture, each with precise measurements, you can proceed to your favorite furniture store’s showroom to shop. Make sure to shop at a reputable furniture studio that sells quality pieces in your preferred design style.


You may also go online to visit an online furniture showroom. This will let you conveniently and comfortably browse the store’s furniture collection. You should even be able to shop online or, at the very least, chat with the store to reserve certain pieces and make them available to you in the showroom when you visit.


Picking the Right Living Room Furniture

If you’re choosing furniture for your living room, remember these tips:

  • Determine your design style preference.
  • Familiarize yourself with interiors done in your preferred style.
  • Identify the types of furniture you require by giving your living room some functional context.
  • Precisely measure your living room and draw your plan on paper.
  • Buy quality pieces from a reliable shop.

Al Huzaifa is a luxury furniture shop with more than four showrooms in the United Arab Emirates. We have a free interior design service to help you plan and design your living space in your preferred style using our tasteful furniture, furnishings, and accessories. Shop our curated furniture collection now.