On the one hand, a statement piece, be that a jewel-coloured sofa or show-stopping marble sculpture, is about acting as a beacon which draws the eye unlike any other item in your living room; on the other, statement possessions can be unassuming things that wait to be noticed and then behave as anything but a wallflower. (The saying, 'It’s always the quiet ones' rings true in this design scenario.)
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7 Ways To Make a Statement In Your Living Room
Make sure your living room leaves a lasting first impression
By Joanne Quinn, Senior Interior Designer
The question is, how loud and proud do you want your living room statement to be, and what's your tool of choice? Read on to find out a few of my favourite unique furniture pieces and special decor to make a statement in your interior.
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1. Statement Sofas & Chairs
In a lounge setting, the obvious place to make some noise is in the upholstery. Turn to a statement chair if the scale of a sofa feels intimidating, and remember that it’s not always a case of fabric choice; the style and shape of your furniture plays its part in causing a stir too.
In this soaring ceiling Goddard Littlefair living room there’s both a statement sofa—hard to deny it this status because of the lustrous tangerine orange velvet fabric—and two statement chairs whose rounded tub shape cuts a sharp contrast in comparison to the other clean-lined silhouettes in the room.
Furniture that wants to be heard can be about volume and vibrancy, or simply what grabs your eye and steals its focus away from another element in the room.
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2. Statement Furniture
There are some staple pieces in the living room, such as table surfaces and storage providers, that are just what the style doctor ordered when you're looking to stand out from the crowd. Statement furniture can be interpreted by:
Choose a coffee table in an unexpected material, like a glossy granite rather than wood or glass. Or supersize your piece. Increase the dimensions and it’ll be hard to ignore.
Develop your colour palette by using furniture as an way to introduce an accent hue. It might be a vibrant emerald green sofa or a deep wine armchair, it doesn't matter—what matters is that it's decidedly not neutral.
Could you invite a piece of furniture that’s not typically seen in a living room like an antique-inspired escritoire that you’ve styled as a bar? Or perhaps you discover a maverick design whose statement only becomes clear when it’s in use, allowing you to appreciate its ingenious and intriguing functionality. Be as playful as you'd like.
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3. Statement Lighting
This can be one of the most mesmerising spectacles your living room gets to see. Statement lighting is not purely a case of choosing a beguiling light source, but knowing how to apply it to the room.
Elicyon’s contemporary chandelier is a case in point. Statement-worthy because of the beautiful simplicity in every slender shaft of light, but also because of the arresting effect they have, en masse, suspended from the ceiling where it feels as though you’re under a shower of shooting stars or torrents of golden rain. Illumination is where the statement is three-fold—the light itself, the illumination provided, and the transformative outcome it has on the entire living room.
4. Statement Artwork
Furniture and lighting step aside, because statement artwork has the potential to usurp everything else in the room for one basic reason—art is a spectator sport. While your eye will naturally read everything in a living room scheme, most of the larger items there are for use. Sofas and chairs are to be sat on, coffee tables and side tables serve as resting places for drinks and magazines and so forth.
Artwork though is there to be viewed, absorbed and admired. It’s known for being a window to the owner’s soul, their preferences and peculiarities. Art says a lot about a person, so the statement runs pretty deep. Take the art larger than life, of course, and the statement becomes all the more vocal, just as the sultry Greg Natale living room pictured.
Image credit: Image Credit: Greg Natale
Image credit: Image Credit: Greg Natale
5. Statement Mirrors
You can have real fun with statement mirrors and their design is the first point to note. Much like a piece of art, a mirror’s frame adds decoration, texture and personality to interior decoration.
With a mirror, a living room can suddenly have a Baroque dimension, a Sub-Saharan vibe or a beach chic undertone that wouldn’t be out of place in The Hamptons. They make their presence felt and are more than capable of carrying big character.
The glass itself can be a statement-maker as much as the frame if you choose a playful fishbowl effect or an angular shape—a triangular or hexagonal mirror is bound to catch your eye.
The other side to a mirror’s statement is what you’re choosing to reflect. Position it cunningly and you’ll be able to reflect back your room’s protagonist so you can appreciate the same statement twice.
6. Statement Rugs
Take things to the floor and you’ll step straight into and onto a statement. By thinking feet-first, a statement rug brings a dose of drama to your flooring and means that there’s the hum of something brave and bold that grounds the entire scheme.
While many interior designers will urge you to get the biggest rug both you can your room can afford that doesn’t mean there’s no place for smaller rugs. You can use these to highlight a smaller zone in your living room in a way that will change the pace and set a fresh tone.
For example, if you’ve allocated a portion of the room to a petite dining table and chair setup, a statement rug helps to delineate it as an area with a different function.
Similarly, if you want a cosy reading corner, seek out a smaller sheepskin or loop-pile rug and the statement will very eloquently say—this is where things get cool, calm and collected.
Image credit: Image Credit: Rug’ Society
Image credit: Image Credit: Greg Natale
7. Statement Wallpaper
From walls to floor and back again, but this time the statement is more about the two-dimensional than the three. Paint colour is one approach for making a splash on your living room walls, but the resurgence of wallpaper is where you can flood them with pattern, print, texture and a plethora of tones.
Decide whether your wallpaper’s going to pick up on one of the existing colours in the room or reference one that’s yet to be used. Whether it’s going to repeat a pattern seen on your upholstery and simply take it to a bigger scale or if you want to try something new and diverse. Finally whether you want to wallpaper every wall in sight or to make a feature with just one. It’s the elegant and enduring grown-up’s graffiti.
