Successfully blending living and dining areas can be an interior challenge. We’ve some of the most inspiring ideas on how to seamlessly, yet distinctively, combine these two spaces in your home. Check out these tips and design concepts for creating the perfect combined dining and living room.
Scandinavian style
Take inspiration from the Nordic approach to textures and hues. Fuse your space with a herringbone floor pattern in the same material throughout both rooms to draw them together. Keep the feel sleek but inviting with functional furniture and simple accessories. The Danish philosophy of “hygge” - the concept of quiet comfort - has become increasingly popular and is a cultural category of its own. Channel wellness and contentment in your living space by adding cosy accents. Make your dual rooms a sanctuary - layer your soft furnishings with eye-catching additions like cushions and throws. Use similar rugs in both areas to link the two spaces together.
Modern and minimalist
If your preference is clean and sharp, how about using monochrome as your principal palette and creating a yin and yang ambience across your two rooms? Monochrome will never go out of style. This spa-like approach works well if you have plenty of light. Black used in dark furnishings against natural wood flooring and white walls can work beautifully to make your space feel open and contemporary.
Coordinate your colours
Picking a colour palette and sticking to it is an effective way to combine living and dining room. Mix your muted tones for larger pieces of furniture and tie both rooms together with a single accent colour. Being consistent with your fabrics can also pull a space together – especially if your rooms are compact. A functional mix of pendant lighting in the dining room and floor lamps in the living room will define each area and create distinctive ambiance. Modern pendant lights or a single showpiece hung over a dining table is a visual clue that the area is separate, yet part of a whole.
A room of two halves
If you’re keen to keep the living room and dining room separate, how about a partition? Putting up an internal dividing wall is relatively straightforward, gives each space its own identity, and you won’t need planning permission – unless you live in a listed building. Sounds like hard work? A folding screen is an economic and stylish solution to break up a room and offers privacy, too. You might even try tall plants or a large bookshelf. You can also use lighting and artwork to divide a room whilst making it look like an intentional design choice.
Transforming your combined layout is easier than you might think, so don’t be afraid to experiment with concepts. With every improvement you make to your home, you create a more unique and inviting place for your family and guests.
See how a smart interior layout can unify a space in this refined three-bedroom London flat.
