How to decorate a luxury living room: classical style, modern style, or both?

A classical or a modern living room? How do you choose one over the other or create a luxurious combination of the two? This brief guide will help you to orient yourself with these three styles, as well as provide some ideas from which to draw inspiration.

While the choice ultimately depends on our clients’ personal tastes, certain factors will lead us to favour a classical living room over a modern one. When making our choice we must take into account the architecture and layout of the home that we are furnishing, not just in terms of the interior environment, but in terms of the exterior space as well. Furthermore, whether dealing with a house or an apartment building, we must consider the style of the facade. And always remember to keep in mind the sensations that you want the space to convey.

Classical or modern? How to choose the style that is most suitable for your living room.

So how do we choose between different decorating styles? Here are some questions we must ask ourselves before choosing the style with which to furnish a luxury living room:

• Is the home a historic structure or a modern one?
• How are the other rooms furnished?
• Is it a very large space?
• Does the room get natural light?

A historic building will be enhanced and acquire grandeur with a living room that is classically furnished with distinguishing elements like walnut or cherry bookcases, leather armchairs, wood or marble floors, and decorative details like candelabras, vases, Persian rugs, columns, and paintings on the walls.

Meanwhile, if a building is modern in style, opt for modern or classical-modern décor. Likewise, to create space and bring more light into the living room, it is best to choose minimalist furniture in light colour tones. In fact, the modern style is preferable if one wants to create a more luminous environment given that it fills the space less and allows one to play with light and reflections, contrary to the classical style which features materials like dark wood that absorb and withhold light.

Classical Living Room: a Timeless Style

The parlour and living room are notoriously the most “social” rooms in the house, in which guests are welcomed, parties are held, or family members simply gather to relax or enjoy free time together. The classical style is particularly well-suited to this room, conveying a cosy feeling of hospitality and warmth. Play with the accessories and leave generous space between the various pieces of furniture. In this way you will avoid weighing down the environment.

The Elements That Must Be Present in a Classical Living Room

Let’s now take a look at what characteristics a classically furnished living room must possess and what elements must absolutely be present.

• Colours. A classical living room will primarily feature furniture in warm colour tones: brown, gold, beige, bordeaux, wood.
• Materials. Furniture in dark or medium-dark wood, like walnut or cherry, is usually chosen and the furniture is preferably inlaid and with soft contours. For the armchairs opt for leather or fabric.
• The sofa and armchairs. The classical style calls for rounded backrests and armrests and wooden legs or legs covered in the same fabric as the sofa. They must be positioned frontally, with a Persian rug and coffee table in the centre. For the cushions, choose a colour that is close to that of the sofa, but lighter.
• The curtains. Curtains cannot be missing from a classical living room, made strictly from heavy cotton in neutral colours (cream, beige, or white) and tied with a golden chord.
• The accessories. A large chandelier, perhaps crystal or brass, that emits warm light is a must, paired with table lamps and candelabras. Much attention must be paid to the walls, which can be either beige or neutral in colour and on which one can hang paintings by classical artists. Depending on the space, indulge in accessories: decorative columns, ornaments, and sculptures.

8 Aspects of Classical Style From Which to Draw Inspiration

1. Romantic: velvet, pastel colours, and soft shapes for a romantic classical style.
2. Elegant: elegance is at the foundation of a classical living room, but it can be accentuated by neutral shades and more regular shapes.

3. Luscious: furniture with strong contours and darker colours, accompanied by large chandeliers, will turn the living room into a luscious space.
4. Classy: for a classy living room play with shades of pearly grey and milk-white.
5. Retro: Grandma’s furniture makes a comeback, but it’s vintage and must be chosen carefully to avoid a shabby look.
6. Opulent: without becoming tacky, we pair opulent accessories with more simply contoured furniture. Yes to marble and gold, but without overstepping the limits of good taste.
7. Minimalist: Who ever said that a classical living room can’t be minimalist? If the space is small, we can play with the arrangement of just a few pieces of elaborate and elegant furniture and use lighter colour tones like cream or ice grey, paired with gold details to create more light.
8. Sophisticated: a classical living room must be the quintessence of sophistication, but we can enhance this impression by choosing accessories that complete the space without weighing it down, like upscale lamps and paintings.

The Classical-Modern Style: a Luxurious Combination

It sounds like an oxymoron, but combining these two opposing styles is not only possible, but highly recommended for those who want to maintain both the elegance of a classical living room and the brightness of modern décor.

How to Bring Together Classical and Modern Décor

In recent years the tendency to combine classical and modern styles in décor has become more and more popular. But how does one achieve a perfect symbiosis between the two? How do you put a 17^th century piece of furniture in the same room as a contemporary sofa? Let’s take a look at some guidelines to follow for a luxurious result.

Include some vintage elements like a sofa with classical contours, yet reinterpreted with a modern look. If we are planning to create an office corner, we can position an antique wood desk or a classical bookcase in the room, paired with more modern elements like a steel lamp or plexiglass chair.

Create a balance between light and dark colours: if you choose a birch or beechwood floor, balance this with a walnut credenza, but don’t overdo it with dark colours. Meanwhile, if you choose a marble floor, lighten it up with white furniture and a cream coloured sofa.

Focus on lamps and illumination. An excellent solution is to use lighting to bring a modern touch to a classical living room: contemporary lamps and chandeliers pair very well with antique furniture.

4 Examples For a Luxurious Classical-Modern Living Room

Balanced

Find the perfect balance between classical and modern elements.

Symmetrical

Modern furniture with just a few symmetrically positioned classical accessories: a trick for masterfully combining the two styles.

Country-chic

More rounded and romantic shapes, damask fabrics and feminine colours for a classical living room with a touch of country-chic.

Wood, Velvet, and Gold

Art Deco frames, velvet sofas and arm chairs, lavish lamps, and aged wood, accompanied by light coloured wood floors, a square white bookcase, and glass table: little tricks for making a classical living room more modern.

Colours and High-tech Materials: a Modern Style

Why choose a modern style?

In general, a modern style adheres to several fundamental criteria. Here are some indications that will help us to understand if it’s right for us (or our clients):

• The building is of recent construction.
• The other rooms in the house are furnished in a modern style.
• We are looking for an elegant and luxurious style that is also functional.
• We want to combine aesthetics and comfort.
• The environments are large and bright.
• It is an open-space living room.
• We need to include the latest generation of high-tech objects.

Guidelines for Decorating in a Modern and Contemporary Style

A modern living room must adhere to certain fundamental parameters regarding both the accessories and the furniture. Decorating in a modern style requires the use of minimalist and geometric contours, bright spaces, and furniture that is both functional and elegant at the same time. The modern style can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the tastes and needs of the client. It must, in fact, be personalised in order to avoid creating an anonymous environment.

Modern décor is very often a synonym for minimalism, with clean and simple spaces that incorporate high-tech materials. The rule is to subtract as much as possible, keeping just a few designer pieces with harmonious lines and bold colours. The tones are generally neutral for the furniture, but pop out in the accessories which must create the right contrast without clashing.

To ensure that the living room is also elegant and luxurious, we add glass and steel furniture. Open space environments are preferable, in which the parlour and living room coexist. This style must not only be aesthetically pleasing, but must also respond to the various day-to-day requirements of those who live there, without relinquishing comfort.

Lastly, in an elegant modern living room a media wall is a must, characterised by furniture and shelving which house the TV, stereo, and all other high-tech accessories of the latest generation.

High-Tech Devices and Domotics For Your Modern Living Room

No modern living room can be without electronic devices. The latest generation of audio system and a flat or curved screen TV positioned on a media wall are the basis for a respectable high-tech living room.

What makes all the difference is a domotic system which, especially in this area of the home, is fundamental for achieving extreme comfort. Thanks to domotics it’s possible to easily complete a series of actions like turning the lights on and off or memorising a certain combination of commands or configurations and performing them with just a touch of a finger. Let’s take a look at the various forms which domotics can assume in the living room:

Dimmable Illumination

Dimmable Illumination allows one to manage the lighting in the living room either remotely or with a simple voice or touch command. Specifically, it is possible to:

• Adjust the level of illumination
• Automatically adjust the level of illumination at different times of the day
• Turn on accessory lighting fixtures (showcases, recesses with decorative elements, etc.) at certain times
• Program different scenarios: relaxation, party, dinner, and so on and so forth.

Thermoregulation

With domotics it’s possible to set and adjust the temperature of your living room remotely or depending on specific events. This is a function that allows one to optimise energy consumption, safeguarding the environment while at the same time maintaining the ideal climate in the living room.

System Management Via Touch-Screen

Above all domotics means comfort and, thanks to centralised management via touch screen devices, it provides true benefits to daily life. These devices make it possible to monitor the entire home and to manage all of the automatic systems or features in each room, from simply turning on the lights to video monitoring via the online network.

Touch screens also make it possible to remotely view both the interior and exterior of the home, verifying that there are no intruders or verifying the presence or not of damage caused by storms or other factors.

Main Function of Domotics in the Living Room

• Management and monitoring of consumption
• Lighting control
• Dimmable lighting control
• Control of motorised windows/blinds
• Thermoregulation
• Sound system
• System management via touch screen
• Online video monitoring
• Security
• “Movie viewing”, “party with friends” scenarios, etc.
• Radio commands for automated features
• Domotic video entry system

You’ve Chosen Your Style… What now?

Good! You now have all of the information you need to choose the style with which to decorate your luxury living room as well as a few useful suggestions from which to draw inspiration.

We recommend that you become familiar with our various furniture suppliers and accessory manufacturers and put together a list of all of the potential partners that offer furniture and accessories in the style that you have chosen.

Visit our website and read the reviews and articles in the sector’s magazines and blogs that talk about us. Then contact us to receive a complete and updated catalogue.