The Outdated Furniture Combo To Avoid Using In Your Living Room

Something feels off in your living room design, and you can't quite pinpoint what it is. Is it the color palette? The textures? The shapes of your furniture? It could be any of those things, but one of the common mistakes people make when designing their living room is sticking to the dated design rule of styling a matching loveseat and sofa. Technically, there is no hard and fast rule that your living room furniture should or should not match, since it is up to personal preference. However, designers have shared some living room design guidelines that say matching furniture sets can appear stiff and outdated. Further, alternative seating arrangements in living spaces are trendy. For some, this can mean ditching the traditional sofa in place of chairs, ottomans, modular furniture, or poufs for a more relaxed conversation space.

There are a few reasons for this shift. First, matching furniture sets in general have become outdated as designers encourage choosing a mix of colors, patterns, and shapes for more visual variety to prevent the living room from looking dull. However, there has also been a change in how to space your living room furniture to spark more conversation and entertainment value. Using chairs or modular furniture offers more versatility and can nix the struggle of finding the best seat without being separated from others. Interior designer Regan Billingsley of Regan Billingsley Interiors stressed to Livingetc that a set of four chairs can provide more flexibility and comfort.

When changing up your living room layout, there are a few options. You might consider taking the no-sofa route and use four armchairs surrounding a coffee table or ottoman for a conversational setup. You don't have to match the chairs, either. In fact, designer Whitney Durham of Whitney Durham Interiors thinks it often looks more curated if pieces are bought and added over time. While you could replace a sofa with a lounger, ottoman, or go all in with armchairs, some homeowners might prefer to keep the sofa and nix the matching loveseat. When doing so, use two to three additional chairs and arrange them around the sofa in a U-shape to create a conversation zone.

That being said, updating your living room layout is more than just furniture swaps. If you want to keep your sofa but create a secondary conversational spot in your living space, you might add multiple seating areas like HGTV designer Nate Berkus suggested on Instagram. He features a smaller sofa with a few accent chairs and footstools around a coffee table in one area, and an extra loveseat, side table, and accent chair setup in the corner of the room.