Soft Furnishing Week with Vaishali Sinha - Brightening up a Living Room

All of you out there who are struggling to kid-proof your sofa or other furnishings will love this post! Check out the conversation between a Z Customer and Vaishali Sinha!

Query: I did up my living room in a cream and brown combination. My queries are this:

1. I opted brown furnishing for my sofa the rationale being I have a 5 yr old in the house and the sofa and chairs (to put it mildly) are highly abused. Things are forever getting spilled on it. Though it has served the purpose well so far I wish I could do something to brighten up the room. Should I try colorful pillows or should I change the upholstery of the sofa's? Again if its upholstery change that you suggest what fabric - color & material would go well with the rest of the decor and also not show stains

2. As you can see the wall the TV is against is pretty plain. I'm thinking of getting a wall mounted TV unit sometime this year. In which case can I highlight that wall by painting or wall paper? which is better? Also there are quite some curios that we have collected (not big pieces but small ones, which I would like to display. Is it a good idea to do that on that wall & if so could you suggest a way I can do that without cluttering?

Thanks in advance for taking the time out to resolve my queries!

Vaishali's Response:

Hi!! I have a 7 year old too & I completely empathize as to how difficult it is to keep your sofas stain free.

The LIVING ROOM looks very bare. The sofa is brown with brown textured upholstery with beige colour rug, with off white walls with light beige flooring. Except a Madhubani painting there is nothing else on the walls.
YOU NEED SOME COLOUR, SOME PATTERN & A BIT MORE FURNITURE to make the place look more warm & welcoming.

To begin with:-- The upholstery seem to have a textured look (stripy texture). You can change the upholstery to be a solid colour (any neutral colour is fine too). If your wish to use textured upholstery then it should be non-directional - it provides a clean background for colours & patterns to be thrown on.

- Get a coloured rug & of a bigger size ( like ochre yellow, burnt red, wine colour or rust or olive.... ). You can use beige too BUT then we will need to throw in some coloured poufs or floor cushions.

- Once you get your rug you know what cushions to coordinate with.

- You may need to add a centre table too.

- I cannot make out the layout of the room very clearly BUT it seems you do have corners to put a curio cabinet.

- The walls:-
A) You could do a single large painting on the wall BUT getting a single painting can be expensive & you need to really hunt for the right piece that you would like to own for a long period of time.
B) You can make a collage of small wall arts to create an interesting wall decor...this gives you flexibility of a lot of mix & match BUT you must plan the layout of the collage...with proper measurements.

For your second query on the wall behind the TV - wall paper sure can add life to the room. I am enclosing 2 suggestions - hope it helps!

Best Wishes!