10 Small Living Room Storage Ideas to Open Up Your Floor Plan
You’re not dreaming; your living room really does seem to be shrinking each time you get a fresh candle or throw a blanket home. Small areas get filled quickly, and using the wrong storage solutions will make a room appear even smaller than it currently does. Good news? A few clever changes will help to free up floor space while still maintaining the coziness that gives a living room its lived-in feel.
Ten storage solutions follow that use color, texture, and clever placement to let your little living room breathe a bit more. There is something here for you whether you’re seeking little living room storage ideas that also serve as decoration or you just get tired of stumbling over piles of magazines.
Floating Wall Shelves in Warm Oak for an Airy Small Living Room
Floating Wall Shelves in Warm Oak is useful for an airy small living room. One of the simplest ideas for freeing up floor space is to position shelves on the ceiling, and warm oak does the trick to keep things from being cold. Install a handful of offset shelves over the sofa or entertainment center and you’ve got room for books, plants and framed photos without sacrificing precious floor space.
The key to small living room shelving is control. Don’t over fill each inch. Separate objects with space to leave the wall open. One trailing plant, two or three books, one meaningful object per shelf generally looks better than a shelf filled to the brim.
Storage Ottoman in Sage Green Velvet for a Cozy Living Room
Here’s a magic trick: A bench with a built-in storage compartment! It appears from the outside to be a good place to relax and place your feet. Open the lid, however, and you have a secret hiding spot for blankets, remotes or children’s toys that just get roomed around the carpet!
Sage green velvet brings a luxurious, somewhat somber feel to a space, particularly in a room that leans towards a cozy style of small living room. Match it with a neutral fabric upholstery for the ottoman to create a soft accent that doesn’t take the place of all the other items in the space.
Built-In Bookshelves in Deep Navy for a Bold Small Living Room
Grand old houses with high ceilings are not the only ones for built-ins. Letting floor to ceiling shelving run around a fireplace or window is another space-saving idea for a small living room, as it compliments the wall instead of taking up precious floor space, and will house a whole library without disturbing walking patterns.
The inside of the shelving is painted a deep navy to create depth and to make the items on display “pop” like a backdrop in a gallery. While it is a more daring choice than just white shelving, it helps to set off the space in a smaller room.
Floating Media Console in Warm Walnut for a Sleek Living Room
The key, with a media console mounted to the wall rather than legs, is that it allows you to notice the floor underneath you. The exposed patch of floor deceives the eye by making the room appear larger than it is.
Warm walnut colors add richness without weight, and most floating consoles still have enough clearance for game consoles, cable boxes and the leftover mess of cords you don’t want to see. When looking to achieve a clean, sleek living room style, this is one of the more prominent changes you can make.
Corner Shelves in Soft Terracotta for a Warm Living Room Nook
The corner shelves in soft terracotta will create a warm corner nook for your living room. Most living rooms have the most underused real estate at its corners. This clever little corner shelf uses a multi-level design to create a functional little space to display books, candles or a handful of ceramics in a soft terracotta or painted finish.
This is one of the corner shelf ideas for small spaces that few people discuss, and that is likely because corners don’t seem to be an easy place to work around. When you’ve installed shelving, though, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t sooner. Specifically, Terracotta heats up a corner that perhaps could have been a throwaway.
Ladder Shelf in Charcoal for a Modern Minimalist Living Room
Both ladder shelves are angled against the wall, and they feel light, almost sculptural, when compared to a bookcase with square sides. If your living room is already filled with kids, pets, and daily chaos, it doesn’t matter if it has a charcoal color finish or not, as it won’t feel too delicate or precious.
Ladder shelves have a narrow base and are suitable for narrow spaces that may lie alongside a sofa or window that would not fit a standard piece of furniture. It’s a shape that requires a lot of visual work and has less bulk for anyone that is attracted to a modern minimalist living room.
Cozy Cream & Black Open-Plan Living Room with Warm Candlelight
Open plan living rooms can present storage problems too as there’s no definite wall to press furniture against. A cream and black color scheme can help guide the eye around the room and smart storage solutions, such as a black console or a cream shelving unit, can be useful to create a soft barrier between the areas.
The high contrast of cream and black is will soften up by the addition of candlelight, or warm-toned lamps that give the appearance of candlelight, in the room to make it feel more comfortable. Place a storage bench or console along a visual line and you will have a non-obtrusive partition between your living room and dining area.
Sage Green Accent Living Room with Natural Wood Warmth
When you’re looking at sage green, you’ll find that it can make a room feel very relaxing, but not cold, particularly when it’s in contrast with natural wood colors. Consider pairing an open wood shelving unit with a sage accent wall or upholstered wall, which will provide texture and depth that a plain paint finish won’t.
Whether used for storage, wood shelving is more inclined to blend in with the wall color, rather than be the focal point of the “storage. In fact it’s what you want in a small space – pieces that serve both as useful storage and as purposeful decoration.
Warm Terracotta Living Room with Earthy Mediterranean Vibes
Terracotta as a complete-room palette works well with woven baskets, rattan bookcases, and other natural elements to create an earthy, sunbaked warmth. Particularly underappreciated storage heroes, baskets hide clutter while also giving texture at almost no cost.
If you want that Mediterranean touch, pile a few woven baskets under a console table or next to the couch. They appear purposeful even when serving as a catch-all for blankets, books, or children’s toys.
Warm Mocha Living Room with Rich Cozy Natural Textures
Mocha colors are popular for a reason: they match almost any fabric—leather, linen, boucle, you name it—warm without being overly brilliant. A mocha-colored storage bench or cabinet grounds a little living room while keeping it warm and friendly.
Include natural textures such woven baskets or jute carpets for surfaces; your storage pieces start to seem like part of the story of the room instead of late-attached practical afterthoughts.
Bringing It All Together
Small living rooms certainly need not trade style for utility and need not feel constrained. Usually doing two things simultaneously, the top small space storage options both free the floor and help to make it look nice. Floating shelves, ottomans with concealed compartments, corner nooks, and deliberately painted built-ins can all help to enlarge a space only by providing somewhere for clutter to go.
Start with one or two modest adjustments instead of totally renovating the space at once. From there, you can keep building toward the warm, clutter-free area you want, even with one floating shelf or a well-placed storage ottoman.
