Houston Interior Designer Danna Smith Shares Her Living Room Design Tips That’ll Surely Be Conversation Starters

Fall is almost here! I can feel the cool air coming and hear the fall season knocking on the door. I’m so excited to welcome all that comes with this change of season. One of my favorite parts of fall is all of the home gatherings it brings with it! If you find it difficult to plan a fall gathering, it might not be your fault. You may just need a better living room layout for conversation. My team and I love incorporating these conversation areas into our clients’ homes throughout Houston, Texas. I’m going to show you how, too! 

I Love Cozy Fall Gatherings

As the cozy fall season peeks around the corner, many of us think of all our family members and friends coming into our homes and enjoying each other’s company. You may be weary of having too many folks over, but when you have a functional furniture layout, your family gatherings will always be a success. 

I know I have mentioned how my parents would host many family gatherings when I was growing up. Christmas time was by far my favorite time of year. My mother always made sure everyone had a place to sit and visit. Creating different conversation areas throughout our home made the evenings fun, memorable, and exciting over the years!

How to Plan a Living Room Layout for Better Conversation

Here are my five tips for designing a living room layout that will encourage your guests to sit and stay awhile!  

1. Create Multiple Conversation Areas

When having several guests over, you want to be sure everyone is having a good time and can have conversations around the room. Most importantly, are your guests comfortable talking around the room, and does your layout facilitate this?  

Think about the living room space first. When hosting a larger gathering, guests need multiple places to land. The ability to move throughout the room is essential when hosting a group of people in one space. We want to make sure there is enough space for guests to walk from grouping to grouping without anything impeding their path. 

We also want to ensure that your guests are not sectioned off by the layout. If possible, avoid any type of traffic bottleneck in your space. Keep things open and create as much open space as possible to facilitate a social flow. 

2. Let the Sofa Take Center Stage 

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of socializing at home? Is your sofa the focal point of this vision? Likely so! Let’s think beyond just the sofa, though the sofa is definitely one grouping or conversation area and is considered the room’s focal point. 

3. Incorporate Other Seating Options 

Upholstered Ottomans

A pair of upholstered ottomans is another opportunity for a small conversation area.

A Pair of Chairs

Another option, if space is available, is to have two sofas and a pair of chairs in the space. The sofas can match or not, as long as they coordinate! We did this for another special client in the Memorial area.

Try a Fireplace Setting

Our design team has even used a fireplace setting for a conversation area that we recently created for one of our Houston clients. We incorporated decorative seat cushions, colorful pillows, and a beautiful bench in the entry that can be used as another element of seating. A stand-alone bench in front of a fireplace can also be added to the mix if needed.

4. Light up the Conversation

 Lighting is another way of defining conversation areas in your home! Our Houston interior designers like to add layers of lighting in the form of table lamps, floor lamps, or even accent lighting that helps define areas or zones in the room. Having interesting accessories and art helps spur conversation as well. Colorful art hanging above a pair of chairs can create instant conversation.

Rugs also help to create different zones in your home by defining a clear border. They not only add color and texture to your space but also offer style and comfort underfoot.

5. Gather in the Kitchen, Too! 

Now, I know we are focusing on the living room, but let’s not forget about the kitchen!  Talk about a natural gathering spot with food and drink at your fingertips. It’s no secret that many refer to the kitchen as the heart of the home. Our kitchens can frequently be the best spot for gathering. Oftentimes, there are hors d’oeuvres to munch on, or maybe the kitchen connects to the outdoor entertaining space. 

If you frequently host gatherings in your kitchen, make sure that guests have ample access to food and drinks. Do you have bar seating or a kitchen table with seating? 

Adding a home bar is a great way to upgrade your kitchen’s hosting capacity. Big or small, a home bar can create a classy and intimate feel for your gathering. 

If your kitchen flows directly into your living room, we recommend preparing both areas for hosting. This will expand your hosting space and create an inviting and functional feel for your guests! 

A Look at Living Room Redesigns in Houston, Texas  

Our Uptown Park client has a couple of full seating areas that can easily be turned into multiple conversation groupings. The photo below shows a beautiful grand piano in the living space, which serves as a regal centerpiece. The sofa and chairs you see can easily be turned into a couple of groupings, with enough space to sit on the sofa and have conversations with someone else in each chair.

Let’s also consider a pair of chairs for a more intimate gathering. You can even group these up to three or four chairs to accommodate your group size. Take a look at the photo below with its colorful chairs. Sidenote: The grouping shows three colorful chairs, but truth be told, there are actually four chairs. The photo with only three chairs made a better photograph! 

Upholstered in comfortable fabrics, they are visually attractive and practically begging to host a pleasant conversation. We created this type of conversation area with a couple of our favorite clients. 

You can recreate this grouping of four chairs with identical chairs or use two pairs that coordinate in style with similar lines. For one of our clients, we chose to do a matching group of four chairs. One client wanted all-white upholstery, and the other preferred a more colorful approach to her furniture. You can see in the preceding photos how these different interpretations came to be.

Make Your Living Room a Delightful Place to Host 

Next time you prepare for a gathering with friends and family, make sure you have multiple groupings for conversations and fun. If you are having trouble creating those, give us a call. We will be happy to help you. Until next time, let your creative juices flow!

-Danna

Meet Danna, A Luxury Interior Designer in Houston

Danna Smith has more than 30 years of experience in the design industry. She has been a buyer and merchandiser for four luxury showrooms in Houston and Dallas. Smith teaches an evening course at Houston Community College to nurture her passion for developing future design stars. Since joining Pamela Hope Designs in 2015, she has worked on some of her most beautiful and innovative projects yet.

Meet the Rest of Our Houston Interior Design Team