No matter the size of your household, the family room is designed for comfort and enjoyment. Therefore, it's important that it reflects the way you'll use the space together. Family rooms often act as playrooms, TV rooms, and game rooms—sometimes all at once.
Make this a space that's made for all the ways your family likes to unwind, while keeping your home's design style top of mind. The necessary functions of the room will guide what type of furniture you need and how you arrange it. As for family room decor, reach for colors, patterns, and textures you find inviting, energizing, or playful. Gather inspiration from these family room design ideas to create a space no one will want to leave.
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Family Room Furniture
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Everyone likes room to stretch out, so if you have the space and the budget, opt for oversized furniture. This extra long couch meets its match in the hefty coffee table, large television, and built-ins that span the length of the room. With everything in a larger scale, nothing looks out of place.
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Small Family Room
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For a small family room, choose furniture you know you'll use. Comfortable seating and functional pieces are a must. Be smart with storage by mixing cabinets and open shelves depending on your needs.
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Family Room Accent Wall
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If your family watches a lot of movies together, create a movie-theater-like feel with a TV wall. Use a dark paint color on the wall behind the television to help it blend in when not in use. The low storage unit used here is not only the perfect height for a television, but it's also an easy place to tuck games, toys, and accessories.
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Basem*nt Family Room
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Since it's a space designed for those you love to spend time with, decorate your family room by displaying personal or sentimental objects. Use shelves or a gallery wall to show off your favorite art, vacation souvenirs, or family photos.
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Family Room Gallery Wall
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Install a gallery wall in your family room to display a rotating cast of family photography and handmade art. A gallery wall is also the perfect way disguise your television by ensuring it's not the only thing of interest on that wall.
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Create Conversation
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You may not want a television in your family room, and that's totally okay. In that case, create circular seating with plenty of comfortable options to keep conversation flowing. Keep books, a music player, and any other hobbies handy to get more use out of the space.
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Family Room Entertainment Center
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It's totally possible to find a modern piece of furniture to house (and hide) your television. This handsome barn door-inspired piece tucks away the TV when it's not in use to show off the decor and books that line the shelves.
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Family Room Seating Ideas
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It's common to orient the seating toward a television or fireplace in a family room. Adding an extra chair facing the couch adds more function to the room and makes conversation easier.
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Family Room Lighting
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Whether you're knitting, reading, or watching a movie, a family room should have the right lighting for the task. Opt for lamps and sconces at different heights to create mood and task lighting that's cozy and not harsh.
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Sectional Seating
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An L-shaped sectional is one of the most functional seating options for a family room. It allows for conversation and game play, while affording everyone a good view of the television. Sofas also allow you to stretch out more comfortably, so they're a no-brainer in the room designed for comfort.
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Open Concept Family Room
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Using a neutral palette allows all the spaces in an open concept home to flow together easily. This family room incorporates gray, brown, black, and white, which can be seen repeated in the kitchen beyond. Choose a rug or carpet, like the jute one used her, to delineate zones in an open space.
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Soft Furnishings
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Comfort is the main priority in a family room, so choose inviting items, like a tufted ottoman that doubles as a coffee table. If you have young kids, this also helps make the room a safe place for them to play since there aren't many harsh corners.
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Family Room Rug Ideas
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High pile carpet or a fluffy area rug signal that it's time to relax and get cozy. Plus, they can make playing on the floor a lot more comfortable. To disguise any stains or crumbs, choose a mid-tone rug like this one or a rug with a detailed pattern.
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Functional Fabric Choices
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Relaxed fabrics like denim, a wool shag rug, and Ikat curtains send a message that this is a space to relax. Even better, these are hard-wearing fabrics that can handle spills and messes. Look for upholstery in natural fibers or washable performance fabrics to keep your family room looking fresh.
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Serene Color Palette
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Shades of blue and gray make this family room a calming spot to unwind at the end of the day. Ensure a cool color palette doesn't feel cold by mixing in warm accents, such as the natural wood tones and yellow and orange accessories.
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Family Room Lighting Ideas
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Cozy lighting that doesn't create reflections is essential in a family room. Use lamps with fabric shades or directional lighting, such as this whimsical chandelier that directs light toward the ceiling to create a warm glow, rather than harsh downward light.
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Create a Multipurpose Space
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Ideally, family room provides space for everyone in the family to do what they enjoy. Create zones so that everyone can hang out while doing their own thing. These zones might include watching TV, working on a puzzle, reading, or floor play.
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Family Room Seating Ideas
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Include flexible seating like leather poufs and seating in different areas to allow for different uses of the room. A footrest for one person's solo reading time becomes a seat when you host a group for game night.
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Cozy Family Room Ideas
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Natural wood finishes are the perfect material for a cozy family room den. Bringing wood, especially darker stains, into your family room in the floors, furniture, or even the ceiling, will warm up the space and make it feel more like a retreat.
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Use Playful Colors
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The family room is the perfect space to experiment with daring hues that show the fun side of your design personality. Try out daring combinations, like the gray blue walls, royal blue built-ins, and sea green accents in this family room.
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Traditional Family Room
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Makeover your modern open concept family room into a timeless space with traditional decor pieces and classic upholstery. This fresh space gets a dose of old world charm, thanks to antique ceramics, velvet furniture, and fabric lampshades. Symmetry, seen in the lighting and the layout of the built-ins is another way to add a sense of formality in a modern and casual space.
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Facing Sofas
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Facing sofas toward each other encourages conversation and shifts the focus away from the television. If you're worried about viewing the TV comfortably, test out the arrangement with furniture you already have or add extra seating for TV-watching, such as the two armchairs here.
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Add a Book Nook
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Make space for bookshelves and comfy seating for reading. Forward-facing built-in book racks make choosing a book more accessible for ccccl*ttle kids, and can be used to display art or coffee table books in the future.
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Apply Bold Pattern
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You can take risks in a family room that you might not take elsewhere, such as creating an entire chalk wall or installing a rope railing. You don't have to do anything too permanent, either. The zig-zag carpet is made of easy-to-remove carpet squares, and the patterned blue stairs could be painted over.
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Wall-to-Wall Storage
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A family room often houses a lot of stuff, from toys and games to televisions, gaming units, and sound systems. A hardworking storage unit will keep everything organized and out of sight. Here, lower cabinets provide easy access for kids, and larger cabinets above could store electronics
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Family Room Storage Options
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With the right storage solutions, your family room can hold games and toys galore and still look chic. Install out-of-the-way shelving for games and books, and use storage ottomans, which can also act as tables and footrests.
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Create an Oasis with Pattern
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All-over pattern has a magical enveloping effect that automatically makes you feel cozy and tucked away. Thus it's the perfect design choice to employ in a family room, where you might spend hours on a movie marathon. Choose one pattern, or mix in a complimentary pattern and solid colors to break things up, like they did here.
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Playful Accessories
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Look for ways to inject a sense of fun with the furniture and accessories you choose for your family room. These dice ottomans add extra seating that bridges the gaps between form and function and kid and grown-up decor.
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Sophisticated Family Room
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Decorate your family room in a way that makes you feel comfortable in relaxed. This French country inspired room features a fireplace and a cleverly disguised television surrounded by classic furniture with a rustic twist.
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Bold Paint Treatments
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Stripes on the fireplace surround ensure the feeling of this room stays lighthearted. The stripes also draw your eye away from the tv, creating a second focal point in the room.
