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THE ROOM STUDY · ROOMS

Living rooms with something to say.

A living room can have beautiful pieces and still feel unsettled. The difference often lies in how they sit together: the reach of a rug, the scale of a picture, the space between two chairs. Explore eclectic sitting rooms, warm minimalism and confident colour, with the palettes, furniture and decisions behind each design.

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26 room studies

Cream chaise sofa, cane-sided armchair and chestnut coffee table in a warm neutral living room, with blue-line Scribbles artwork and moss cushions.ROOM 01 · Living Room

Room to stretch out

A chaise takes up a fair amount of floor. Here it earns the space: there is somewhere to put your feet up, a chair for company and a clear way past both. The pale upholstery leaves the blue line in the artwork unusually visible.

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Cobalt sitting room with a cream sofa, orange velvet chair, square oak-and-steel table and olive-green mango abstract above a black fireplace.ROOM 02 · Living Room

The cobalt sitting room

There is very little hesitation in these cobalt walls or the orange velvet chair. The broad cream sofa makes that confidence easier to live with: it gives the eye a substantial pale area before the olive-green painting complicates the colour again.

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Green-framed conservatory with a pale reclaimed-wood dining table and matching seat benches cropped in the foreground, burnt-orange sofa, ochre armchair and open garden doors.ROOM 09 · Living Room

The conservatory that feels like a room

A rust sofa, mustard armchair and two useful tables give this conservatory a life beyond the garden view. Here is how the furniture, rugs and lighting make it somewhere to stay.

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Airy coastal living room with a cream sofa, rounded cream chair, pale timber storage coffee table, woven rug and portrait-format Coastal Tones artwork.ROOM 10 · Living Room

Coastal without the clichés

The view is lovely, but it won't hold a cup or put the remote away. A broad sofa, curved chair and storage coffee table make this coastal room useful even when nobody is looking outside. Mineral blue appears in the artwork and textiles, leaving the furniture free of seaside costume.

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Warm-white living room with a curved cream sofa, black boucle chair, black elm coffee table on brass supports and abstract Bird artwork.ROOM 12 · Living Room

The graphic monochrome room

A curved cream sofa faces a black elm table, with a dark textured chair beside it. Bird’s angular artwork gives this monochrome room a sharper line above the softer furniture.

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Compact cream living room with an orange velvet sofa, oak nesting coffee tables, round white dining table, black chairs and Open Gate architectural artwork.ROOM 13 · Living Room

The tiny flat with confidence

A small flat still needs a sofa you want to sit on. This one gets the main wall and commits to orange; nesting tables handle the tighter space in front. By the window, a compact dining corner leaves somewhere to eat when the sofa is occupied.

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Daylit Dutch-inspired sitting room with a stone two-seat sofa, cane and linen armchair, round reclaimed-wood coffee table, pale geometric rug and unlit jute-shaded floor lamp.ROOM 40 · Living Room

The settled minimalist living room

A stone-coloured sofa, cane armchair and weathered timber table make this Dutch-inspired living room feel settled, with a clear place to sit and talk.

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Plum walls, ochre velvet and a dark floral artwork give this Victorian reception its weight. A generous patterned rug gathers the seating around a round glass table.ROOM 46 · Living Room

The plum reception room

The open doorway is part of the sitting arrangement. A round glass table gathers the seats without turning the route to the next room into an obstacle course.

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Long aubergine family room with wine velvet sofas, brown swivel chairs, two tan patterned rugs and three figurative artworks beside garden windows.ROOM 58 · Living Room

The family room with two centres

A long family room need not make everyone watch the same thing. Wine-coloured sofas, tobacco chairs and two patterned rugs divide this garden-facing space into a place for conversation and a quieter television end.

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Long living room with a clear passage beside tan cantilever chairs, a brown two-seat sofa, round wire-base coffee table, walnut-coloured panelling, chartreuse garden wall and framed geological photography.ROOM 75 · Living Room

A long sitting room, without the corridor

Long living rooms often make poor conversation rooms: the furniture retreats to the walls and everyone sits too far apart. A compact sofa, two cantilever chairs and one round table gather this room to one side, leaving a clear route to the garden.

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A low-ceilinged TV snug with a brick lightwell window, black screen wall and media cabinet, apricot sofa wall, brown leather sofa, brass reading lamp and woven artwork.ROOM 85 · Living Room

Black and apricot, after the television goes off

A television can dominate a room for all the hours it is switched off. Soft-black walls take some emphasis from the screen, while apricot, low leather seating and a reading lamp give this lower-ground snug another reason to be used.

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An olive corner sofa and wine-finished round coffee table in a cream garden room with terracotta tiles, oxblood glazed doors, an oak reading chair and mineral artwork.ROOM 94 · Living Room

The garden room after the wicker

A room beside the garden can end up furnished as though nobody plans to stay. Here, olive upholstery, a weighty round table and a proper reading chair give the enclosed veranda a life of its own.

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A converted schoolhouse living room with tall windows, plum walls, a pink velvet sofa, two citron armchairs, a clover-shaped marble table and red figurative artwork.ROOM 100 · Living Room

A room for staying up

Tall windows are a gift. A conversation spread across a former classroom is less appealing. This room pulls pink velvet and citron chairs into a close group, leaving the schoolhouse its height and giving the evening somewhere to settle.

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Wide timber pavilion with a brown leather sofa, two low sling chairs, a graphic wool rug and cherry-red artwork beside corner glazing.ROOM 101 · Living Room

The October room with nowhere to rush

The garden is expansive; the sitting group is close enough for a conversation. Brown leather, open teak frames and a celadon wall give this timber self-build a place to settle on an October afternoon.

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Violet 1930s sitting room with a sofa and two armless chairs gathered around a clear centre, a hearth mirror and several pools of lamplight.ROOM 102 · Living Room

Lamplight in the violet room

The ceiling does not need to light every evening. Three lower pools of light pick out the seats and shelves in this violet front room, leaving the space between them less insistent.

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Bright contemporary apartment with stone leather sofa, sculptural pale chair, glass coffee table and a geometric wool rug.ROOM 103 · Living Room

Pale leather, blue wool

The coffee table leaves the rug visible, and the storage stays on one wall. This pale apartment has room for everyday things without putting them all in the sitting area.

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Tomato-red sitting room with a continuous coloured wall, pale sofa, red velvet chair, marble table and pastel rug.ROOM 104 · Living Room

The tomato-red room without drama

The red is doing a practical job: it gathers the shelves and cupboards into one wall. A pale sofa and lilac return let that large area of colour remain distinct from the seats.

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Long cornflower-blue extension with an oak dining table in the foreground and a separate sitting group beside the garden glazing.ROOM 105 · Living Room

The long room with two lives

An extension can add floor area without adding a place to settle. This long Edwardian rear addition gives sitting and dining their own centres, joined by a clear route to the garden.

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Modern country sitting room at Christmas, with a lightly decorated tree, pale sofa, grey tweed chair and small red portable lamp.ROOM 107 · Living Room

Christmas without the Christmas shop

A Christmas tree should join a room, not evict its furniture. This modern country sitting room keeps its pale upholstery, silver-blue notes and clear routes, adding the season through small lights and a little greenery.

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Stone cottage sitting room with a brown leather sofa facing a log burner, long timber coffee table and framed flower painting.ROOM 108 · Living Room

The fireplace room for November

A stone cottage can become a caricature of itself surprisingly quickly. This November sitting room keeps the hearth and timber, then gives them primrose, a low contemporary table and a lamp made for reading.

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Tall concrete-and-timber great room with grey sofa, blue sculptural chair, patterned rug and large blue-striped print beside glazing.ROOM 109 · Living Room

A place to sit inside the view

The concrete pier has to be part of the plan. Here the seating gathers beside it, with a route around the group and the larger landscape still visible beyond.

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Jade snug with a grey velvet sofa, peach low cupboards, a compact wooden table and fluid green artwork.ROOM 118 · Living Room

The modern snug behind the kitchen

Not every extension needs another open space. This jade snug sits just behind the kitchen, close enough to family life but small enough to offer a genuine retreat.

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Colour-led family room with midnight-blue sofa, timber daybed, colourful rug and accessible wall-mounted book storage.ROOM 130 · Living Room

The colour-field family room

A book can stay open at the daybed while someone else takes the sofa. This family room gives the two activities separate edges, using the print and rug to bring their colours together.

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Modernised Victorian sitting room with walnut furniture, a pale celadon ceiling and a red table lamp.ROOM 131 · Living Room

The walnut room with a celadon ceiling

Colour does not have to stop at the cornice. A pale celadon ceiling changes this modernised Victorian sitting room from above, leaving walnut, warm white and one red lamp to organise the lower view.

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White coastal living room with restrained seating and a large blue-striped print as the principal colour accent.ROOM 132 · Living Room

The white room held by one picture

A white room can have plenty of tension. In this coastal design, one substantial print, clear furniture profiles and the changing view are allowed to do most of the work.

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Compact blue-walled living room with a grey two-seater, striped red-and-blue rug, framed colour study, linen curtains, layered cushions, warm lamps and a television on a geometric wooden sideboard.ROOM 136 · Living Room

Two seats and a blue wall

A small living room still needs somewhere to put your feet up, watch television and leave a book halfway through. Here, a blue wall and a striped rug make the first impression; curtains, lamplight and a throw over the sofa arm make you want to stay.

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