The kitchen and living room are often the most important rooms in the house. When they’re open, it can be difficult to give each area its own space. Luckily there are some design tricks you can use to divide these spaces without closing off your home completely. Follow this guide on how to divide an open-plan living room kitchen!
Some living rooms and kitchens are open plans by design. Others aren’t so lucky! An open living room kitchen can be an eyesore, a dangerous five-year-old at cocktail hour or even a problem for the family pet. It may not even be a space you use very often because it’s just too crowded with furniture.
Whatever your living room/kitchen situation is, we’re here to help you make it work without giving up all hope of living in harmony again. Here are some simple tips on how to divide an open plan living room kitchen:
1. Use Living Room Dividers
A lot of people like having no walls in their living spaces – but if it doesn’t work for you, you can always add living room dividers. Find a living room divider that matches the style and colour of your living room furniture. You could even match it to your kitchen, if that’s the space where it will be most useful!
2. Add Living Room Lighting
Having no walls between living spaces presents a major challenge when trying to figure out where light fixtures should go. A living room ceiling light brightens up the whole space – but they don’t provide direct illumination on specific areas of living rooms and kitchens. Be smart about placing living room lights so your open plan living area remains well-lit without feeling cramped or busy:
Use track lighting instead of pendant lights. This creates more living room/ kitchen borders and doesn’t leave any living area in shadow. To do this, install living room track lighting above the living room furniture you want to highlight – be sure not to place living room lights directly over your head!
3. Use Living Room Curtains
Curtains are a living room divider staple. If you have no living room dividers, or if the living space is so big they won’t make much of a difference to separate your spaces, you can always use living room curtains instead. Make sure they still let in plenty of light through – living rooms need sunlight! The same goes for living room blinds: these make good living room dividers too as long as there’s an option to open them up completely when you want more light and air between rooms .
4. Use Rugs for Living Area Decoration
The best way to define living areas without closing them off is to use living room rugs. You can divide living areas with living room rugs that are different colours, or different styles, and then add living room decor in the living spaces within your living area (like lamps for example) to give them a personal touch.
5. Block Sound with Living Room Furniture
The biggest problem with an open plan living space is noise! Sound travels freely through an open living space – which can make it hard for families to get together without getting on each other’s nerves! When this happens homeowners often choose the drastic step of dividing their home into separate rooms as a solution: but there’s another way – placing heavy living room furniture along walls will block sound effectively if you have young children who are noisy or whose living room is right next to a living area where you want some peace and quiet.
6. Invest in Living Room Furniture Groups
Another living room decorating tip is to invest in living room furniture groups – that way, if your living spaces don’t work out exactly the same size (for example, if one of your living rooms is further away from the other and appears smaller), you can match living room pieces between them to make both areas feel like they’re part of the ‘same place’ without actually having to move anything. A good idea for huge or open living areas with little colour coordination! For more on how to divide an open plan living room kitchen see here.
