This is how you set new priorities
More and more people live without TV. If you prefer to watch series on mobile devices, invest your time in other things, or don’t want your living room to depend on a big black screen, this article may interest you. A living room without a TV offers an excellent opportunity to redecorate your most crucial room. We’ll show you how you can style your home to be elegant and spacious – and how fun it can be. Come along for the ride!
Living room without TV: How to arrange furniture correctly
A living room without a television is an exciting challenge. We’ll show you how to redecorate your favourite room – and how you can arrange your furniture attractively in a living room without a TV.
A new eye-catcher in the living room – no TV
Do you want to continue arranging your sofas and armchairs in a semicircle? Even without a TV, it looks comfortable. The advantage: You now have a clear view of the simple or lowboard sideboard. You also have space for modern furniture. Our tip: Hang a small electric fireplace. The warmth and flickering of the artificial fire radiate tranquillity. This will quickly transform your living room into a place where you feel safe.
If you align the sofa’s landscape with the front of the future window, you won’t miss the television. The room now looks larger and more inviting for you and your guests. In a living room with a sloping ceiling, it is a good idea to place a sofa opposite the window so you can enjoy incredible architectural views and bright blue skies.
It is best to place a corner sofa in the corner of the room, put a round coffee table in front of it, and visually emphasize the seating area with a carpet—the perfect constellation for dreaming and relaxing.
This is how your seating group defines a new focal point in the living room.
Without a television, you have new options for placing your sofa and armchairs. Our idea: Create a circle with your furniture – with the coffee table as the centre. With this modern layout, your new living room will appear more spacious – and you’ll have more legroom when relaxing on the sofa.
Do you have a panoramic fireplace? Awesome – place your seating area in a U-shape around the fireplace. This guarantees a comfortable conversation with your loved one and a wonderful evening – even without a TV series.
Living room without television: seating area as a new focal point
Open space: How to create more space
Do you appreciate good conversation? Then, you will love this innovative proposal. To create a harmonious seating area without a TV, place two sofas facing each other. This gives you more seating—and a place to chat to your heart’s content. The walls are also free for large-format images.
Another creative solution is to visually separate the sofa and living room wall units: Place your sofa at a right angle to a low plank in a floating design. This approach allows you to create two separate and spacious areas, even in a small living room. Plus point: Lowboard offers plenty of storage space. Here, you can elegantly hide your board games, wine glasses, or books.
More space in the living room without a television
New possibilities: How to reimagine open spaces
You can vary the seating areas if you arrange an open living room without a television. Place this in the kitchen or work area. This creates much space – for example, a living room with a play area. And you can always watch your loved ones while building and painting.
Of course, this also works the other way around: Use your sofa as a stylish room divider to separate your living room discreetly.
Designing a living room without a television
More beautiful than any romance novel: prepare your library
Bookworms will love this opportunity: the lack of TV means there’s space and storage space in the living room for a beautiful bookshelf, an impressive wall of books, or even your little library. What are you waiting for?
The choice is yours: which decoration is suitable?
A living room without a TV offers unimaginable possibilities. We’ll show you how to magically fill empty spaces with exciting accessories and decorate your room.
A sideboard or lowboard doubles as a new shelf for pretty decor: Decorate your modern wall unit with a large plant, narrow vase, candles, delicate lamps, or a stack of your favourite books. Standing photo frames with your family photos look very beautiful. With just a few simple steps, you can focus on what’s important to you.
Arranging an odd number of accessories will give more of an impression. Three vases put together look more interesting to the viewer than two or four vases.
With large images or photo galleries, you can fill the space a missing TV set offers. This way, you can give your painting the space it deserves as a work of art, and your visitors can enjoy the extraordinary views.
Do you share your living room with pets? With an impressive scratching post up to the ceiling as a new eye-catcher, you are the new star for your adorable velvet paws. Also eye-catching is the aquarium on the sideboard. Pay attention to the fish—it is good for the soul and calming.
Choose candles and pillows that match the colour of the chair or armchair. Here’s how you set the accents.
Our tip: With some seat cushions and books, you can turn your low board into a fun reading nook in no time. Nothing gets in the way of your free time with an exciting novel.
Gray without TV? Here’s how you can put your living room in the right light
To make your living room your favourite space without a TV, we’ve put together some ideas for your lighting. Whatever type of lamp you use, we recommend the LED version. These lamps last longer and require less electricity than energy-saving lamps.
What colours are suitable for a living room without a TV?
The wall colour is suitable for a living room without a television.
You can consciously add a new accent to your living room style without a television. You can create a modern living room by using light colours on the walls and slightly darker grey on the ceiling. Or you can simply paint the limited area where the television previously hung white – using a grey base colour. Results? An accent wall that makes your new room look stylish and comfortable simultaneously. You can also achieve this unique effect with wallpaper – vertical striped patterns create height, and horizontal patterns create width.
Do you want to be bolder? Dare to use warm orange as an accent colour. Our tip: Paint the fireplace wall or confined area orange – as the new focal point of your white living room. To do this, hang an orange picture on the opposite wall. “Splash of colour” will delight you. If you want to bring spring freshness to your living room, you should rely on a combination of orange and green.
You can create a summer atmosphere by designing the ceiling in light blue and the door in dark blue. You can also create a cheerful atmosphere by painting the wall previously occupied by the TV in a solid yellow and placing furniture in shades of grey. The yellow colour can then be used in decorative elements such as pillows or vases—for example, filled with yellow lemons.
This is the most important rule: If your living room is spacious, the walls can be dark—such as petrol blue, chocolate brown, or burgundy. For small rooms, it is best to paint the room light, like yellow or pink.
Frequently asked questions
The television is usually in the living room, or isn’t it? More and more people are consciously choosing not to have a television in their living room. This has many benefits for family life and health and opens up new perspectives on decorating the living room.
While TVs often cause distractions or sit quietly beside each other on the couch, a TV-free living room encourages communication: more conversations are had, and personal interactions take precedence. Your eyes will also thank you when they are no longer focused on the screen and can instead lose themselves in a good book.
You can use the space gained by removing the television to display other beautiful furnishings, such as decorative art objects, flower arrangements, or candles, to create a romantic and comfortable atmosphere.
In many living rooms, the TV is often the focal point. If you’ve consciously decided not to use your living room with a television, you’ll need to create a new focal point through intelligent furniture arrangement. Here, the sofa is ideal as a central area. The spacious U-shaped seating area invites you to linger and has ample space for guests or a cosy time with the family.
But even a tiny sofa can become your new favourite place by giving it a new location. If the couch previously faced the television, try another option. The sight of a flickering fireplace creates a cosy atmosphere, and not just in the winter months. If you have a large window front, position your seating furniture so that you can see your garden from the sofa.
Living room without TV: The best tips at a glance
A living room without a TV offers many new design options – be innovative! Make your seating area the focus, arrange it in a U shape or circle – or align it with the front of a window. You can also make a fireplace or bookshelf an attractive new focal point. You can also turn your low board into an eye-catcher in your room or a cosy reading nook with beautiful accessories and decorations like vases, candles or books.
The space your TV leaves on the wall is filled by a large painting or a photo gallery with photos of your loved ones. A low-hanging lamp above the sideboard also makes your room cosy. Additionally, create a colourful “splash of colour” in your new living room with an accent wall in bold colours.
How to Shift the Attention Away from the TV in the Living Room
In most homes, the television is a prominent feature. It may not be aesthetically pleasing, but how else can we enjoy binge-watching our favorite Southern TV shows? While you might have accepted the idea of constantly facing a large black screen every time you enter your living room, you no longer have to. With these proven tips from some of our beloved interior designers, you can finally conceal your TV from public view.
- Let Art Take Center Stage on the Walls
Most interior design plans focus on the living room. Using it for a captivating piece of art can never go wrong if the artwork you select complements the overall ambiance of the living room and your other furnishings. It’s equally important to choose artwork that truly reflects your style, making it more visually pleasing when you glance at it from time to time. Furthermore, opting for impactful artwork also supports the minimalist concept of a living room without a TV.
- Embrace the Essence of Readers
A bookshelf won’t empty your wallet like a TV stand would. Every interior design reflects the personality of its inhabitants, and there’s no better way to define a reader’s living room. From aligning with the theme of a TV-free living room to incorporating key aspects of your favorite hobby, having a bookshelf in the living room speaks for you and represents your true identity.
- Expand Seating Options
A living room isn’t just a place for placing the TV and watching shows; it’s the heart of the home. The individuals who reside in it and their engaging conversations truly embody the essence of every home. Shifting the primary focus for a TV-free living room design provides more room for furniture and allows you to arrange the sofas facing each other. Consequently, the entire living room area evolves into a delightful living space.
- Highlight Your Fireplace
If you have a fireplace in your home, now is the perfect opportunity to showcase it and create a cozy atmosphere. By placing chairs and sofas near it, along with a soft rug and coat rack, the fireplace transforms the entire ambiance of a living room without a TV unit into a more inviting and lively living area. For more tips on creating a warm and cozy space, refer to our comprehensive living room guide.
- Foster Conversations
Not all the seating in your living room needs to be oriented toward the TV or a central focal point. With a few simple adjustments and by repositioning all the seating to face each other, you can encourage meaningful conversations. The concept of a living room without a TV can be a hidden blessing because this conversational setup will enhance your time together and cultivate a healthy, joyful family bond.
- Opt for Black Walls
Black walls are always unexpected, and according to Andi Morse, the founder of Morse Design in Atlanta, Georgia, they can help the TV blend into the wall and not dominate the room. In the rest of the room, you can choose to maintain a light and bright atmosphere or lean towards a more subdued ambiance.
- Invest in a TV Frame
Every designer concurs: The Samsung Frame TV, which displays your chosen artwork when not in use, is an excellent option. It eliminates the mundane black box and gives you the flexibility to change your artwork. While it’s pricier than a standard TV, it’s still more economical than a high-quality TV plus separate artwork or other elaborate concealment methods.
- Make a Statement on the Same Wall
Irrespective of the wall your TV is on, the recommendation is to make a bold statement. Depending on your room, this could be a large piece of artwork or a captivating fireplace. If you opt for artwork, enlarge the size of the artwork in the middle of the wall and always ensure the TV is smaller than the artwork.
- Conceal the TV within a spacious cabinet such as an antique chest, linen press, or built-in closet. The message? If in doubt, keep it hidden.
- Position the furniture differently. Why do we position our furniture to face the TV? By creating an indirect view of the TV from the main furniture piece, you can easily divert the room’s focus away from the TV.
- Utilize a TV lift. According to Rhudy, TV lifts are becoming more popular. These lifts can either elevate the TV off the furniture or lower it from the ceiling. Although these space-saving options can be expensive, they are worthwhile if you want to keep your tech out of sight.
- Hang artwork in front. If you appreciate your current TV and the Samsung Frame TV concept, here’s how to combine the best of both worlds: Hang a piece of art in front of the TV, such as a picture or a tapestry, that can be lifted up when the TV is in use.
On the positive side, a living room without a television
Better communication in your household
When your TV is turned off, you will discover new ways to communicate with your family members. There will be no negative energy waves emanating from news channels and violence from action movies. Everything becomes tranquil when the black box is off. By not fixating on the black box, you will actually begin to notice the presence of family members or roommates in your house.
You will save money
How much have you spent in the last decade on television? Thousands of dollars are spent every year on new models, year after year! This is financial chaos and every penny counts! In addition to the cost of the device itself, there’s also the expense of cable networks. Cable networks have the lowest customer satisfaction ratings and constantly dictate what to do. Reduce your cable bill and use the internet instead.
You will be happier
You will feel much better if you are not exposed to distressing news. You will not be continually subjected to violence on television and media manipulation. Don’t worry, you can live without knowing what is happening in Libya, Japan, and other countries. Additionally, you will experience less stress, which leads to a longer life. Some people become stressed when watching news of wars, earthquakes, food crises, water crises, and so on. It is very disconcerting, but you will be better off without dwelling on it at all. Yes, it is tragic that such shameful tragedies occur in some countries, but if you are concerned about your productivity and personal happiness, you will know what to do.
Rediscovering your forgotten passions
That time gap needs to be filled in some way, and there is nothing better than engaging in activities you love. Perhaps painting, cooking, or gardening. Trust me, anything is better than idly lying on the couch watching things you don’t enjoy. Don’t become one of those people who aimlessly flip through TV channels. With all the free time you have, the possibilities are endless.
You will think differently
People who watch television tend to have similar mindsets. They are repeatedly exposed to the same content and are bombarded with advertising. If you think this is absurd, why do companies invest billions of dollars in advertising? Not only are we influenced by advertising, but the content of television itself is a form of advertising. This is the most significant benefit of not watching television. It becomes easier to think critically. Much of the information we absorb from television is taken for granted.