5 Design Tips to Create a Welcoming Open Floor Plan

The open floor plan has become a popular home layout choice. One large, open space works well for entertaining and encouraging family time, but it can also feel a bit gaping. The following design tips can help you put together a homey and welcoming open floor plan. 

Use Furniture as Walls

With an open floor plan, you don’t have walls to break up your living space into rooms, but you can create the feeling of separate rooms using your furniture. Sofas and chairs arranged around a focal point such as a fireplace help clearly define a living room. You can place a console table behind a floating sofa to create an even more solid division. Open shelves and bookcases also make great dividers to set up a reading nook or work area within a larger open space. 

Utilize Area Rugs

Area rugs are a pivotal design element in creating a cozy atmosphere within an open floor plan. You can use rugs as an easy way to define smaller, more intimate areas within your open floor plan. Area rugs also create natural walkways between the separate areas of your space. 

Consider Your Lighting

Lighting can be used to help comfortably decorate your open space. Larger statement lighting pieces, such as a chandelier over the dining table or pendant lights over the kitchen island, help create definition by acting as a focal point for each separate area. More intimate lighting features such as sconces, floor lamps, and table lamps give living areas and reading nooks a cozier ambiance inside your open floor plan.

Create Consistency With Your Decor

In a house with closed rooms, you might be able to decorate each room in a completely different way. That won’t work as well with an open floor plan. While you want to define more intimate areas, you also want the consistency to help create a comfortable flow throughout the entire space. There are a few elements of your decor that can help tie everything together:

• Color

• Patterns

• Materials

You can use color as a unifying element in your open floor plan by keeping a cohesive color theme throughout your space. You might choose shades of one color, use complementary colors, or pick one accent color to use throughout your decor. Design pieces in each area, such as furniture, throw pillows, rugs, and curtains, can all incorporate your color scheme of choice. 

Patterns can be used in the same way as color to help create a cohesive feeling. If you have an animal print rug in your dining area, you might want to carry that over to your other living spaces with items like throw pillows. 

The materials that are used in the more permanent features of your home can also be incorporated into your decor. If you have marble countertops in your open kitchen or a distressed wood accent wall in your living area: you can use those materials in other design elements to connect one section of your vast space to another. 

Stick With One Style 

The overall style is a significant consideration with an open floor plan. The use of completely different designs in one open space can create a disjointed and uncomfortable feeling. If you have a rustic farmhouse-style kitchen, you shouldn’t decorate your adjacent living area with sleek modern furniture. One consistent look will create a better flow and a more comfortable ambiance. 

An open floor plan offers the advantages of easy entertaining and family togetherness. If you consider this option for your home, you can use these design tips to arrange an open space that also feels cozy and inviting.

Guest Contributor: Andrew Adams