38 Decor Ideas to Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room
If you are struggling to fill awkward spaces in a living room, whether a large living room or small one, you’re not alone! Â Check out 38 different decorating ideas to help you fill awkward empty spaces while creating a cozy, inviting space to enjoy with family and friends.
Somehow, I have been gifted the challenge to fill awkward spaces in a living room of almost every home I’ve lived in as an adult! Â When it comes to decorating both large living room spaces and small ones, I’ve done both. Â Of course, this is not to mention long, narrow rooms, an awkward corner of the room, and great rooms with the living room, kitchen, and dining room all flowing as one.
If you are struggling to fill awkward spaces in a living room, it’s not YOU! Â Awkward spaces are, well, awkward and can quickly create creative blocks. Â How do I know? Â Because I have been there and am currently struggling to fill awkward spaces in a living room with our back living room as I type this!
Together, we will look at some tried and true formulas to help you tackle this challenge and fill awkward spaces in a living room with purposeful and beautiful decorative items, furniture, and design style that feels like home to you.

38 Decor Ideas to Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room​
Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room by Creating Designated Zones
When trying to arrange furniture and decorative items to fill awkward spaces in a living room, a great place to start is by carefully thinking through the function and use of the room in question. Â The best way to avoid having to fill awkward spaces in a living room is by creating designated zones for different ways that you may use empty areas or dead spaces in a large room. Â
While small space design definitely requires creative ideas to fill awkward spaces in a living room, a larger room can also be challenging.  A large room can be the perfect place to create designated zones for different uses. You can maximize the way you use these empty areas by figuring out the ways that your family currently uses the spaces and what you would like​ to use the areas for.
For example, you may create a large seating area, anchored with a rug, centered to a focal point such as a TV or fireplace. Â In the empty room corners, you may add a game table or even a small bistro-size table for card games. Â In another empty corner, a bookshelf and comfortable chair could make a great reading nook or cozy spot for morning coffee while also helping you to fill awkward spaces in a living room!
​

Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room by Using Larger Scale Items to Fill the Space
​​How do you fill a large open space in a living room?
Larger living rooms also present the challenge of how to fill up enough of the empty floor space without feeling cluttered. Â In addition to creating designated zones for living room activities, you may consider using larger scale furniture and decorative items to help the large space feel complete and also fill awkward spaces in a living room.
For example, rather than a regular sofa and loveseat, you could try an extra long sectional couch to help fill awkward spaces in a living room. Â In addition to actually covering more square footage in the large room, the sectional carries more visual weight without having a cluttered appearance. Â It is better to have a few large pieces of furniture rather than more pieces of smaller furniture. Â More pieces, even though smaller, can sometimes make a room feel a bit cluttered.
One of my favorite ways to fill awkward spaces in a living room where there is empty floor space is with an oversized coffee table. Â In our back living room, which is actually quite small, we have an oversized, almost 6 foot coffee table.
Actually, it is an antique library table. Â We cut the legs down to coffee table height and now, it is one of our favorite spaces to play family games or hang out with friends. Â Often, when we are entertaining a larger group of people, friends can be found sitting around this table on floor cushions.
Even though this coffee table is oversized for the space, it functions perfectly for us and allows the living room area to have a distinct function and designation. Â It also works to fill awkward spaces in a living room that is an unusual size but has a distinct function.
Pro Tip: Â You get to break the “design rules” to make your home function best for YOU!
​

Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room by Floating Your Furniture
​To be able to create designated zones to fill awkward spaces in a living room, you may need to consider floating furniture pieces.  An example of this is our main living room which functions as a family room for us.  It is another long, narrow space in our home.
To make this living room function, we need a walkway from the game room on one end. Â On the other end, we need a walkway or hallway type of space to lead to the bedroom wing. Â So, our sectional sofa and two comfy chairs are floated in the middle of the room.
What I love about this is that it allows me to add a beautiful vintage cabinet behind the sectional to serve as a sofa table and extra storage space. Â Floating the furniture also left a large blank wall on the other end, where we added two vintage locker units for extra space to store books, photo albums, music, and media items.
The other benefit to floating your furniture is that you can place it in the best proximity for conversation. Â If all of the furniture is hugging the walls in a large living room, it may cause an uncomfortable distance for conversation between family and friends.
The third thing I love about floating furniture to fill awkward spaces in a living room is that the furniture can serve as a visual room divider. Â For example, Â in an open concept layout, a couch with a pretty sofa table could visually divide the living room from the dining room. Â If you have a small room with an open concept, the sofa table makes a great option for a buffet for the dining room when needed.
Floating the living room furniture is an easy way to gain multiple functions for one piece of furniture, as this simple and easy layout can serve multiple purposes with a pretty writing desk acting as a sofa table, working desk space, or a dining table buffet!

What is the 2/3 rule for living rooms?
​Basically, this “rule” is a guidance for how much furniture and decor you should actually fill your living room space with.  The 2/3 guidance suggests that you should fill about a 2:3 ratio of your living room with furniture and decor, leaving a 1:3 ratio of empty.
While the two thirds proportion is a good rule of thumb, remember that this is just a guidance to help you fill awkward spaces in a living room. Â Depending on the size and needs of any individual space, you may have a little more or less of a 2:3 ratio depending on how the room fits your needs.
​
​

Fill Awkward Spaces in a Living Room by Using Unique Vintage Decorative Items
​​How do you fill odd space in a living room?
Wall decor can often be a great option to fill awkward spaces in a living room. Â Empty wall space is fine, of course, but if you have a really large bare wall, it may be the thing that is making your living room feel awkward or incomplete.
​If you have a large empty wall that is central to the room and part of a sitting area, consider turning it into a pretty accent wall.  You could use wallpaper, paint, or wall trim to elevate the design and help you fill awkward spaces in a living room.  For the large wall in our family room, I love creating a seasonal gallery wall!
If your bare wall is smaller and kind of off by itself (remember, we are talking about awkward spaces here!), consider where the wall is closest to in proximity and how it can possibly function. Â If it is near the front door, Â pretty mirror might be perfect for a quick check on the way out the door! Â Or, if you have a blank space near the mudroom, how about a digital organizer like my Skylight Calendar to help keep the family schedule, calendar, and chores organized?
Not every spaces has to be overly functional. Â Sometimes it is fun to just have a space to decorate just for the sake of looking pretty! Â You may consider a unique vintage item, such as a basket or architectural salvage piece, to hang on the wall.
A blank or awkward space in a living room might also be a great chance to add some kind of conversation piece, such as vintage item.  A stack of vintage baskets can provide extra storage space while a pretty antique ladder is perfect to display pretty and cozy throw blankets.  A small vintage cabinet is perfect to fill a corner and display a favorite collection or try using something non-conventional in a functional way.
For example, we added this antique postal sorter as a small study desk space!
Pro Tip: Â A single large item can fill the space in a simple, uncluttered way.
​

Fill Awkward Spaces by Repeating Color, Texture, and Pattern Throughout the Rest of the Room
​How to fill an empty space in a living room?
No matter the size or interior design style of your space, one of the very best ways to fill awkward spaces in a living room (or any other room, for that matter) is to repeat color, texture, and pattern throughout the entire room. Â Repetition is the key to make your living room look curated and intentional.
While there are many and varied interior design rules about how many colors you can use in a room or exactly how you are supposed to mix patterns in a space, I am not much for decorating “rules,” even when it comes to trying to fill awkward spaces in a living room. Â Whether I am decorating big rooms or small room areas, my formula generally starts with just gathering items that I love.
After all, I think that is what makes a room feel part of a curated home rather than a pretty house.
Then, I like to choose a general decor style, such a coastal cottage for the summer months.
Next, I usually choose about 3 colors to repeat throughout the room.  In my summer living room, I mixed light blue with an earthy tan and shades of white.  While there are not 3 exact colors, the mix of shades fall within the color idea and coordinate together easily.
For texture, IÂ again repeated 3 textures: the light wood tone, white coral, and woven textures throughout the space. Â These textures organically blend with my shades of earth tones and white while also adding visual interest.
Pro Tip: Decorative pillows, pillow covers, artwork, rugs, old books, and items from nature are my favorite ways to bring color, texture, and pattern into the most important rooms of our home, one of which is the living room!
​


Here are 38 ways that I recommend to fill awkward spaces in a living room:
​Many of these are decorating options that I have used in my own home over the years!
- Creating Designated Zones
- Anchor each space with an area rug
- Consider larger scale items to fill the space
- Float your furniture
- Utilize modular furniture
- Accent chair
- Bookshelf
- Home office nook
- Reading nook
- Floor lamp for dark corners
- Tall plants
- Small seating area
- Architectural salvage for visual interest
- Console table
- Small table for games
- Stack of baskets
- Additional storage
- Bar cart
- Gallery wall
- Small bench
- Small side table, end table, or accent table
- Wall hangings
- Play area for kids
- Unique vintage item
- Faux tree
- Music corner
- Extra seating: poufs, ottomans, floor cushions
- Add an easel to display a favorite piece of artwork
- Tall mirror
- Plant stand for indoor plants or herb garden
- Lean a personal touch: old oars, skis, surfboard, guitar
- Vintage or vintage style ladder
- Shallow shelf ledges for photographs and artwork
- Create an art corner for kids (or a new hobby for you!)
- Add a comfortable chair designated for morning coffee and prayer
- Add cozy layers
- Repeat color, texture, and pattern throughout the rest of the room
- Creative lighting: sconces or hanging lanterns

How to Decorate an Awkward Corner in Your Living Room
It’s true.  Most of us probably struggle, at least sometimes, with how to decorate empty living room corners. Since living room corners aren’t really the focal point of the entire room, nor are they usually a large wall space, it can be tricky to decorate empty living room corners in a way that is both pretty and functional for your home.
The good news is that there are actually a lot of fun corner decor ideas, depending on your living room layout, where you can turn these specifically awkward corners into very useful and beautiful spaces in your home!
If you have an empty corner of your living room that needs some creative inspiration, hopefully at least one of these ideas can help turn that empty corner space into a welcoming and cozy part of your home.  Many of the ideas for filling a living room space can also apply to create pretty and purposeful use for the unused spaces in the corners of your room.  Plus, if you are anything like me, you want every inch of space to function in the best possible way for your family and home. Â


Unless you’ve got the perfect house, you probably have at least one awkward space in your home.  I definitely have several!  Even though I love our home, it presents decorating challenges but that can be part of the fun (right????)
I hope this post helps you think creatively about how to fill awkward spaces in a living room. Â In the meantime, I need to revisit the awkward space in our own back living room and try to make some decisions about what I want to do next!
What awkward spaces do you have in your home and how have you addressed them? Â I’d love to hear in the comments!
​​To browse some of my favorite home decorating ideas, accents, and accessories, I invite you to visit my storefront HERE! I add to my curations almost daily, as I find things I love and think you may also enjoy!
You may also enjoy these home decor related blog posts:
- 10 Unique Vintage Home Decor Ideas for Your Home
- 23 Easy Ideas to Decorate Empty Living Room Corners
- 60+ Thrifted Home Decor Ideas to Decorate on a Low Budget
- Coffee Table Ideas for Small Spaces + How to Decorate
- How to Decorate a Coffee Table in 4 Easy, Budget-Friendly Steps
- Step By Step Guide for Easy Console Table Decor Ideas
- How to Decorate a Kitchen Shelf: Tips for Open Shelving
- Simple Ideas for Easy Kitchen Countertop Organization
- How to Decorate a Bathroom Countertop: Functional Ideas

Blessings,


Recent Comments