Living Room in Modern Classic Style

It demonstrates luxury, elegance and comfort. Modern classic adds charm to the room, reveals the design taste of apartment or house residents and their level of well-being.

Photo: Country living room interior with panoramic window

Design: Maria Ivanova

Photo: Classic luxury

Photo: Room in urban apartment

Design: Maria Dadiani

Photo: Living room of a country wooden house

Project by Full House Design studio

Photo: City room design

Modern Classic: Style Features

Classic living room style is characterized by several distinctive features. It "loves" symmetry, clarity of geometric lines. The clarity of the layout emphasizes a rather conservative interior design. A classical living room assumes natural, rich materials in finishing, expensive, luxurious furniture and respectable decorative elements.

It should be spacious and well-lit, despite the large number of semantic accents in the decoration. Modern classic assumes a minimalist setup and airy perception of space, combining all this with refined room decoration.

Classic style in living room interior emphasizes color harmony. It should be holistic, despite the possibilities of zoning with bright accents. Color transitions are masked using borders, moldings and cornices.

Living room interiors pay special attention to thematic design of doorways and doors, windows. Ornate frames are selected from natural components, matching the overall color scheme of the room. Solid wood doors, decorative door surrounds made from the same material, elaborate and richly executed door handles, arched structures, decorative metal grilles will complement the classical interior design.

Preferably natural wood from finish to furniture. Valued are large armrests on soft furniture and sofas, carved frames of decorative inserts, facades with cutouts.

Living room design traditionally adorns walls with paintings and mirrors in wide, ornate, carved frames. Their sizes are dictated by the total area of the room. It is not advisable to overcrowd a small space with bulky decorations.

Equally important style elements include exquisite chandeliers and lamps, soft carpets, an abundance of high-quality textiles on windows and upholstery, leather sofas and armchairs, a fireplace and cornices.

Photo: Country cozy room decoration variant

Design: Elena Lapshina and BERLOGA Design Studio

Photo: Combining living room with bedroom

Photo: "Airy" classic

Photo: Room zoning

Design: Marion Studio

Photo: Combining room with kitchen

Design: Maria Dadiani

Photo: Decoration "in the old style"

Features of Planning and Zoning in Classical StyleDesign: Jean-Louis Denis

Classical style is a way of life. The living room itself is the place where all family members and their guests spend most of their time. Therefore, the design of this space takes into account all the nuances of planning, finishing features, zoning and color solution.

The first thing to consider when choosing the layout of the central room is to select and position meaningful centers in the project. They are grouped in the relaxation zone with sofas and armchairs, tables and side tables, near the fireplace with seating areas, TV with a home cinema system. With a single meaningful center, the living room tends towards a design with elements of spatial zoning. Platforms, multi-level ceilings, lace partitions, properly chosen and arranged furniture, appropriate decoration and carefully calculated lighting will all help highlight the main zone, making it elegant, functional and cozy

Color and Finishing: Choose the Best

Classical style is particularly particular about color palette choice. 

The law of genre requires considering several features of color solutions:

• Orienting the living room towards the north side requires additional warmth and comfort, so warm pastel tones and shades are chosen: light green, sandy, peach, pink, light yellow. A room facing south allows attention to be drawn to cool colors: blue, gray, light purple.
  
• Color combinations are possible, which affects the visual expansion of space. In this case, furniture and decorative elements should be chosen in tone with one of the colors.
  
• Classical living room style is sensitive to white color. It will create the feeling of freshness, cleanliness and style. Effective for small rooms and living room-dining rooms.
  
• Bright, eye-catching tones are not characteristic of classic style with its refinement and nobility. Natural shades are preferred: brown, beige, gray, green. And "fresh" palette tones: salad green, soft pink, moderately orange, light lilac, pale yellow. Popular combinations include bronze, burgundy and red wood tones.
  
• Light furniture harmonizes with warm tone textiles, dark furniture looks good with cool muted tones.
  
• White matte ceiling is traditionally chosen.
  
• Patterns on the floor in classical style look good, laid out in the center of the living room, not covered by furniture. Symmetrical patterns harmonize with specific semantic zones.
  
• Parquet is coated with lacquer, giving the floor a rich appearance and mirror-like shine. 

Classical living room style determines careful selection of finishing materials: preference is given to natural, durable and wear-resistant. For the floor, parquet is ideal, but laminated and high-quality parquet boards can also be considered, completely excluding linoleum from consideration. A small living room is better perceived with a light-reflecting floor covering. Marble tile inlays in the fireplace zone or near the entrance to the room will highlight the creativity in room decoration.

Decorating a living room in classical style implies using expensive wallpapers with large patterns and amperial motifs. Lines and stripes on wallpapers are also appropriate, but there is a nuance: straight vertical images visually raise the ceiling, while horizontal ones expand it.

Wall decoration includes artistic painting, wooden panels, photo wallpapers, decorative stucco, tapestry inserts. They will emphasize semantic zones and create accents when zoning the living room. Contrasting boundaries can be accentuated with moldings and cornices. This creates an additional sense of dynamics and logical perception of the color artistic transition.

The ceiling can be either a suspended one or decorated in special panels, adorned with ornaments, wooden panels, stucco and paint. The decoration is completed with beautiful cornices along the perimeter of the ceiling. Zoning is done by changing the surface level. It is better if the height transition boundaries follow the laws of symmetry.

Living Room in Classical Style: Design Elements

Photo: Design in dark tones

Photo: Wall decoration

Photo: Design in light tones

Photo: Neoclassicism

Photo: Dominance of business zone

Photo: Dominance of relaxation zone

Selecting Furniture, Fireplace and Lighting Design: Anna Vasilieva

Classical living room interior style has high requirements for furniture and lighting of the room. Individual order according to a specially created designer project is the best way to decorate the hall. If such an opportunity is not available, it is advisable to consider a simple rule: quality, durability, elegant beauty, clear lines and forms are always taken into account when selecting furniture. A significant detail: furniture should be sufficiently substantial in size, sofas and armchairs without sharp angles.

Natural wood from noble species is always a winning choice for furniture finishing. Only this option fits an interior with a fireplace zone.

The upholstery of such furniture should be either leather or made from dense, expensive fabric in tone with the overall color scheme of the living room drapery and slightly darker than the wall decoration. Atlas, jacquard, velour, tapestry – these are the materials to consider if the living room and its decoration are dedicated to classical style. 

Legs of the furniture sets are selected in elegant shape and also made from wood. Tabletops, coffee tables can be made from durable glass if it does not contradict the other elements of the interior.
A special semantic center of a classical living room is the fireplace zone. Modern design and renovation, including fireplace decoration in the hall, lead to choosing an appropriate architectural variant. Fireplaces can be stationary and mobile, closed and semi-closed, corner and island. Closed fireplaces are equipped with a chimney in the wall and planned at the beginning of construction works. Open fireplaces are often placed in the center of the hall. They evenly provide warmth to the room and beautifully underscore its uniqueness and style. It should be noted that a wood-burning fireplace requires an area of at least 20 sq m. If for technical reasons it is not possible to install one, an alternative option may be an electric fireplace.

Fireplace cladding and decoration are made from brick, wood, stone, ceramic tiles and marble blocks. Portal designs are made from granite, marble, stone, ceramic, brick, limestone, metal.
Classical style is impossible without elegant and sufficient lighting for a large space. The room by definition should have plenty of natural light. A massive chandelier is mandatory. It can be multi-level with suspensions and decorated with candelabras. There are many variations, but all depends on the room size. Lighting fixtures containing crystal, natural gold, bronze fit well into the design implying classical style. Modern neoclassicism also prefers time-tested classical lighting solutions. 

Decorating a classical living room includes using many table lamps, wall sconces and spotlights. They help create a cozy, intimate atmosphere, achieving additional spatial zoning through light.

Living Room Interior: Classical Style

Photo: Dominance of wood in finishing

Photo: Room in cramped conditions

Photo: Design elements of the interior

Photo: Natural lighting decoration

Photo: Decorative elements

Classical Style and Decoration

Textile is a necessary and multi-purpose element of decoration. Classical style, overall room design, chosen interior, modern technological approach to textiles make drapery an engaging process.

Only high-quality materials are selected. The best fabrics for classical style for upholstery, covers and curtains: velvet, atlas, taffeta, velour, jacquard, lace, tulle.

Decorative Elements of Classical Interior:

• Cornices on the ceiling with soft gilding;
  
• Columns, porticos for large rooms and fireplaces made from marble;
  
• Stained glass for niches, partitions and door inserts;
  
• Decorative vases, statues on special stands executed in the general stylistic design of the project;
  
• Bronze, brass, gilding, faience, crystal create a general classical atmosphere;
  
• Paintings and large mirrors in massive carved frames made from wood or metal;
  
• Plants in large stylish pots, planters or vases;
  
• Long dense curtains to the entire wall with tulle curtains;
  
• Tapestry canvases with antique scenes;
  
• Relief panels and landscape photo wallpapers on a wall free of furniture and other decor.
  

Classical style, modern construction and manufacturing industry can make a living room in an atmosphere of luxury, harmony, beauty, comfort and coziness, forever departing from monotony and dullness of life.
Photo of Implemented Projects

Photo Collection of Design and Decoration of Spacious Living Rooms

On the cover: Design project by Victoria Smirnova