There's two basic living room designs you'll want to consider depending on what your needs are. First you have to ask yourself what you want to be doing in your living room. Is this room going to be a place to spend time with friends and family, entertaining people and whatnot? Or, is it primarily going to be an entertainment center; a place to watch television, movies, listen to music, etc. What room design you choose should reflect its basic function.

Back in the day, living room designs were centered on entertaining guests and spending time with friends and family. These kinds of main rooms are still common today in homes with a little more space available in them. The idea to these kinds of room designs should be to provide a comfortable environment conducive to conversation. A big screen TV with one or more couches facing it isn't really going to work, as its hard to carry on a conversation and entertain guests when everyone is facing the same direction. A circle or semi-circle of couches and chairs facing inward toward each other, surrounding a coffee table of some kind, is a much better suited living room design for entertaining guests.

Unfortunately, most of us don't have enough rooms in our homes and apartments to spare an entire one to just jabbing away with friends. It's for this reason the older style living room designs are becoming less popular. Most of us end up using these rooms as a sort of ?TV room?, and the design reflects that. Here, a couch and chairs facing the television with a table of some kind laid out in front is appropriate and conducive to laying around watching the tube.

Where then does one entertain guests when you have this sort of hybrid room design? More often than not, I end up hanging out with friends in my kitchen; it is large enough to have a table and chairs, and is more conducive to talking than sitting in front of a television. I don't know about you, but I think it's a little strange to come over to a friends house and just sit there watching TV, unless of course they live nearby or are friends you see every day.

A living room design that is both conducive to talking and watching TV seems like a good compromise, but is hard to do. It's a good test of your interior design talents, however!