20 Beautiful Eclectic Living Room Designs

The eclectic decor style is often mistaken for just a messy, cluttery look to a room, when in all actuality, it is a particular decor theme and it’s all about mixing a variety of things to create one cohesive look. When you combine decades, textures, colors, and a variety of styles in your living room, you come up with a beautiful and welcoming room. This isn’t the easiest decor style to pull off, but with a few pointers and tips, you can create an eclectic look, and the living room is a great place to start.

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Colors

Use a variety of hues, but have a main, go-to color you use multiple times throughout the room. You can use a variety of colors, and colors that may ordinarily not seem like they would be put together, but together with your collection of styles, textures and collectibles, they seem to work. While you might be tempted to paint different samples on the wall for comparison, Elle Decor recommends using boards to paint your individual colors on, then view them individually to get a real feel of the hue.

Styles

A mixture of styles, eras and cultures. Pairing modern with vintage and classic pieces is what eclectic is all about. A modern chair next to a vintage sofa and classic table are just some of the mixtures you can do. Maybe you have an old vintage lamp that works perfect on a rustic style table, and an industrial style chair that plays off a bold colored, retro sofa. At One How to, you’ll see that mixing and matching are part of the look, but as you go along placing your pieces, keep an eye on the room to be sure everything has an even, cohesive look.

Textures

Textures are a big part of the eclectic look. Like the go-to color choice that should be used throughout the room a few times, so should a go-to texture. Bohemian textures that bring you back to the 70’s era, are always a great touch for an eclectic room. Use a mixture of rough, shaggy, smooth, sheer, and nubby type textures. A shaggy rug paired with sheer curtains, metal finishes on glass tables, and a velour covered sofa are typical sights in an eclectic living room. You can and should mix and match multiple textures, all the while, keeping a balance throughout the room.

Tips

Now that you know what types of elements belong in an eclectic styled room, here are a few added tips, recommended on Elle Decor, for you to keep in mind as you start to put your room together.

Collections – A lot of people have a collection of something; pictures, old albums, flamingos, baskets, books, or any other thing you can imagine. Displaying collectibles is something that works well with this decor style, however, you will only want to display a portion of your collection rather than overwhelm the room with an overload of your favorite things.
Include a little negative space – Every room needs areas where your eyes have somewhere to stop and rest after looking around and taking it all in. This is especially true in an eclectic room where there is going to be so much to look at. Basically, this means you’ll want to leave some space on your shelves between stacks of books, or a little blank space on a wall covered in art or mirrors, and leave some empty spaces on tables where the eyes are able to catch a rest.
Create a focal point – All rooms need a focal point. For some, it’s a chandelier. Others might have a beautiful fireplace or a focal point wall covered in a bold color of paint, or covered in an arrangement of photos or mirrors. Find something that will draw the eyes in, then leads to everything else in the room flowing cohesively from it. That will be your focal point of the room.

Eclectic is interesting, it’s fun, and it is a design style that will be around for years to come. One thing about this design style is the ability to easily swap out decor items when you want to switch things up. If part of a collection of items is displayed for a while, months later, swap it out and display another portion of your collectibles. You can work and re-work your eclectic living room and keep it fresh and interesting all the time. Take a look at the following 20 beautiful eclectic living room designs and see if this could be your design style.