TL;DR
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Apartment Therapy reports that four interior designers challenged common living-room decorating advice: keep the room light and airy, place the sofa against a wall, mount the TV above the fireplace and maintain a picture-perfect look. The designers instead recommend choices guided by comfort, room layout and how people actually use the space.
Apartment Therapy published a report in which four interior designers challenge common living-room rules, including keeping rooms light and airy, placing sofas against walls, hanging televisions above fireplaces and maintaining a showroom-ready appearance. Their recommendations favor decisions based on a room’s features and how people use it, rather than applying one style rule to every home.
The article, written by Kelsey Mulvey, says it is based on conversations with four designers. Athiana Makar of Studio Clae and Claire Sá, co-founder of De Rosee Sa, push back on the idea that every living room should be bright and visually expansive. Makar says darker colors, rich woods, natural materials and layered lighting can help create warmth and intimacy.
Jacqueline Gonçalves of Los Angeles-based MOKSA Studio questions both pushing all furniture to the perimeter and placing a television above a fireplace. She says a sofa moved away from the wall can help bring seating and tables into a more connected group. For televisions, she suggests considering other placements or concealing the screen in furniture; an art-style television is another option.
The fourth point concerns tidiness. Meghan Meehan of New Jersey-based Hudson East Design argues that a living room should be comfortable to use, not just attractive in photographs. The article’s advice is presented as designers’ opinions, not as universal rules or findings from a formal study.
Design Choices for Daily Living
Living rooms often serve several purposes, from conversation and relaxation to watching television, so a layout or finish chosen only to match a decorating convention may not work for the people who live there. The designers’ comments offer readers a way to question whether a familiar rule suits their own space: a darker room may feel more welcoming to some households, while moving a sofa inward may improve conversation in a particular layout.
The report also distinguishes appearance from usability. A pristine room can look polished in a photograph, but residents may find it difficult to enjoy if they feel unable to move a cushion or leave a book within reach. The practical takeaway is not that one style is better than another; it is that comfort, function and personal preference can matter as much as a room’s visual effect.
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Four Rules Under Review
Apartment Therapy frames the article around advice that circulates on social media and in everyday conversations about decorating. Mulvey says she asked four designer friends what they considered the worst living-room decorating advice they had heard. The resulting piece focuses on four familiar ideas, rather than reporting a new product launch, policy change or industry-wide survey.
The suggestions are conditional. The designers do not say that light colors, wall-side sofas, fireplace televisions or neat rooms are always mistakes. Instead, they argue that these choices should not be treated as requirements. A room’s dimensions, existing features, viewing needs and household routines can affect whether a particular arrangement works.
“It often creates a disconnected arrangement with awkward gaps.”
— Jacqueline Gonçalves, MOKSA Studio
Advice, Not Design Research
The report offers individual designers’ perspectives; it does not provide survey data showing how widely these rules are followed or how often the suggested alternatives work better. It also does not assess specific rooms or give measurements for sofa placement, television height or lighting. Whether a recommendation is useful will depend on the home, its layout and the preferences of its residents.
The source material does not identify a publication date beyond describing the article as published “yesterday,” so the exact calendar date cannot be established from the information provided. It also does not report any follow-up from the designers or additional evidence testing their advice.
Apply the Advice Room by Room
The article does not announce a scheduled follow-up or a next industry development. For readers considering a change, the next step is to assess the room as it is used: whether the current seating encourages conversation, whether the television is comfortable to watch and whether the room feels welcoming to its occupants. The designers’ comments support treating each suggestion as an option to test, rather than a rule to follow automatically.
Apartment Therapy’s report may also prompt readers to compare their own needs with the styles they see online. The source does not claim that any one arrangement suits every household, and it leaves decisions about color, furniture placement and display to individual circumstances.
Key Questions
What are the four living-room decorating rules the designers challenge?
The report questions the idea that every living room must be light and airy, that sofas should hug the walls, that televisions belong above fireplaces and that living rooms should look picture-perfect.
Does the report say dark colors are always better?
No. Athiana Makar says darker colors and layered lighting can create warmth and intimacy, but the article presents this as an alternative to an automatic preference for bright rooms—not as a rule for every home.
Why might a sofa be moved away from the wall?
Jacqueline Gonçalves says grouping seating and tables closer together may encourage conversation and avoid disconnected arrangements. Whether it works depends on the room’s layout and available space.
What does the article suggest instead of mounting a TV above a fireplace?
Gonçalves suggests considering another position, concealing the television in furniture or using an art-style screen. The report does not prescribe one placement for every room.
Is the report based on a formal study?
No formal study is cited in the supplied source material. The piece reports opinions from four interior designers, so its recommendations should be understood as professional perspectives rather than universal findings.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
