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Walk into the average American’s living room and you’ll find a sofa, recliner, coffee table and lamp, maybe even an oriental rug.-all living room furniture staples. These living room furniture pieces are common, but vary greatly by design: line, color, material—elements that can change the interpretation of a furniture piece. While some might see a neon green sitting chair as garish and cheap, another might see it as fun and even artsy.

Your living room furniture should make you happy. Whether it’s comfort, color, or contrast you’re looking for,-no one else’s opinion matters. It’s your living room, decorate it as you will!

Designing Your Home, Defining Yourself

We all have opinions on what does and doesn’t work in fashion and art. Living room furniture, objects that are sculpturally and functionally designed to be permanent fixtures of the home, are for some reason not readily thought of as a form of artistic expression. They really should be. You don’t think the food-stained barcalounger sitting in front of the TV tells your guests something about you and your lifestyle? It does. Every object we own shares something about who we are and what we aspire to be.

Considering the amount of time that we spend in the living room, don’t you think it’s necessary that we decorate it with some style, pizazz and funk? Why is there judgment when one of our friends buys a sofa for more than $1,000? Furniture is just as much of an investment as getting a new car or putting in a swimming pool.

Basic Living Room Furniture Styles

If the problem is that you don’t know which furniture fits your style, look no further. If you’re looking to make a statement in your home, here are three design styles that’ll have everybody talking—in a good way!

Mid-Century Modern

Known for its clean lines, fluid geometry and industrial materials, the Mid-Century design movement dominated household interiors from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s with designers like Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames championing its sleek, modern and functional aesthetic. Design firms like Blu Dot and Gus Modern have continued to create furniture pieces honoring the mid-century’s concept that “form follows function” with sectional sofas that allow for various types of sitter recline and chairs that move with the user’s body. If you own mid-century pieces, you are an individual who doesn’t trouble yourself with needless ostentation or over used clichés. You value simplicity and aspire to live a life free of all the trappings of materialism and greed.

American Kitsch

For avid, colorful collectors and the loveable eccentric, American Kitsch is a movement robust in cute little knick-knacks and bright, happy colors. Developed as a design movement during the ‘40s and ‘50s, American Kitsch worked to bring back optimism and morale after the disastrous after effects of World War II. Though oft perceived as garish and “in bad taste” by the more blasé designer, American Kitsch had the market cornered on sentimentality and good wholesome fun.

Post-Modern

What could be more entertaining than poking fun at what other people call “classic” or “functional” or “modern” by going completely against everything that went before? Poking holes in the sanctity and formality of design and calling a spade a spade is exactly what Post-Modern designers aimed to do in their work. By deconstructing the design aesthetic of the 1950’s modern and rebuilding it to be vulgar, to celebrate kitsch and destroy long held design philosophies, post-modern designers created architecture and furniture pieces that challenged the status quo and sent the stuffy gray-haired architects of yesteryear back to the Victorian Era. Post-Modern design celebrates the bold, wacky and neurotic. For the prankster, love maker and oath breaker, Post-Modern design is a reaction to the stubborn traditionalism of the generations that went before.

Like your clothes or your car, your house is another extension of your sense of self. Don’t go with a generic design scheme, go with what represents you!