Room Reno #83: Maximalist Living Room

Welcome back to Room Reno #83 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping a Sim who wants her bland living room to become totally maximalist. Let’s meet the Sim we’re helping!

Meet Taylor!

This is Taylor and her adorable labradoodle puppy, Ralphie! Taylor moved to Copperdale recently and is wanting to change up her new home. It came pre-furnished, but she wants to make it less sterile and generic feeling than it was originally and make it more to her style. Her style? Totally maximalist, baby!

If you’re not familiar with it, maximalism is the opposite of minimalism–instead of everything being neutral and patternless, a maximalist space should be bright, colorful, and full of patterns! According to Architectural Digest, “maximalist interiors embrace bold use of color, pattern, and layering to create a space that honors and celebrates excess”. It’s not as simple as just throwing all the patterned furniture and decor you own into a room, though. Maximalism still relies on curating the right objects and decorative pieces to create a space that ends up harmonious and comforting to be in as opposed to stressful or overwhelming (which some people think of when they imagine a maximalist room!). Let’s see what we’re working with and how we can use maximalism to transform this space.

The Before

This living room is pretty nice! I feel like I’m usually roasting the before rooms in these renovations, but this is a very nice, simple room. It has everything that a living room should have (thank goodness, because some of them don’t) and even has a potted plant! Decoration in a base EA house, who would have thought? All jokes aside, I think this would be a great living room for a starter home or someone who wanted a more classic and simple living space. Since I’m working with Taylor today, I knew it was going to have to be switched up a lot in terms of decor to fit her style, but I personally like this basic look a lot and think it’s pretty cute.

I considered putting a full wall between the living room and kitchen in order to keep the maximalist space contained, but then I thought it might ruin the flow of the home. I have mixed feelings on open floor plans–they’re great in the right home, but some houses can be laid out pretty strangely with them. In this case, I really liked the flow of the open floor plan and wanted to keep it in the home, so I didn’t add walls. Maybe one day I’ll come back and do a kitchen and dining room renovation for Taylor, slowly turning her whole home into a maximalist heaven. In the meantime, though, we’re just doing her living room, so let’s get planning!

The Planning

This layout is sort of similar to the original layout of the room, though there are a few notable changes. For one, I actually ended up adding two more couches, giving the area a lot more seating. Taylor likes to entertain and host lots of parties, so I wanted to make sure there was lots of space for her many guests (and her pupper) to sit and enjoy themselves in her newly renovated space. I kept the fire, but I replaced the very traditional fireplace with an indoor fire pit type thing (I genuinely don’t know what to call it).

It still produces a small fire, and it’s still connected to the wall, so I’m going to say it’s a modern fireplace and not just a huge fire hazard irl. Anyway! Having the fire pit means that I can tie a traditional aspect of the room into the modern, maximalist style that Taylor likes. Plus, you can roast marshmallows. Obvious win. I kept a single bookshelf on one side of the fireplace for trinkets but also for book storage–I think having a bookcase in your living room is always important so you can show off all the cool books you have! I have a collection of art books in my living room that are fun to look through for guests. In this case, the whole living room is going to be full of art and color to look at. Let’s get building!

The After

I didn’t consider myself a maximalist before this makeover, but I might finally be converted now that I’ve done this renovation! When I started curating pieces for this room, I knew I wanted dark pink or purple-y magenta to be the color that tied all the parts together, and I think that’s part of the reason I love the finished result so much. I was really excited when I found the wicker couch with all the colors on it, and I decided to build out the overall color palette around that couch because it has a lot of shades of pink and blue and purple while also being one coherent piece of furniture. I chose the teal couch to tie into the shades of teal in the other couch, which meant I had a pretty good base color palette to try and coordinate with.

Depending on your opinions on leopard print, you’ll either love the rug or absolutely hate it. I personally love it, and I think it’s a great addition to the room and totally ties in the yellow tones in the couches along with having a neutral brown and black in it as well. I tried to keep it relatively neutral with the smaller decor pieces because most of the large pieces were very bright and colorful, and I think that helped this room to feel effortless and cozy without being overwhelming. The adorable dog helps, too!

Thanks for checking out Room Reno #83! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #82: Infant Play Area or our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about all the best Vanilla Girl CC or check out our Gossip Girl inspired lookbook! Have a great day 😎