20 White Living Room Ideas That Are Clean and Chic

Show Off Your Art with a Gallery Wall

“While white walls can seem like a safe choice, they are the perfect canvas for an art collection or gallery wall,” Claire Staszak, owner of Centered by Design tells us. This homeowner is an art curator, so Staszak highlighted essential pieces on a gallery wall, which pops against the white paint. To create an even cozier feel, Staszak painted the ceilings taupe to pick up tones in the rug, making for a comfortable space to sit and stay a while.

Choose a Few Standout Features

The biggest benefit of a white living room? It creates a blank canvas for you to draw the eye in any direction you'd like, and that's what Studio DB did here. With white-painted walls and a blends-right-in couch, you're drawn to the standout light fixture and conversation-worthy side chairs.

Create an Accent Wall

For a pop of color and pattern in a (nearly) all-white living room, take a cue from this space and highlight one wall with a wild wallpaper. The botanical wallpaper both stands out and feels right at home when paired with neutral furnishings and real plants.

Hang an Oversized Mirror

Mirrors are the ultimate accessory for any space, including white living rooms. First of all, they're beautiful—especially when outfitted in an ornate gilded frame. Mirrors are also practical, both for catching a glimpse of yourself and bouncing natural light around a room.

Install Wall-to-Wall White Built-Ins

White built-in cabinets are a match made in living room heaven. They're equally practical and elegant, especially since the white color helps camouflage the heavy woodwork, ensuring a light and bright feeling.

Use the cabinets on the bottom to store kids' toys, seasonal decorations, blankets, or whatever else you want out of sight but within easy reach. Then style the open shelving with family photos, plants, and piles of your prettiest books.

Forget Window Coverings

Nixing window coverings allows for every ounce of sunshine to bounce around a white living room for an ultra-energizing space. It's not for everyone or every home, but if the elements are right (perhaps a high, semi-secluded view), go for it.

Gather Around a White Fireplace

Whether you cozy on the couch for a movie night or to warm up in front of the fire doesn't matter. A white living room, like this Brexton Cole Interiors-designed space, makes for a seamless transition for a white-painted fireplace. It simultaneously blends in, making for an ideal spot to hang a television, or can stand out on its own with a roaring fire. Win/win.

Don't Be Afraid of White Furnishings

White furniture can be a catch-all for pet hair and wayward glasses of red wine, but if you’re strategic about the type of fabric you choose, you’ll stave off some “how did that get there?” spills.

“We opted to do a performance linen fabric for the upholstery, giving them the white sofa without the fear of maintenance,” interior designer Ariana Lovato of Honeycomb Home Design shares. “To complement this, we brought in some texture and color with some beautiful leather side, chairs, and a neutral rug with a subtle pattern. The sun-drenched room feels like it’s floating on top of a cloud."

Keep Furnishings (And Everything Else) Minimal

Minimalists, rejoice! This white living room designed by Joshua Smith proves you can keep things interesting even with limited furnishings. Practical yet high-design pieces in various shades of neutrals pair beautifully with the sparse walls. The effect is clean yet cozy, and a fireplace never hurts.

Show Off Interesting Floors

If your flooring is as show-stopping as this chevron design, you'll want to do everything you can to not distract from it. Take a page from this living room—that means white walls, a small area rug, and furnishings that don't take up too much floor real estate.

Add a Bold Rug

Consider this Erin Williamson-designed living room your sign to finally get that bold, colorful rug you've been eyeing for a while. Juxtaposed against uncluttered white walls, a rug of many colors has the opportunity to be the star of the design, and garner plenty of "I love your rug!" compliments from your guests.

Create a Beachy Feel

White + blue = the best beach house vibes. Even if you're states away from an oceanside breeze, you can emulate this laid-back white living room's feel with blue accents in all kinds of accessories: throw pillows, blankets, and art books, for starters. Finish the space with gauzy shades to filter the sunlight too.

Turn to Green For Holiday Cheer

White living rooms are a breeze to decorate for the holidays, as they're a blank canvas to add whatever festive color scheme you'd like. For an elevated feel, opt for green and gold accents, like in this subtle yet sophisticated design. Rich forest green velvet pillows are placed atop a white couch, while a sparse tree, gold candlesticks, and effortlessly draped garland round out the holiday decorations.

Go Bold With Accent Colors

Think of a white living room as an excuse to go wild with art and accessories. Whether that's a graphic print of orange poppies, a pink ottoman, or pumpkin-colored armchairs, like in this living room, or another color story altogether is up to you.

Extend White Into Connecting Spaces

When you're working with an open-concept living room, choosing a crisp, white paint will make your design decisions easier. It creates a flow from room to room without having to delineate one space to the next.

Emphasizing Ceiling Height

Leave it to CB2 to design a swoon-worthy white living room. Here they emphasized the already tall ceiling height even more with low-profile furniture. Add in a slim lamp and an oversized accessory (we love this vase filled with branch clippings) and voila! An oh-so-Parisian living room.

Have Fun With Furnishings

Opting for a white living room doesn't mean you have to play it safe design-wise. Take this Sarah Sherman Samuel-designed living room, for instance. Here she added a hanging rattan chair and rich blue chairs that beg to be touched, but a colorful rug or cheeky artwork would add the same sense of playfulness.

Keep a Calm Vibe With Tone-On-Tone Hues

Think using all neutrals is boring? This Room & Board-designed living room proves that wrong. Instead, it's calming, sophisticated, and a comfortable place to kick up your feet at the end of the day.

Layer Textures With Graphic Patterns

Take it from interior designer Daniella Hoffer, who designed this space for a client who had recently downsized to a townhome. “They still wanted to pack their smaller space with style, so we combined crisp white with pops of black and organic tones and textures to create a sophisticated, clean look," she explains.

Go All White Everywhere

White walls, white couch, and white chairs? Oh yes. Room & Board proves it can be done without blinding you. Be strategic about the tones of white, perhaps choosing a brighter hue for the paint and a softer cream for the furnishings. Add a pile of throw pillows on the couch, drape a cozy blanket over the chair, and you have a wow-worthy living room design.