The sunken living room was popular in the mid-20th century. Now, it is making a comeback. This time, however, there are just so many variations to choose from. From minimalist, contemporary, modern, luxurious, rustic to traditional.
Do you want to build such a living room in your house? If you do, we can help you with that. Here, we have collected 20 different ideas to help you design your dream living room. With such numbers of varying sunken living room ideas, you will find one or two, probably more, to your liking. Ready? Here we go.
Rustic Sunken Living Room
What is a sunken living room? To put it simply, it is a depressed living room. Yes, while the usual living room is on the same level, the sunken one is not. If a lot of space in the house is available, the homeowner usually makes the living room accessible from all directions. Sometimes, like this one, it is not.
This plain and simple room is the ideal choice if there is limited space available to create a sunken-style living room, which, more often than not, requires a lot of space in the house.
There are practically limitless ways to design a living room. The sunken-style living room is only one among many. These living room ideas may help you design your ideal living room.
Small Living Room
In terms of styling, a sunken living room is not too different from its regular counterpart. This one here has a modern minimalist décor. Notice how it looks so simple, without any clutter on sight, and uses light and neutral color schemes.
Properly designed, simple things can elicit beauty. And this living room is among the simplest and most beautiful sunken living room designs here.
Rather than looking plain, bland and boring, this simple living room looks so inviting. It makes a perfect spot to relax, watch TV, and even read.
Comfy Space
One of the many uses of a living room is to socialize. That is, spending time with our beloved ones. To accommodate such uses, you will need good sunken living room ideas. Here are some: don’t use bright and bold decorations, use a monochromatic color scheme, and add comfy pillows and cushions.
This living room here has all three. The decorations are rather simple and none look like an eyesore, it incorporates monochromatic color scheme, and, well, there are just so many soft pillows and cushions everywhere. A comfy conversation spot, indeed.
Outdoor Living Room
While many sunken living room ideas here look so modern and contemporary, that doesn’t mean those are your only options. Nope. Far from that. You can apply rustic touches to your sunken living room. Will it look good? Of course. This one here just proves that.
Unlike previous sunken living room designs, this living room focuses on providing warmth and a homey vibe. Notice how it incorporates the monochrome gray, yellow, and the finished wood floor. All of these bring the rustic vibe. The ceiling also has earth-tone colors, complementing the rustic vibe further.
Small Space
Planning to do a sunken living room remodel for your kids’ game/playing room? In that case, adding a recessed bed with cushions around it is certainly a good idea. Look how comfy and spacious this living/playing room is.
The beauty of such a living room is that even if the room has a bed, it doesn’t look cramped. If anything, it looks spacious than ever.
Also, since the bed is recessed, cleaning and managing the room will be a lot easier to do. Your kids get a fun spot to play in and cleaning and managing are easier for you.
Country Style
What do you think about this sunken living room? This living room has a country decoration but with a twist. The twist is that it blends country design elements with contemporary ones. As a result, it looks so contemporary while still giving a country vibe.
On one hand, the shapes of the decorations are mostly contemporary. On the other, the colors often used for country décor, like gray, pale yellow, finished and unfinished wooden surfaces, are incorporated. The result is a living room with a beautiful contemporary country interior.
Sunken Living Room with Fireplace
The next idea on our sunken living room ideas list is a traditional style living room. As expected from a traditional décor, you can see how decorative the living room is. It has any interesting points of focus, a warm and welcoming vibe, amazing lighting, and of course, lots and lots of wooden surfaces.
Such a living room makes an excellent conversation pit. If the space is large enough, you can even have a bar at the far edge of the room to accommodate yourself and your guests.
Play with Contrast
If you want an easy, quick, good-looking and foolproof sunken living room remodel, try playing with contrast. Incorporating contrast in the sunken living room makes it looks more attractive, appealing, and stylish. And best of all, this works for almost any living room, large or small.
A depressed living room makes the ceiling higher. This one has a high ceiling and the living room makes it even higher.
Many decor styles might not work with such settings. Black/gray and white, however, successfully makes the depressed living room looks attractive, appealing, and undoubtedly stylish.
Sunken Living Room 70s
Greet your guests and converse with them in a unique lounge. A depressed living room needs not to be large. It doesn’t need to use a few colors, either. Why? Well, because ‘exotic’ sunken living room designs, as seen here, look amazing, too.
One of the best benefits that such an ‘exotic’ decor gives is altering the focus. Indeed, rather than focused on the size, the beholders will be enchanted by how amazing the living room looks. Another benefit is that it is a great ice breaker, thus making it a great lounge.
Mid Century
A mid century sunken living room is the best choice if you want to keep things down to minimal in the living room while looking stylish. Notice how simple this living room looks. And yet, it employs such a bold teal color for the sofa.
The juxtaposition between simplicity and bold color is what makes this living room looks beautiful. That is not the only thing this living room has, of course. There are also fabric, texture, accent colors and a plant, all of which make the living room gorgeous.
Similar to the sunken-style living room, the mid century-style living room is from the 20th century. It makes a comeback, too. Check out these mid century living room ideas for inspiration.
Cozy Lounge
The larger the sunken living room is, the more purposes it can have. This living room, for example, can serve as both a comfy lounge and a reading nook. Notice how the bookshelves enwrap the living room perimeters here.
For the sunken living room designs the homeowner chose earth-tone colors. These make the living room attractive and relaxing without looking like an eyesore. Also, since the décor doesn’t stand out too much, both conversing and reading will be more enjoyable as there is little to no distraction there.
Stylish Minimalist
Choosing minimalist sunken living room ideas doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go very simplistic or without style. On the contrary, you can choose to be both minimalist and stylish. The living room as seen here serves as an excellent example of a stylish minimalist decor
The style, of course, doesn’t come from extravagant or overboard decorations. Rather, it comes from unique and simple shapes from the lighting, the sunken living room step, the flooring, and the colors. All of these design elements create a stylish living room while keeping the decor minimal.
Modern Elegance
This sunken living room proves how you can combine modern and elegant designs. As seen here, most parts of the living room look so modern.
The elegant touch is on the purple cushions and pillow. This single element successfully added an elegant vibe to what is an otherwise modern living room.
Changing how a living room looks and feels can be as simple as adding a design element. So, before planning a total sunken living room remodel, you might want to consider changing the cushions and pillows.
Indian Style
When it comes to sunken living room ideas, nobody says you can go full bright and bold with the decorations. You can. As seen here, a bright and bold decor looks quite amazing when applied to a depressed living room.
One thing to keep in mind is how you incorporate the colors. Make sure that the colors you use look contrast enough with the background color. Enough contrast will create a balanced look, making the sunken living room designs a lot more eye-catching.
Enjoy the Outdoor
What’s better than a depressed living room? A depressed living room that connects directly with the outdoor, of course. Such a sunken living room allows you to relax and converse while enjoying the beautiful scenery outside.
An open living room like this looks even better with minimalist or modern décor style. Why? Because either style is less distracting, thus putting on the focus on the outdoor.
Notice there is a fireplace in the living room, which means the living room is available anytime, regardless of time and season.
Near Window
The minimalist style is such a versatile style. It can be combined with almost any decor style. Yes, including even naturalistic ones. This living room here gives off not just a simplistic vibe but also a refreshing and soothing vibe as well.
The best thing about the living room is how it is decorated. Other than the comfy white pillows, all of the decorations are pots and plants.
The windows frame and flooring also have unfinished wood color, making the looks even more natural. You can’t go more natural than that.
All-season Lounge
This sunken living room is for those who’d want to have their living room available regardless of time. The overall sunken living room designs are simple and rather minimalistic. Since it doesn’t have any striking or season-themed design elements, the room looks good all-season.
During summer, the living room can get more minimal with lots of open space. During winter, the fireplace in the middle can be lit to warm the room. Adding fabrics and textures can help as well. And so on.
Feel the Luxury
The next one on the list is a luxury living room. There are many interesting things about this living room. For example, the shape.
Rather than a simple rectangle, this living room is round. The roundness of the living room allows it to stand out, as there are many straight lines and rectangles all over the house.
The sofa and the decorations also help to bring the luxury vibe as well. The sofa doesn’t occupy the entire space, leaving two openings on opposite sides, while the decorations are already luxurious on their own.
Tropical Living Room
Want to feel the outdoor but just cannot open your living room? Then make a faux outdoor living room as seen here. While technically not being an outdoor living room, this living room provides a natural and relaxing vibe, not unlike the outdoor. If anything, it feels as if you are in a garden.
The best way to get such a vibe is to use wood flooring, earth-tone colors and lots and lots of greeneries. Adding several accent colors, like shades of blue, is not a bad idea as well since they provide contrast and balance.
Contemporary
The last sunken living room on our sunken living room ideas list has a contemporary style. As expected from a contemporary living room, it is simple, straight, and direct. Don’t mistake it from being boring, however, as it is anything but.
This contemporary living room looks so inviting and comfy. It also uses mostly neutral colors, allowing you to focus on whatever you are doing, be it conversing with your family or guests, reading, or just relaxing without any distraction on sight.