5 Signature Pieces to Make Your Living Room Pop

Interior designer Tony Fornabaio says “The best interiors make your heart pound.” And he’s right. Think about it for a minute. How many times have you walked into a space and thought, wow-? If you’ve stopped in your tracks and admired the design of a space, then some part of you understands what power interior design has over our daily lives.

Having a room to call your own gives you the chance to create a space devoted to your personal stylings. As someone who flourishes in environments of color and who becomes impassioned by talk of consumerism, politics and art, Pop Art is your friend. An art movement that took root during the 1950s and ‘60s, Pop Art sought to blur the lines between “high art and low culture.” Artists of the movement made prints, paintings and sculptures of mundane objects and fashionable celebrities. A prime example of this would be Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans or Roy Lichtenstein’s M-Maybe. Instead of depicting a moral tale or historical moment, pop artists took the commonplace and made it into something bigger. They made it art.

Now here’s your chance to turn your living room into a livable work of art outfitted with furnishings that tell your guests exactly what you think. So put on a Lou Reed record and buckle up, you’re going to learn about five pieces that will make your space pop!

The White Box: Your Living Room

We all need a place to sit, to rest our heads and to feel snug. We don’t have to be limited in our choices. Color and texture goes a long way. Every living room comes equipped with the same fixtures: the couch, coffee table, table lamp and chair. The walls are painted white, and all of the furniture frames the TV. Who wants this kind of living room? Roy Lichtenstein said that “Pop Art looks into the world. It doesn’t look like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.” If you want to feel like you are living an authentic life, then design your space authentically. Fill it with things that are the physical manifestations of your thoughts.

The Sofa

Pop Art often uses bright, bold colors to help its audience identify the space and theme of the work. Why not do this with our furniture? The Gus Modern Switch Sofa comes complete with reversible seat and back cushions with two select patterns: striped and gridded. The modern-designed sofa lets users mix and match patterns all while warming the living room with its laurentian citrine color.

The Pillow

No sofa is complete without throw pillows. Functional and beautifying, throw pillows let you rest your head in style. To complement the sofa, get throw pillows that are patterned and solid. Houzz suggests mixing and matching prints of opposite colors. This will really make the room come alive.

The Lamp

A funky lamp can really change up a space. The Dioscuri table lamp designed by Artemide is a spherical orb reminiscent of a comic book character’s thought bubble. This minimalist table lamp emits a soft glow, it’s rounded, bright white design adds a stark contrast to the other colors of the room.

The Rug

You want a cushy rug to sink your feet into after a long day. The Sepia rug, designed by Mat-The-Basics features a multi-colored wavy line pattern that looks eerily similar to an abstract painting you would find hanging in your local art museum. With Pop Art having been partly inspired by the Abstract Expressionist movement, you’re showing your appreciation for the art world and its politics one furnishing at a time.

The Art

One of the main focuses of Pop Art is its opposition to elitist art, or high art. Pop artists worked to make a piece that called attention to the ironic (re: Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans). Would anyone decorate their space with a soup can? Probably not, but because it’s been made into a painting, now it’s art. Fortunately, you don’t have to own a Warhol or Lichtenstein print to have a piece of Pop Art hanging on the wall. In fact, you can make your own. After you’ve finished, hang it in the living room where it would be most visible. It’s a conversation piece.

It’s your house. Fill it with things that make you happy.