5 Sports To Inspire Your Living Room Makeover

The 2020 Summer Olympics may be a long while away, but for some of us avid sports fans, no great meet will ever be too far off when we got all that excitement in our veins. We may even be breathing more sports than social media every day, from the moment we rise to the moment we fall asleep.

While we now watch our favourite sports matches on our mobile screens, the living room still remains the best place to gather if you have your friends over and you plan to watch the next match on a larger screen. The living room can be considered the most communal space in the home, so it may have crossed your mind to combine the things you love with this large comfortable area.

So why not let your favourite sports decide how you want your living room to look? You can be surrounded by your loved ones as well as your loved hobbies, and this communal space is where you can pull that off.

When thinking about your potential living room makeover, always keep these three essentials in mind:

• Plenty of storage to clear your living room of clutter and keep your personal belongings safe
• Accessible areas for snacks and drinks, so you can always be well-fed and hydrated throughout your next TV match marathon
• Comfortable seaters — sofas, armchairs, recliners, whichever. Emphasis on ‘comfort’. Who wants to get up with sore limbs after spending the last few hours cheering on their favourite team?

Moving along, here are five of our favourite sports to inspire a sports-themed revamp for your living room:

1. Soccer

You do not have to invest in Astro Turf to bring the soccer field into your living room. Colours do mean plenty, after all, no matter the surface they are applied to.

Colours to work with would be green, black, and white. If you are unable to afford grass-green tiles, try putting the green on your walls instead. Paint them green with white streaks to resemble that familiar turf. You can also paint your walls in that trademark black-and-white hexagonal pattern and place some grass-green rugs on your floor.

Alternatively, you can bring in a rectangular Astro Turf or soccer-court-printed rug for that familiar grassy feeling at your feet and pair it with a beige or white floor.

Bring in your favourite soccer jerseys! Some soccer fans like to frame their jerseys in large frames and display them on their walls. You can also use old jerseys as cushion covers, so you can always be lounging with your favourite team.

Want your living room to represent your favourite soccer team? Use your favourite team’s colours or patterns (or even both!) to paint your walls. Tell your guests how much you love Manchester United with strong brick-toned reds, or Chelsea with cool dark blues.

For a little bit more fun, get some short cabinets (in either black or white) and place them at open areas around the living room as ‘goal posts’. Just be careful not to play too much soccer around them lest you break something valuable.

Image © Eight Design Pte Ltd

2. Swimming

Shades of blue you can work with include cyan, turquoise, and aqua. Utilise these blue hues on your floor, your walls, your carpentry, and your seaters. Swimming pools are mostly blue, after all, unless you count the pool lane dividers as well. Other than the classic swimming pool colours, you can also incorporate streaks of red, white, and yellow to resemble pool lane dividers.

If you are unable to blue-up your entire room, you can still opt for a large blue plastic or vinyl mat to add a little ‘swimming pool’ to your hall.

Be a little creative with your furniture; you can invest in blue seaters (sofas, armchairs, ottomans, chairs, etc) to match the swimming pool’s colours, or you can set a yellow or red sofa over a big blue mat before draping a long rectangular red or white cloth across it so that it resembles a pool lane divider on a pool.

You can throw in some cushions to match this theme — you can either use the colour palettes of the pool and lane dividers, or get cushions shaped like swimming floats or rings. Alternatively, you can turn old swimsuits into cushion covers.

Image © Absolook Interior Design

Image © Rad Design Inc, Houzz

3. Basketball

Green, red, beige, and light brown are colours commonly found in basketball courts, so you can use them for your floor if you want it to look just like a basketball court. Beige or light brown vinyl flooring will especially work well here, especially if you paint on white markings to bring the game of basketball onto your living room floor. Of course, if your living room is small and you have plenty of breakable stuff there, it is not recommended to use it as a basketball court.

As for carpentry and seaters, you can have them in either light brown and orange to match both ball and court. You can also use these two colours for your walls. If you want to spruce up your walls a little, go for the familiar basketball pattern — paint your walls orange and add those thin black streaks in the right places.

If you have old basketball jerseys lying around, you can either frame them up on your walls, or upcycle them as cushion covers or table cloths.

For additional novelty, you can use basketball hoops as makeshift containers for your remote controls or display railings to hang your stuff. You can also use old basketball hoops as wall displays to amp up the theme.

Image © HGTV

4. Volleyball

You can use the ball’s colour palette — white, blue, and yellow — for your living room design. If you want to use this palette on your walls, you can either go for striped or brick patterns.

If you prefer your ball on the floor rather than on the walls, you can either go for differently-coloured tiles or a patterned rug matching the ball’s appearance.

Alternatively, a floor in beige or light brown or green with painted white streaks will bring the volleyball court into your living room.

Otherwise, you can work with an entirely white space, and add pops of blue and yellow through your furniture. Many department stores have sofas and chairs in white, blue, and yellow, so you can still have the ball in your living room without converting it to a mini-me of the volleyball court.

Got some rectangular nets lying around the house? Use them as volleyball-themed decorations in your living room by draping them over your sofas or your carpentry. You can also use nets to cover your television set when not in use.

Perhaps you would like to put your nets on the walls? Pin the nets up and show them off as they are, or use them as display boards to share your sports paraphernalia or photos of your athletic ventures.

Image © Absolook Interior Design

Image © Dominic Blackmore, Ideal Home

5. Badminton

The colour palette for a badminton court is similar to that of a basketball court — green and light brown. You can use these two colours for your walls in solid blocks, or on the floor to emulate the court.

If you got old nets and badminton rackets, you can upcycle them as wall displays. Use them as display boards for photos or your post-it notes. You can also modify them to show off trophies, medals, or even figurines.

You can also use your old nets as makeshift dividers in your living room, or drape them over your carpentry.

Your cabinets can be placed in rows, far across from one another, to resemble the structured, open space of a sports court.

What about converting your old shuttlecocks into hanging lamps? You can do a bit of DIY for your ceiling by planting little lightbulbs inside your shuttlecocks and hanging them up. It is not just badminton-themed; it is also a good way to exercise your crafty side.

Why not bring in a secondhand badminton table (optional: with net) or make one from scratch as your living room’s centrepiece? You can use it as a novelty coffee table or as a sports-themed display piece. Bonus points if your living room is large and your ceiling high enough for you to have your own badminton tournament right in your own home!

Image © My Paper Crane

Image © AliExpress

What are your favourite sports? If you were given the budget and time, would you combine your favourite sport with your living room?