Southwestern Living Room Furniture

Fan of a wild, rustic feel and earthy color palettes? Then let’s help you find the perfect southwestern living room furniture for your eclectic dream.

Southwestern decor draws inspiration from indigenous cultures and textile crafts while combining them with the building methods of Spanish settlers.

Characterized by wood, leather, bold patterns and warm palettes, southwestern decor almost aims to blend with the characteristic desert landscape of the wildest American West.

When it comes to your living room, your southwestern furniture will usually involve a couch, chairs, a coffee table or ottoman, a rug, and a TV cabinet: the goal is to get creative with patterns and textures while maintaining an overall cohesive feel.

How? Well, here are some tips for y’all.

Caroline Patterson Interior Design Expert Updated 23/08/2021

Create your southwestern furniture palette

The most characteristic southwestern palettes will involve earthy hues like gold, coppers, ochre, umber, grays, and silver, and these can be excellent starting points for your actual living room furniture.

However, it’s the accent colors that can help you personalize it, especially by reinforcing its warm nature or, on the contrary, adding some cold hues to create a conscious contrast.

Some popular southwestern accent colors that you can consider for your decorative elements are purple, blue, and turquoise.

Start with a southwestern couch made of leather

When it comes to south western furniture, a leather couch is a must if you want to go all in with this interior style.

To further emphasize your earthy palette and this decor’s signature elements, consider a brown or tan finish with a bit of an antique or retro feel rather than a sleek, contemporary design in a black or colorful hue.

We also recommend adding cushions in recognizable indigenous patterns and bold colors.

$3000

or an eclectic or Navajo print sofa

Another practical way of obtaining a southwestern sofa is to focus on this style’s typical desert-inspired or ethnic patterns (Navajo prints are obviously the most iconic ones).

You can either look for a model that already incorporates them (for example, on its back or cushions) or make the most of accessories like throws, slipcovers, or couch protectors.

Add some chairs to your southwest furniture

Should your southwestern living room furniture match when it comes to sofas and armchairs? It depends on your personal preference.

However, to keep them consistent while avoiding an overwhelming result, we recommend matching only two out of these three features: height, color, and design.

For example, you could pick a southwestern chair in the same design and height as your couch but in a different finish.

Plus, don’t forget that your accent pillows or covers can add another layer of consistency.

$47.52 ~~$75~~

Place a rug in your southwestern living room

Wide and covering the largest floor real estate, a new rug can be the key element to tie your southwestern living room furniture together and really make this desert inspiration obvious as soon as someone walks into your home.

The trick? Don’t be afraid to be bold when it comes to colors, Navajo prints, or other southwestern patterns.

Consider a pouf for your desert southwest furniture…

Given its typical upholstered design, a pouf isn’t just a comfortable and practical addition: it can become a strategic element to consciously reinforce the inspiration behind your southwestern living room furniture.

For example, an effective decorative choice would be to stick to some Navajo prints or other patterns homaging indigenous cultures.

$124.99 ~~$234.9~~

… or a southwestern style furniture ottoman

Adding to its characteristic cozy feel, ottomans with legs are another popular choice when it comes to this southwestern furniture style.

While the top can involve some patterned upholstery or prints (much like with a pouf), the legs could even match your other wooden items, helping you maintain a cohesive decor.

Adding animal prints to your southwestern style furniture

An article on southwestern living room furniture and decor just wouldn’t be complete without a special mention of animal prints.

Cowhide is obviously the most iconic, but, if you’re not comfortable with actual leather or animal skin, don’t worry: you can find synthetic equivalents or even incorporate it as a print through your upholstered elements or wall decor.

$339.99 ~~$369~~

Finding the right cabinets for your southwest style furniture

As well as sticking to familiar wood finishes, there’s another element that will help you make your southwestern living room furniture even truer to this style: a raw, light-washed, or distressed feel.

This can either be achieved by relying on a natural wooden design alone or a hand-painted model striving for the same aged vibe.

Maintaining a harmonious balance between your southwest furniture and other decorative items

From rugs to prints and plants, try and choose decorative items that will actively complement your southwestern style furniture.

For example, they could include the usual patterns or earthy colors from your palette.

Other signature items that you could experiment with are colorful tiles, artwork relying on noticeable textures, succulents, woven baskets, macrame, terracotta pots, animal skulls (or replicas), or horns.

Our advice Buying Guide

Southwestern U.S. furnishings can reflect traditions both old and new that are peculiar to the region. If you're shopping for this kind of furniture, here's what you can take into consideration to make a well-informed purchase.

What's the history of Southwestern furniture?

Southwestern living room furniture is an amazing blend of cultures. Some of the items have traveled north from Mexico, some come from the Conquistadores, while other parts are contributions from the Hopi, Navajo and other native Americans who lived in the New Mexico and Arizona region long before the European settlers made their way westward.

The southern residents of the U.S. in the 1800s made their contributions, as well. Both the white families from the south-eastern states who were looking for more or better lands and escaped African slaves, as well as African freedmen made their way into Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. All brought their influences.

What are the common characteristics of Southwestern living room furniture?

“Southwestern” is both a distinctive style and a blending of several cultures. In a living room that reflects these cultures, you are likely to see bold, geometric patterns. People descended from the Anasazi – the builders of the ancient cities – had many skills, including weaving and silver working. Rugs, wall hangings, and blankets might include traditional weave patterns as well as storytelling designs.

The fireplaces of the region tend to be shallow and tall, geared toward building a small fire and making the most of it. In an area where wood is scarce, this makes excellent sense.

You might also see Spanish mission style furnishings – iron scrollwork, heavy couches upholstered in leather, hand-tooled leather ornaments of all sorts. And lace – lace curtains, mantillas, tablecloths, and more.

Sand paintings and pottery might round out the decorations, with tall, angular desert plants (look out for those spikes) completing the scene. You might expect to see thirsty oranges, light yellows, and deep black as part of the decorating palette.

Is Southwestern living room furniture comfortable?

Although there might be an occasional whatnot shelf or other bit of frippery from “back east,” most Southwestern furnishings are practical and comfortable. Although modern Southwesterners are probably not all that different from people in other parts of the US, the people who lived in the area when the United States was young were busy. In the arid regions that make up Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, it took hard work to make a living. Until the railroads were completed, it was a difficult and hazardous journey to bring good and supplies from the cities on the coast. Many of the things they used were made locally – blankets, serapes, hats, those heavy leather couches, and more.

What decorating accessories are typical for the Southwestern style?

Longhorn cattle and cattle ranching are part of the southwestern culture. Lean, rangy bovines that could make the most of the sparse forage available to them were more easily brought to market when the railroads provided a way to take the beef-on-the-hoof back east. The horns of those cattle became an iconic part of the decorations and ornaments of the region, along with silver conchos, which were silver medallions used to decorate chaps and other leather items, and mounted hunting trophies.

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