A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge (in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand), is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities. The term front room can also be used to describe a living room, because in many homes the living room is at the very front.
In modern homes and apartments, the living room has replaced the old-fashioned front parlour. In the 19th century, the front parlour was the room in the house used for formal social events, including where the recently deceased were laid out before their funeral. The term living room is found initially in the decorating literature of the 1890s, where a living room is understood to be a reflection of the personalty of the designer, rather than the Victorian conventions of the day. The rise of the living room meant the end of the dedicated room for receiving guests that had been common in the Victorian period.
A typical Western living room will be furnished with a sofa, chairs, occasional tables, and bookshelves, lamps, rugs, as well as other pieces of furniture. Traditionally, a sitting room in the United Kingdom would have a fireplace. In Japan, people traditionally sat on tatami instead of chairs, but Western-style decor is also common to have in Japanese homes nowadays.
In larger homes in the United States and Canada, the living room is sometimes reserved for more formal and quiet entertaining while a separate, informal living room (often called a den, family room or recreation room) is used for more casual activities, watching television, spending time with children and drinking. In recent years, the term "great room" has come to be used to denote the family room, especially if it is open to the kitchen, and may feature a vaulted ceiling.
source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_room
