Lounge Room Living: Choosing Paint Colours for Living Rooms
Living rooms are for living in, but just what kind of living you do in this room is the key to choosing the right colour combinations and paint finishes.
A busy household with children, dogs, sticky mitts and craft afternoons will need a different approach to a grown-up household where cocktail parties by candlelight are more de riguer.
But despite how the room is used, none of these facts will prevent you from creating a stylish space that you enjoy spending time in.
Let's start at the finish:
Choose durable, matt paint finishes for busy living rooms
Open plan living rooms, or living rooms that are used as a passage to another room, can receive a lot of traffic and need a little more protection from their inhabitants than other rooms of the home.
Take a look at the Intelligent range of paint finishes, which are 15 times more durable than ordinary household paints. The range includes wipeable Intelligent Matt for walls in busy homes and brand-new finishes for floors and woodwork. The tough Intelligent Floor Paint is water-based, easy to apply and quick to dry. You can also paint woodwork and wooden furniture in coordinating hues with the extremely hard-wearing Intelligent Satin.
Secluded living rooms, used for entertaining, can be indulged in the most matt of finishes. Absolute Matt emulsion has an incredibly low sheen (2%) and gives colour a chalky, velvety look which enhances the feeling of luxury on living room walls.
Always keep furniture, especially sofas, a couple of centimetres away from the walls to avoid scuff marks. This will give you the versatility to move furniture around if so desired.
And the best part – almost every Little Greene paint colour is available in every finish!
An air of intrigue:
Bring intimacy to a living space with darker shades
Dark, mysterious paint colours are extremely chic and create a wrap-around feeling when painted on all four walls. Dark living room walls also provide an element of surprise in otherwise light and bright homes. Inviting and comforting, they inspire intimate evenings, convivial conversation and quiet contemplation.
Main Image:
Wall And Panelling: Mid Azure Green
Skirting: Royal Navy
Ideal for both rooms with ample natural light, and those starved of daylight, these deliciously dark colours are at their best in living rooms that are predominantly used in the evenings, teamed with dark flooring, sumptuous rugs, velvet fabrics and leather upholstery. Look out for Obsidian Green, Puck or Mid Azure Green, and pair with off-white ceilings.
Walls, door & trim: Puck
Ceiling: Slaked Lime Mid
Walls: Obsidian Green (70s) Absolute Matt Emulsion
Ceiling: Knightsbridge (60s) Absolute Matt Emulsion
Restful rooms:
Create a calm living room with the 'Colour Scales' families
Hectic lives call for calming spaces and the Colour Scales palette has something for everyone looking to create this feel, with its 48 neutral hues.
For a cooler combination, paint walls in French Grey Dark highlighted with French Grey Pale, which will both calm a scheme and expand the feeling of space – ideal for smaller living rooms.
Keep the look fresh with crisp Loft White on woodwork and ceilings.
Main Image:
Main wall: French Grey Dark, Absolute Matt Emulsion/Intelligent Matt Emulsion
Panelling: French Grey, Intelligent Matt Emulsion/Intelligent Eggshell /Flat Oil Eggshell
Fireplace: French Grey Pale, Intelligent Eggshell /Flat Oil Eggshell.
Be adventurous - play with paint:
Paints bands of colour to highlight living room features
Add a sense of adventure to your living room and get creative with bands of colour in horizontal stripes. Think of paint as an expression of the family who live within its walls.
Main Image: Cornicing: Slaked Lime
Highlight Stripe: Leather
Wall: Pea Green
Skirting and Panelling: Obsidian Green.
Try not to neglect the living room ceiling – after all, this is the 5th wall of your room. Here, Sir Lutyens’ Sage walls are teamed with a ceiling painted in Blush for a romantic finish.
Ceiling & Cornice: Blush
Upper walls & dado rail: Sir Lutyens’ Sage
Below dado rail & skirting: Invisible Green
Or, use paint to highlight architectural features in the room. Outline a door frame in vibrant Route One in an otherwise white room, or paint cornices, picture rails and door frames in Jack Black for a striking, designer look.
Wall: French Grey - Pale
Woodwork: Jack Black
Door: Cape Red
Paint below dado rail height in Marine Blue and the remaining wall in Celestial Blue for a fresh, optimistic feel. Alternatively, use darker bands of primary colours in differing widths to create drama in rooms with high ceilings.
Wall (from top): Deep Space Blue (70s), Bronze Red (V)
Skirting board: Yellow-Pink (R)
Wall, picture frames, skirting and door: all Slaked Lime Deep
Stripe panel: Route One
Table: Air Force Blue
You can't be serious!:
Use vibrant tones for an energetic living space
Vivid hues and lively tones work well in living rooms that are made for entertaining. From after dinner drinks to children’s parties, vibrant colours will add an immeasurable sense of joy to already jovial occasions.
Make the walls do all the talking with paired-back furniture pieces and ground energetic schemes with fresh colours like French Grey Pale on ceilings, or sophisticated blacks and browns, such as Obsidian Green on woodwork.
Use a wide stripe in a contrasting colour above picture rail height to add a playful touch - or paint all walls and woodwork in the same colour, which displays a reassuring confidence to visitors to your home.
Home Sweet Home:
Combine wallpaper and paint for a coordinated living room finish
Nothing promotes a homely feel quite like the combination of wallpaper and paint.
In historical homes, reception rooms would have been the place to display wallpaper – and the homeowner’s wealth. Following this tradition, choose a wallpaper that you simply love and wallpaper all walls of the room.
Select the dominant colour in the paper and use this colour to paint all the woodwork in the room and use one of the other colours in the paper to guide furniture choices. Introduce contemporary accessories to contrast with the historical nature of the paper to create a touch of designer flare.
Here we see Carlton House Terrace wallpaper in Blue Plume paired with Hicks' Blue paint.
Wallpaper: Carlton House Terrace - Blue Plume
Fireplace, Skirting & Panelling: Hicks' Blue
And remember, living rooms are for living in, so adorn them with your favourite hues and savour the time spent in them!
For more design inspiration, explore our living room image gallery.