To ask for colour ideas for living room

[Lex345]

Has anyone got any ideas for living room colours please? I normally know what I want when we decorate, but my mind has gone blank; google is showing me some gorgeous colour combinations but they are too dark or just not what I am after.

North facing living room with a bay window; fairly small. Black fireplace; 2 alcove spaces. Currently charcoal grey/ white/ black colour scheme. 3 walls white, chimney breast wall grey. I am after something lighter-I don't want red or orange though. I would love dark green but the room is too dark to take it I think.

Will be replacing sofas too so don't need to match to them. I am looking for cosy/informal, but it really does get dark as fully north facing. I don't want the whole room white. Can anyone inspire me with a colour idea please? Pictures also welcome so i can feel envious of your lovely living rooms too!

I start with something I really like and take my colours from that. It could be a picture, a rug, a cushion cover - anything really that I want to have in that room. Because your room is North facing I would choose lighter, warm toned colours in the main, but they have to be ones that you like.

My living room takes its colours from a large Chinese plate I have on the wall. My walls are a greenish duck egg because that is the base colour of the plate, as are the curtains, and I have added colours in cushions, rugs and pictures. My big sofa is donkey grey because it is practical, but I have duck egg throws on it in an attempt to stop it getting covered in cat hair. My little sofa is blush pink. I have a gold/yellow stool, Chinese flower paintings in deep pink with gold frames, my rug is a duck egg blue with pinkish beige pattern, my cushions are duck egg, blush pink and gold on the big sofa and raspberry pink on the little sofa.

Ooh that sounds lovely! Love the idea of finding an item i love and building the colours around it; am just struggling to find inspiration at the moment. I did quite like the idea of lemon yellow/very pale grey but everyone told me it would industrial!

Do you have a picture rail / dado rail?
Some options:
https://images.app.goo.gl/aLVoVJeGgh1Z1PKR6
https://images.app.goo.gl/xfTZmdBmQHddoNPw5
https://images.app.goo.gl/mSaPCzVgX4Bn7nMN6
https://images.app.goo.gl/p3PWeHYwHejscXNF9

We have dark green (F&B Green smoke) and warm off white (F&B School house white) walls and loads of plants, real and fake. It feels cosy.

Don't rule out dark colours in smaller north-facing rooms - a darker wall can set-off lighter accent colour furniture and features, and counterintuitively make the space feel larger as well as cosier.

I wouldn’t go with a cool colour in a north-facing room, as the northern aspect will bring out the coolness of any colour, and you risk having a very cold-looking room.

This is useful —

https://www.farrow-ball.com/ie/how-to-guide/how-light-affects-colour

Basically, the advice is to go with colours with a warm yellow undertone.

I’ve gone with darkish colours for north-facing rooms in this house, but none of them are sitting rooms, so it’s different. Personally, I like the cosy, cocooning feel of a dark colour in a living space, but I appreciate its not for everyone. I have Inchyra Blue in one room.

Beautiful! The green is gorgeous!

I agree I need warm colours, I do like the colour scheme we have now but it is too cold; definitely want to change it up a bit.

in our North facing sitting room we have F&B French Gray which is a green-gray with white above the picture railings including the ceiling. It works insanely well with the light and at this time of the year brings a sense of warmth.
our North facing bathroom is stiff key blue (f&b) with white and the room always seems both light and warm.

What about having a feature wall, with a patterned wallpaper that has the green you like plus maybe some warmer colours? You can get some lovely ones with a paler background. Then you can pick out colours from the paper to use for soft furnishings etc.

Given you have alcoves etc, it gives you lots of options to have this as a highlight rather than a full wall.

Start with the sofas! Find one you love.

There are a billion paint colours and paint is comparatively cheap.

There will be far fewer sofas you like, in your price range, in far fewer available colours and fabrics.

Much easier and more sensible to do it that way round.

I love my new pink dining room, picture is darker than actual colour.

North facing living room with a bay window; fairly small. Black fireplace; 2 alcove spaces. Currently charcoal grey/ white/ black colour scheme. 3 walls white, chimney breast wall grey. I am after something lighter-I don't want red or orange though. I would love dark green but the room is too dark to take it I think.

I would go with the dark green. But think about painting the inside of the alcoves in a lighter shade, and then using a lighter colour for the sofa and curtains. Light against dark will look bigger than you think, and the darker warm green walls will add warmth and cosiness. Keep the woodwork white, and use white frames for photos and art on the walls.

My sitting room is north facing and I decided to embrace the lack of light and make the room cosy and inviting; I think it's very hard to use paint to make a dark room feel light and airy! So we went for a very dark green with yellow hints of colour. I love it and think it looks great especially in the winter nights with the log burner lit.

I prefer to keep my walls a neutral colour as it's a large room so I find it easier to change up the soft furnishings/home decor through the seasons.

For colour/design I do have a few pictures I really like so they stay, but I also get a roll or sample pieces of wall paper and cut to fit decent sized picture frames, again I can change them quickly and easily if I see something else I like.

That looks so cosy! Very similar shape to my room as well!

Love all the suggestions; I have been looking for a sofa to try and build on that, needs to be a dark coloured sofa, we have a dog and three teens so wouldn't chance a pale one yet!

I am thinking of building a window seat in the bay window, I have always wanted one. I think I just need to be a bit brave and go for the dark green because I do like it (I really love copper with it, so maybe something like that),

I'd go with a warm, rich ochre-ish stone colour, or a fresh sage green botanical, or a smoky amethyst. I have all these in my house and they work very well. The amethyst is good in a north-facing room that gets little light as it is creamy sort of blueberry fool colour in the mornings and a richer darker purple by night.

I highly recommend Paint &Paper Library paints. They have all the subtlety and richness of Farrow & Ball colours but the paint is so much nicer. It's like painting with double cream! And unlike cheaper trade paints, the colours don't seem to fade at all.Some other paint seems to change colour over the years.

This is a good idea. Need to remember this as we are moving soon and replacing ancient craggy sofas.

We have had some dreadful paint over the years trying to save some pennies, definitely worth getting a decent one. Went through a bit of an upcycling stage once and bought red gloss for some drawers (sounds horrible now, but it did look nice when I had finished) it was horrendous to paint with though, it almost formed dots on the wood and took a lot of coats.

@Lex345 a window seat sounds wonderful! We have a bay window also and I would have loved to put a window seat in however the window is quite high and lowering it would be very expensive plus it would ruin the symmetry of the house as we are double fronted.
Good luck with your decisions!

Dulux heritage range paints are great quality and come in gorgeous colours - after years of using F&B I am now a convert

www.duluxheritage.co.uk/en

@ThePoetsWife i love these too. Their Mallard Green is the richest green I’ve ever met

I also embraced the darkness of my north facing living room. Dark blue walls and sofas - trick is to pick a paint colour without a greyish tone. Then jewel coloured cushions, curtains etc and gold light fittings etc to add a bit more warmth still

"I am thinking of building a window seat in the bay window, I have always wanted one." This is a lovely idea but where would you put your Christmas tree? If you don't need the bay for this then I'd definitely seriously consider the window seat - plus I'd incorporate storage built in, drawers and/or cupboards.

Our living room has exactly the same aspect to it, it gets some sun in the height of summer from the east and west facing sides of the bay but not at this time of year. We have Natural Hessian on the walls, a dark mink carpet and lots of eau de nil/duck egg on sofas, curtains, rug etc. It looks quite bright and fresh and soothing. Very neutral but it's our sanctuary

This is a lovely idea but where would you put your Christmas tree?

Surely nobody designs a room around a temporary decoration that's up for maybe 10% of the year at most? Surely people pick the tree to go with whatever space they have available?

No, not really serious. I forgot the emoji. Just because it's coming up to Christmas, the Where Will The Tree Go thought popped into my stupid head.

Maybe OP doesn't have a Christmas tree anyway. Or only a diddy one. Or one that she prefers in another room. Who knows?!