Any advice on how to decorate our new living room?

[JessieMcJessie]

We've just moved in to our new place, a late Victorian terrace. The living room is not massive, but it has nice proportions. It's all a bit beige at the moment though and I'd like to give it a fresh look. Pics attached.

Notes: the brown sofa is too big, we know, but it is very comfy and is staying.
Big picture also to stay so we have to have colours that work with yellows- rules out sage green I think
Original tiles in fireplace are brown, cream, yellow and a little bit of green on the flower leaves- we don't want to replace the surround or the tiles.
Happy with the wood floor and the rug, which is a sort of shimmery goldfish brown.

My thoughts: pale blue walls, white woodwork and fireplace (keeping the black centre), white shutters on the Windows (Full length).
Get a smaller radiator.
Large dark chair doesn't need to stay and I was thinking of a smaller one with fun patterned upholstery.
Lamp in bay doesn't need to stay either. But a bit

Questions: would a darker blue on the black walls of the alcoves look nice?
Should we paint the alcove shelves white like the woodwork or the same colour as the walls?
Do we need a different colour above the picture rail?

It's all very exciting but I don't want to mess it up!

OP's missed one pic

Ha ha, not "goldfish brown", though I suppose goldfish are shimmery...that was supposed to read "goldish".

Hi OP
That is a lovely room! Are you sure blue will go with the yellow picture and brown sofa? I would probably recommend googling images of brown sofas to see what kind of paint colours work. My initial thought if you don't want beige is to go for something either very light grey or perhaps even light blue-gray on the walls

I would definitely paint the alcove shelves the same as the paintwork personally!

Ps I love white shutters - great idea!

We have a similar sofa to you and have used F&B Elephants Breath for the walls - actually similar to what you have. We have shelves on the upper part of the alcoves and a cupboard on the bottom, all painted white. I think I'd be tempted to box in the bottom shelves, hides all the wires and leads where your TV is. We've painted the back wall of the alcoves in F&B Down Pipe which is quite a dark grey.

Then we've added colour with soft furnishings in this fabric (cushions piped in dark grey etc) yellow floral but agree that white shutters will look lovely (we have stained glass in a large bay so didn't to cover that in shutters). I'd move the lamp and the red table from the bay, could you fit table lamps on the shelves?

Looks a lovely house!

Thanks. I actually thought Elephants breath was a spoof paint name!

We've only been in the house 2 and a half weeks- the wires are definitely going to be hidden away but for some bizarre reason the previous owners (who also had the TV there) hadn't made holes in the shelves to feed them through. Lamp and red table also just temporary while we get ourselves sorted.

Yellow and grey reminds me of my 1980s bedroom I'm afraid andintothefire. I would have though grey with the brown sofa would be a bit muddy overall whereas I hoped blue would set it off a bit better? I am not thinking about a very highly pigmented blue, something quite pale in my mind's eye. DH also agrees that the shelves should be the colour of the wall rather than white.

So yes, light blue-grey as you suggest might work well. Thanks!

Pale blue walls will work with that picture as long as you sneak more brown in small amounts into the soft furnishings or lamps or ornaments....along with some yellowish gold and more blue.

The trick is to choose a man colour and then a secondary colour and then a third colour...the third colour appears less than the second and the second appears less than the first in the overall scheme.

So...if your walls are blue then that is your main colour, then the secondary would be brown with yellow/gold being the third.