home decor for brown leather sofas

[sherlockgnome]

Has anyone decorated around brown leather sofas? I can't change mine and we have open plan living/dining room so potential to feel quite cold. Looked online but haven't found anything inspiring. The current wallpaper paper has been on for years and absolutely has to come off. We don't know if the walls will be smooth enough to take paint as is once the paper is removed, so can't decide whether to repaper anyway using a plain style for main paper with a more vibrant accent for feature wall sort of thing, or pay for the walls to be skimmed over and just paint. Want a complete change from our 'earth tones' scheme but...no idea about colours or style! Room gets a lot of natural light from both living and dining sides.

I hate decorating. How I wish I could move out and leave it all to be done by an interior designer and then just move back in again when its finished

I like reds golds and creams with brown leather 😊

We have dark brown leather and I have to admit to really disliking them. I have tried a number of different coloured cushions and throws - red, blue, neutral, multicolour. None look good.! I think neutrals were the best but just about. Ours are dark brown and probably more modern looking which doesn’t help either. They always look cold and uninviting.

@MsChatterbox I'd steeled myself to having a cream theme purely because I couldn't think what else to do but I hadn't considered reds and golds with the cream, and I like the sound of that!

@RowenaMud Oh, how I feel for you. Its really not nice disliking your own main furniture and not being able to brighten things up. Might the combo offered by @MsChatterbox work for you?

I don’t like reds and golds. They look fine in other people’s houses but aren’t my taste.

Maybe try greens too? I think they are a good combination but they are earthy and sadly would clash with my rug too.

Ooh I love a dark brown sofa.

I'd go with gray-blue walls, cream sheepskin type rug on floor, black and white geometric pattern throw for sofa, black light fittings, one or two warm orange/golden yellow accents such as picture frames or art or lampshade, or legs on a glass coffee table, and sofa cushions that pick up cream, slate blue, orange, black, brown.

If wallpaper I'd go with grey-blue and cream pattern.

The mix between the cold and warm is what would make it work I reckon. So the grey-blue is a little cold, as are the sofas, so the golden yellow brings warmth as do textures with the throw and the rug.

@NameChangedNoImagination Thanks for that - feel like I've just been on 60 Second Makeover The colour scheme you suggest, and considering the other factors of textures and balancing cool/warm, sounds like it would work well. Ta!

i'm in interior design mode as planning to redecorate my own house. Have a look on Pinterest, there's loads of great ideas there. Total house porn.

I combined mine with teal and turquoise!

Oh I was in exactly the same situation as you a week ago. Brown sofas with cream walls and gold accessories. A warm earthy look as you describe. We have done exactly as namechanged described and gone for a cool palette of a kind of mink grey on the walls and I absolutely love it. It looks so fresh and much more modern but still cosy as I have used a couple of grey and cream fur cushions and throws. My added splash of colour is a blush pink as the sofa is a warm brown. I think grey is heading out of fashion but it's still a lovely neutral canvas for any colour so you can change your accent colours whenever you feel the urge. Good luck!

@RowenaMud If I could find a true restful sage green I would love that...

@GrimDamnFanjo That sounds stunning!

@Fourcandlesx Would you tell me the name of the paint colour you've used? A 'kind of mink grey' sounds lovely! I've been trawling the web looking at greys and feel cross-eyed and confused by the multitude of tones/colours/moods. I just want a nice grey! I feel terrorised by warnings about some greys looking blue or purply, or looking mucky and dingy once on the wall. Crumbs. I just want my home to look nice. Who would have thought its all such a minefield!

We have brown leather sofas and we have duck egg blue wallpaper that has a cream fleck in it too and the other walls cream. Then cream fireplace and duck egg blue rug , looks nice .

Brown will go very nicely with the gold and midnight blue trend at the moment.

I know exactly what you mean! I went to B&Q and picked up 20+ of the Valspar colour cards and brought them home to compare against furniture and the fireplace in the right light. I actually needed something that would look ok with cream as I wasn't painting the fireplace. That's not as easy as it sounds with grey. Anyway we ended up with Valspar Mink Frost which is grey but not too cold. The paint is lovely quality and there are hundreds and hundreds of colours as they mix it for you.

We have brown leather sofas and we have featured wall which is light chocolate and light grey walls, cream curtains, large mirrors to brighten up the room cause it’s a large living room/dining. I bought a large cream/brown rug from wayfair and also have 1 nice cream standing light and 1 table light from ikea and also some large plant in cream pots.

This is Mink Frost.

We've got a brown leather chesterfield and dark brown wood that I refuse to change. It is difficult to work with. I generally just use cushions to mix it up. In the past had mustard yellow, sage green, which both looked good. Currently blush pink with a bit of navy.

Sorry, painted walls are a 'greige' not my fave, but cushions/throws to break it up

We’ve got a brown leather sofa in the living room as well. Walls are pale warm green (Little Greene has great choice of colours) curtains soft grey with pale gold, carpet beige with tiny bits of warm blue, green and red. Looks lovely!
I was thinking about getting a new bigger sofa in different colour but no - brown leather sofa looks great (and it’s so easy to clean ) .
We’ve got this sofa for about 8 years and it never liked any cushions so l’ve gave up eventually.

@pumpkinpie01 Duck egg blue with cream sounds very restful.

@NoSkinOffMyNose Your suggestion of pairing brown with gold and midnight blue sounds very sophisticated! Thank you so much for uploading pics but unfortunately, for some reason, I can't see them

@Fourcandlesx Thanks for the brand and name of the paint! I shall ask Dh to run me to our local B&Q tomorrow and see if I can get a tester pot of Valspar Mink Frost - it really does look lovely on your pic and matches the 'vision' I had in my head when looking for grey. I know that Valspar is a good brand, too.

@Cecilia2016 Your scheme sounds lovely and I plan to use large mirrors, too, as my living/dining room is quite big and gets lots of light but I don't want the brown sofas to suck it all up!

@Slinkymalinky1 I love chesterfields! Sadly can't have one as DH prefers high back sofas for neck support. Suppose I do, too. But chesterfields always look so...filthy rich and glamorous

@greenlynx Where'd you find your soft grey with pale gold curtains? I saw a post on here somewhere asking for preference between shutters and vertical/venetian blinds, and would personally love shutters but probably too expensive given the size of our windows So will most likely get blinds but I think I'd need some nice curtains to frame the window as not sure if just blinds would feel too bare

Thanks everyone for your input, though! Some great colour schemes shared and for me assurance that having brown sofas in my living room is not as difficult to decorate around as I had feared

You could put lining paper on the walls and then paint over it. Lining paper is cheaper than wallpaper and it’s what’s professional decorators do anyway. I love wallpaper but couldn’t find the suitable one for the living room. We went through a lot but they all looked somehow too much.
Our living room was painted yellowish by the previous owners and surprisingly it wasn’t too bad: warm and cozy, and went well with beige and gold fireplace; so we decided to keep warm palette with a bit of gold. And then I saw the curtains fabric and liked it a lot so we planned the rest around them. They are from John Lewis, Annabelle leaf in stone. The picture doesn’t do them justice at all!! They’re very different in reality. I was circling around them for 6 months since completion, they’ve still stayed my favorites.
I saw them later in Dunelm as well just under different name.
Our initial plan was to get a new bigger sofa but when the rug arrived last week we’ve realized that brown sofa looked very good and gave a good contrast without being overpowering. So the plan now is to get another small brown sofa and keep the old one.

We are stuck with dark brown leather sofas (they are a reddish brown) and ours are with cream and red colour scheme. Its cosy. I wouldnt say it was fashionable but its nice. Our cushions have blue, mustard and red on them in the same sort of vividness /tone of the sofa - so similar to the blue and gold suggested above.

I've got brown suede-y leather sofas, not what I wanted but had to have - long story.
We've got a grey colour scheme with them, I think it works. Grey walls and a feature wall that's wallpapered with light and dark grey damask pattern. I have a grey faux wolf fur throw that looks nice and cosy and I think I'm going to get some matching cushions too.

Sorry if I've missed it, what colour are your floors?

I'm a big fan of blue or teal with brown leather sofas as a pp suggested. I'm not so into the dark blue trend (e.g. Farrow and Ball Hague) but I love a good mid-blue such as Oval Room blue. The more budget paint ranges have lacked a decent selection of blues other than pale sky blue or baby blue but I see more interesting shades are beginning to trickle down now.

My living room is similar to F&B Vardo

Crown do a gorgeous deep minty green. I'll have to look up the name as it looked fantastic in the pics I saw.

I agree that sheepskins and chunky knitted throws in neutral shades look gorgeous with brown leather sofas.

I'd accessorize with some plants and copper/rose gold accents.

No advice but thank you for this thread as I'm in exactly the same position, brown leather sofas because of the dog! Easy to clean.

I love the grey/blue concept, we currently have red walls and I can't stand them...DH's choice.

My dark brown (not leather) sofa. Green decor.