Colour ideas for really dark living room

[notaephron]

Looking to freshen up my living room.

The room currently has 3 walls painted white, with Laura Ashley light grey and white patterned wallpaper as a feature wall.

Even with that, the room is still really dark!
And I'm getting really sick of the decor.

Don't have a huge budget (so likely wouldn't be getting Laura Ashley wallpaper again!!) but wondered if anyone has any idea on colours?

The colours I like in pics (navy feature wall, for example!) I worry will just make the room even darker.

Seen a tan leather couch I love and just keep picturing it with navy though!

Bonus points if you can give actual wallpaper / paint colour suggestions.

Embrace the dark? Go dark oaks, blues, greens and make it feel like a cosy cave?

Lots of lamps, no dark flooring or furniture.

If it's not a room with a lot of natural light, it will feel dark no matter what you do.

I have a fairly long living room but it only has a window at one end so it is a darkish room and can get quite gloomy. I tried for years to brighten it up to no avail.

I eventually gave up and now have dark wood floors and furniture and most of the walls dark navy (a knock off of farrow and ball 'railings').

With a few lamps etc it feels lovely and cosy and I think looks much better than when I was trying to fight it.

Oddly enough my sofa is tan leather too 😂

Big mirrors are your friend. Personally I hate dark rooms even cosy ones scramble my brain, so I would choose light bright colours and position big mirrors strategically to reflect light either from windows or statement lights

pinterest is your friend.
try a vibrant wallpaper, lusthomes have lovely ones. Our living room had green/blue/wood furniture so we went magenta wallpaper, terracotta paint for some features etc

Agreed, this is what we've done. The walls are really dark green, but the ceiling, woodwork, and curtains are white, we have an oak floor, and the scatter cushions are bright jewel colours. I would love a rug in the bright colours too, but haven't found the right one yet. The green is very cosy, but the white and colours lift it just the right amount to stop it being overwhelming or oppressive.

PaInt the ceiling light yellow or apricot. It always looks as if the sun is shining.

We have a dark North facing bathroom. We painted it bright orange with gold coloured light fittings, radiator etc. It always seems warm and cheerful.

I agree with this. Making a small, dark room feel cocooning and interesting is better than painting it all white which can make dark rooms seem grey and gloomier.

Thanks all.

So my ideas are to go for the navy feature wall, and couple it with dulux 'sweet embrace'? Which is a light pinkish. A bit more interesting than white, and pink is my fave colour so think it will hopefully not be gloomy!

I have copper accents anyway (light fittings etc) so hopefully this still goes. Plus tan couch.

Not sure whether to go for patterned or plain feature wall... any suggestions of nice wallpapers (£30/roll or less!) which would go with the colourway above?

I love dark colours.
My lounge main wall is deep cherry red, very cosy.
Dining room and bedroom Navy Blue.
Kitchen Dark green.