Warm up a North facing lounge (with pics)

[GimmeGin]

Doing up our lounge. It’s just been replastered so totally blank canvas.

it’s north facing approx 4x4m square with box bay window.

just ordered two mid grey sofas (ignore cushion colours, these are not my taste) and need some inspiration for wall and floor and poss big rug.

the fireplace will have black slate hearth and surround.

Any thoughts? Please 🙏

Pano photo of room

Not helpful now but I'd have avoided grey for a north facing room although yours look okay (and I really like the style) but I think of it as a rather cold colour.

We have a similar shaped but I think much smaller north facing living room and we've gone for warm neutrals with cosy textures (throws and cushions etc). We also have curtains rather than blinds which makes it look and feel warmer. Yes to a large rug. Oak flooring looks warm which we have in our hall. We have carpet in the living room though.

We also have wallpaper but I know that can be a bit marmite.

Can’t see the video

but I will say that grey plus warmth don’t generally go hand in hand

We have had brown and neutral sofas for past 20 years, so wanted a change. Hence the grey.

i know grey is seen as passé now, but really didn’t want to replace our old sofa with something almost identical.

Try again with pano photo

But no one said it was passé

it is the fact you want to warm up the room and grey isn’t a colour that exudes warmth

Can you un-order the grey sofas? Choose a colour for your sofas and then have a warm neutral on the walls?

Alternatively if you must go with grey brighten it up by pairing with ochre?

I didn’t mean you guys said passé. I know grey is on its way out, so it’s me (not you).

I have this rug, what I like about it is that it has so many rich colours in it that it is very easy to pick out colours to use as accent colours. https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-russet-multistripe-rug-l240-x-w170cm/p3803567

we're in the process of decorating our North east living room. we're going for lick pink02 as we want warmth. and a warm white for the ceiling. it also goes with our green velvet sofas. I'd personally avoid grey.

Hello! Farrow and ball recommend a red or yellow underrone for north facing rooms to avoid them looking too cool.

It depends on whether you want light and airy, or darker and cosy. I'm a fan of a darker lounge, as we tend to use it at night only.

I particularly like the terracotta in the screen shot, would work well with your sofas. And I have the Beverly talked about in the clip in my kitchen, it's a belter of a colour.

I think you could go quite eclectic with the terracotta colour, think old Persian rug, lots of big leaved plants that like the shade.

Probably a million miles feom what you want though!

F an d advice

I did consider dark green sofas, but there weren’t any that I fancied.

I’m happy with the sofa colour so if I can find a nice colour for walls and floor now.

See my above, this is kind of what I meant.

a warm pink or yellow could go with grey too

I have a north facing front room with sort of greige sofas with dark sage green walls, was fed up trying to make it feel lighter so embraced the lack of light.
I have soft pink/cerise pink throws cushions a pink & green Persian type rug.
green & pink lamps side tables are painted a dark bottle green, now I’m writing the description it’s sounds a bit iffy, but I like it feels comfortable & cosy.

Things that warms up a room are textiles (rugs, curtains, throws etc), plants (in window and on floor), books and art on the walls.

I think you need to mix the grey sofas that are quite cold with wooden coffee table, wooden side tables etc. Then just throw in a lot of decorative and colourful things to make it look lived in.

Yes a dark sage would be nice. Can you remember which shade you used?

also a dark cozy blue could be an option. Not sure if such a thing exists!

unfortunately we had terracotta in our last house, so wouldn’t go there again. Need a change!

Ffs I'm not sure why it didn't load the photo example.

@Seaside3 that’s actually really nice 😊

This is really useful. We have embraced the dark on the north side of our house mostly - green smoke and a navy blue. I've also used white tie but it won't match your sofas.

I love red earth at the moment, which would look amazing with your sofas. This article helps as you need to know the base tones of the colour you pick, eg red or yellow are best.

www.farrow-ball.com/how-light-affects-colour

I have a north-ish facing living room; I know what you mean.

I'd have rich jewel colours to go on your grey sofas - dark red, or peacock blue (or both) would be lovely. I live in a cold house so throws get a lot of practical use; I'd definitely have something folded across the end of the sofa.

Can you put shelves across the alcove? If so, I'd fill with books. And I'd have a mirror somewhere to borrow some light, and lots of lamps. I really like lamps at different heights for making a room seem as if you meant it to be cosy, rather than as if it's north facing and you are struggling to light it (if you see what I mean).

Also - pale floors are amazing for making a room seem lighter. It looks as if you have decent boards there? Would it be at all possible to paint white then put a big rug over the middle? I know some people won't do it on grounds of practicality, but I have white-painted boards in my north-facing, windows-under-eaves bedroom, and it's a game changer.

(And obvs white painted boards much more practical than any pale carpet.)

@GimmeGin it was a valspar colour green grey linen, quite similar to F&B mizzle but slightly darker.

I'd have yellow walls to inject some warmth and go for a light stone fireplace instead of black. Black sucks the light from a room.

We have a couple of north facing rooms and these are painted (F and B) inchyra blue (which is dark and reads quite green in a north facing room) and Pink ground (which is slightly peachy, changes in the light and can be treated as a neutral) respectively. Both warm up the room. Both would look good with those sofas, especially if you use a few throws, cushions and a rug to soften them and add in a bit more colour and some texture.