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 🙏

I've got the same sofa in the same colour in my North facing living room. I've got wooden floors, a pinky carpet similar to the one a PP posted above, a wooden armchair and lots of plants in natural pots like bamboo, and woven baskets. It's quite a scandi look, but a warm and cosy scandi look. Also, lighting is key, I have 4 lamps dotted about.

We've got a directly north facing living room and I'm not sure that warmth is the problem, in ours it's more that it can seem a bit dark, especially compared to the other, south facing, side of the house. So I think your grey sofas will be ok, we've got one dark brown ish one and a dusky blue one and the blue one looks nicer.

Our walls are a sort of pinky beige (this is all sounding horrible I know, but it looks nice) and they look different in different lights. I think you need to go quite neutral and pale if you can, and warm up with some accessories.

Yes to lighting too, it took me about a year to get the light right in that room!

I don't think grey has to mean cold. I think it's the textures of your furnishings that really make a room.

I would go for a beautiful deep navy or a rich green. Plenty of cushions, a decent quality rug, some plants etc all make the difference.

I'm not a fan of grey at all and wouldn't have chosen the grey sofas personally, but I think a pinky terracotta like that suggested by @Seaside3 above would warm things up.

Our living room isn't north-facing but we have a very old, cold house so we've added lots of warm colours, textiles and layers to create the illusion of warmth. The sofas are a cream linen three seater and a vintage multicoloured striped love seat, both ebay finds which I've layered up with bright wool and faux fur throws.

Our walls are Farrow & Ball Olive (a warm, archive green) estate emulsion and we have one wallpapered feature wall on the chimney breast where we have a reclaimed fireplace painted F&B Yeabridge Green. There's a huge antique Persian rug over the oak LVT floor (and a second huge, but more contemporary rug at the dining end).

Colour-wise it's unusual being a mix of olive, teal, pink, navy and cream which gives loads of options for cushion, lamp and throw colours which is great as I love bold, patterned fabrics! So I've unleashed maximalist madness with pooky lamps, velvets, timorous beasties and other textiles.

Imho the room always looks cosy and warm.

@LibertyLily that sounds amazing

Mine is north facing but I don't feel it's cold with grey
(Ignore the writing, I had to grab the pic off insta!)

I tend to stick with the colours of this throw
https://www.dunelm.com/product/thermosoft-mini-check-blue-throw-1000152688?defaultSkuId=30655836

I'm about to go with what I hope is a warm pink paint in a dark living room. We also have light grey sofas that I don't want to change. I've picked F&B Nancy's Blushes and will have yellow and bright pink accessories.
I'm hoping it doesn't look too much like indigestion medicine when it's done.

We have Valspar Down in the Nile on our walls and it’s a lovely cosy blue. We found leaning into the darker and cosy side really worked. Our carpet is grey, sofas green and rest of the furniture is oak.

Our sitting room is very similar to yours, north-facing, same size with a box bay. We've embraced the fact that it never rea!ly gets any light and have gone for a cosy, cocooning vibe rather than trying to inject light. We have Mylands Stockwell Green on the walls (which I love), with dark oak flooring and a fair bit of dark wood mid-century furniture. None of our sofas actually match and they are all variations on 'sludge', which sounds grim/dull but is actually a good neutral background for cushions and wool throws in reds / golds / greens, lots of plants, books and paintings. We also have a pale rug that I hate and I'm on the lookout for a darker vintage one, ideally a Persian.

Lamps, throws, rugs, artwork - these are the things that cosy up a room. And good-quality, heavy, lined curtains!

Thank you! Hopefully the OP won't mind me sharing a few pics here (apologies, my taste is very eclectic 😉)....

@LibertyLily , it's even better than I had imagined. It's beautiful. And eclectic is all good with me. Better than boring.

I have seen so few sofas that are not grey, this was maybe a year ago when I was looking, it was so depressing!

I have little greene’s Smalt in a north facing room on the ceiling and half the walls. (Really wanted to use their Camelia wallpaper with it but our walls are in such poor condition it would have been a waste of money). So I used just the paint and love it. It doesn’t contain any black pigment so it always reads as blue however dark the room gets.

I used it with a warm white (silent white mid, also LG) but am thinking about adding a pink like Kasbah (paint and paper library).

F&B Calke in the other north facing room (ceiling and bay) with silent white again. Preferred it to green smoke/sage etc as it maintains its green really well as it gets dark (doesn’t turn to grey in low light)

https://www.littlegreene.com/camellia-smalt?gad=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs_Kz38WKggMVyZGDBx0zCAMSEAQYASABEgKdIfD_BwE

We have grey sofas, they can take any colour I put on them. Walls are a warm off-white, neutral coloured carpet. Colour and texture comes from cushions and throws - lots of jewel colours, ochre and rust. There's a red brick chimney breast and DH is scared of too much colour on walls etc so I add it in the soft furnishings. I considered an olive coloured wall but DH was too distressed at the thought 😁

We went for an Aztec/ dessert type of theme with burnt ochre/ terracotta on the walls, big leafy plants, green and white rug, cream tapestry wall hangings and hanging plant pots.

This isn’t my house but it’s the same sort of vibe.

https://www.tartancarpets.co.uk/tartan-carpets/

Have you thought of injecting some colour with a tartan rug. I have a lovely rug from here - they even do bespoke

Op embrace dark colours for north facing dark rooms. Don't try and fight the lack of light with bright colours. Farrow and ball Hague blue on all walls would work with your sofas or any other similar dark blue, or a dark green, they do green smoke that would go with a grey sofa too.

Another vote for sage green, maybe with some rust accessories?

Thank you so much @Seaside3 😁

First thing I'd do is put in a log burner and nice fireplace, shelving in the alcove for books, standing lamp, table lamps, something dimmable overhead candelabra style if your ceiling height allows. Rugs, cushions, throws. Texture gives warmth especially in winter as.does warm adjustable lighting. User pattern of everything is plain and light coloured it'll feel sparse which isn't cosy or warm .

Sand those floorboards.and finish with osmo polyx oil, big rug. Get something like large trunk as a coffee table (we got a huge antique one on gumtree for £50.

Colour is about personal taste, I'd go dark or bold, dark green, green smoke, calke , Beverley f&b type shades or blue - hague or similar. If you can't stomach that matte chalky pink, with antique brass fittings, with the darker blue or greens in the accessories.

Thank you everyone!!

some nice pics and good suggestions!!

I am leaning towards a dusky blue or olive green.

wood burner is already ordered. And the nook will become our log store.

unfortunately can’t sand the boards, although they are perfect condition. The house is just too cold so probably going for carpet or engineered wood with an insulated underlay.

Good decision not to sand. We did that in our old house, the wind fairly whistled through the gaps. We could even smell car fumes when they were trying to park outside.

I used to have a grey bedroom that was really cosy.

I think with a grey background you can pick any of lots of colours and use that as an accent so dark blue/navy or pink or turquoise and have cushions, throws in your chosen colour.

You can have different colours and change them during the year just to have a change.