How to avoid a dark living room.

[BraOffPjsOn]

Buying a new house and after years of a white living room (to prepare for selling) I’d like a coloured front room!
The only thing is there’s a conservatory attached so I don’t want it to seem to dark.

So I thought the power of mumsnet could suggest colours or advice which won’t darken the room.

What’s the orientation of the room?

South but the house has split levels so you go down and end up lower than the front door ground floor.

I don’t know if that makes sense.

What kind of colours do you like @BraOffPjsOn? Eg, greens? Blues? Pinks? Neutrals? Earthy tones? Period colours - William Morris or mid-century shades?

And what period is the house you're buying?

I'm a fan of deep, saturated colours and have previously had the following colours in various living rooms - terracotta, a Morris green, Brinjal, India Yellow, Olive, Pale Oak, French Turquoise. All either F&B or Craig & Rose paints, except the terracotta which was a Sanderson paint.

In our current home (200 year old cottage) I've recently painted the living room (actually more of a 'snug' that was added in 1970) in Edward Bulmer Nicaragua which is a cosy pink. Despite being south facing with two windows (south and west), it's not a particularly brighg space but I prefer to lean into the dark rather than fight it. We have lots of colourful textiles in the room which stop it seeming too gloomy 😉

Ours have all been old, character houses though, so my choices won't necessarily be what you're hoping to achieve!

The house is 70’s or 80’s.
I like the sage, dusky pink or muted blue but struggling to know if I’d like them in the living room.
We need new sofas so that’s not an issue although I do love the teal ones but might not work with a colour wall?
Wouldn’t even know where to start with painting one wall one colour and the others a neutral.

We will also have a snug/kids room which I have no idea whether you just paint the same or you do.

Personally I hate all those dull colours from expensive brands that look like undercoat.
Makes everywhere look dismal dark and depressing.
I think people use them to keep up with the hyphen joneses and boast of their taste and money to waste.
I think a tint of yellow or pale peach is bright and cheerful.
White looks like a laboratory.
And grey is hideous esp the pretentious greige.

I'd go with an accent wall. Either with metallic/pearlescent wallpaper but these are usually on the neutral side.

Avoid small intricate patterns like damask in colour they can be too busy and shrink spaces. Go for big bold prints without any dark paletes.

Pastels are a good shout anything that reflects light.

I know people worry about darkening rooms
BUT I love a dark blue on at least 2 walls for living room / or french blue and a sage green or French green for kitchen or dining space
something about these colours to me always seem to absorb and equally reflect at the right times with good lighting

Go for the colour you love. Have lamps.

The very simple thing is LOTS of ambient lighting. Abigail
Aherne’s living room has 9 lamps in it. It’s lovely, and atmospheric

This ^

We've got seven in our snug and only ever use these, not the overhead lights as the lamps are so much more cocooning. In our other living room where we watch TV there are currently four lamps but ultimately I intend to add a couple more.

I'm not a huge fan of feature walls - if you want to add colour/pattern to a room, I prefer to be brave and use it all over. The only time we did have feature wallpaper was when I found some in an amazing vintage Voysey pattern from the US but could only get sufficient to paper the chimney breast. If more had been available I'd have used it all over the room (it was gold, olive green and black on a cream background, so totally mad!) - instead we painted the other walls in olive.

@BraOffPjsOn we have a teal velvet sofa (and a dusky pink antique one with original applique work) in our TV room. The walls are currently F&B Vardo, painted soon after we moved in as the white we inherited was too stark. I've got 15 rolls of turquoise and black art nouveau design wallpaper we'll be hanging in there eventually, so yes, you can definitely have a teal sofa with similarly coloured walls if that's what you love/want! Our room also has a massive antique Persian rug, vintage 80s Osborne & Little curtains and loads of colourful patterned cushions - crazy, but we love it 😁

Thanks all - I’m just struggling to picture it after living in white for the last few years and the new living room is currently beige.

I also want it to be timeless and not look dated like with the grey phase everyone has been through. (Don’t know what to do for with carpet but the living room will be laminate as I’m leaving my lovely wood floor).

For anyone interested, now I’m playing with colour on AI!

That looks lovely @BraOffPjsOn - the striped rug is great and the perfect size! Some colourful cushions, art work and possibly a mirror (to bounce the light around) would make it even better. What would you do about dressing the windows/bifolds? I love fabric so would want to add something, even if not strictly necessary 😉

Yes i think some curtains would soften the room from the teal. Beige or maybe even a burnt orange to take another colour out of the rug?

I feel like I want to sketch out where all our current furniture would go now!

It’s actually the sofa colour which I'm wondering if I’m brave enough for!

Bright yellow curtains would contrast with the blue really well. Doesn't need to be plain, there are loads of fabrics available nowadays online

I think the sofa colour is gorgeous 😍

Agree with @Erin1975 that there are so many lovely fabrics around (almost too much choice, in fact - as my DH can testify!)

Yellow could work, although I've recently made a bit of an expensive error with yellow curtain fabric in our pink snug, so I'm probably not the best person to advise on that.

Looks good but I'd redo the AI queries with the lights off and photos taken on a dull day unless you're happy to keep the lights on all the time. It'll then just give you your "darkest case" scenario. There are a few rooms in my house where I've decided to just lean into their darkness as trying to lighten them up enough is futile when there's a massive pine parked outside the window.

If you go curtains extend the pole for a good distance either side so that when they're open they're not blocking any of the window.

This ^

We've also successfully (imo 😉) leaned into the darkness both in previous houses - our last house was 400 years old with thick stone walls - and our current Georgian cottage. The former had a fairly dark hallway that was a dingy white when we bought it. We colour-drenched the hall in F&B Inchyra Blue which looked infinitely better.

Here, we have a dining hall with French doors that - despite being south-facing - don't let in a massive amount of light. The room is semi-open plan to the kitchen and we took the decision to paint the entire space in a saturated, almost burgundy pink (Edward Bulmer Pompadour). Then we've got a dark coloured vintage kilim rug and lots of brown furniture lol...I love it!

Sometimes you just need to go with your gut and be brave @BraOffPjsOn...we initially put a brightly coloured rug (rather like your AI example) in the dining hall in an attempt to lighten the space, but it didn't look right. That's now in our - bathed with light - snug. However, we do have pops of bright colours (art, a yellow lamp and lots of flowers) in the dining end!

Paint whatever colour you want, and go for good lighting with accessories that bounce light around.
Decorative mirrors are fantastic for this.

Consider painting your ceiling in a non white too, a soft neutral to balance the room without being harsh.

I like teal. For very light but still colour, I had pistachio from Dulux. It chnges tones with different light throughout the day

I agree with this. We have a dark living room (long, window one end, conservatory the other end), though ours is North facing.

We went with a really warm apricot colour, and lots of really good lamps with warm bulbs. With one lamp, I literally sigh with happiness every time I turn it on.

So for everyone recommending lamps - do you have those on in the daytime too?

I have an open plan extension but the living room is in the middle of the house, so naturally dark. It was dark even before the extension as it had tiny windows and a whopping tree outside.

We have distressed white/cream laminate flooring and cream walls but it’s still just very dark, even though the garden is south-facing.

Is it just a case of having lamps on constantly? I have an aversion to lamps when it’s daylight 🫣

If necessary, I would, but I also prefer not to - unless it's the depths of Winter 😉

In our previous house, where we had the Inchyra Blue hall, there was a tiny window on the landing that was cute/pretty but let in next to no natural light. We had three pendant lights plus a couple of ceiling spots (left from the previous owner's time) which all came on together. The upstairs hall was 'L' shaped with the window on the short side of the L. Around the corner where we had a bookcase was very dark despite the spots, so we added a console table with lamp and if we needed light up there during the day, we'd have this on instead of the ceiling lights.

In Winter we have the odd lamp on here during the day (plus I've put some tiny fairy lights on a timer in a glazed fronted cabinet) which creates a cosy vibe.