How to decorate my new living room?

[Freezingwinter]

For ages I wanted a dark charcoal coloured sofa with pale grey walls and a dark grey carpet. But now I'm thinking it might all look a bit dark. Our furniture is oak which is the only thing I will be keeping. Currently we have magnolia walls, a really nice cream coloured sofa and some purple-aubergine accessories (cushions, lamp shades) but we have the opportunity to start a fresh. I definitely want a new sofa, and I'm not keen on coloured living rooms as such, I like quite muted colours. We have a toddler, and carpet is a must. I would love any inspiration or suggestions please!

We had grey and black and it looked amazing. That said, we had a south facing double aspect flat that constantly let light in so it never looked dark.

I have pale grey walls, a charcoal sofa and very dark wood (laminate 🙈) flooding. We've only just moved in so making do with our old bits of furniture so far but I love it. I do have quite a big living room though with Windows both end.

Thanks for the replies.

The room has a bay window at one end and patio doors at the end. It's quite bright at the moment, but decorated cream and looks wishy washy. Do either of you have photos you wouldn't mind sharing?

Have you looked on pininterest or hooz I think it is called?

There are loads of photos on pininterest of all different interiors

BUT a warning is that you will use up lots and lots of hours once you start looking at photos especially if you are a procrastinator like me

Sounds a fab colour scheme to me

I agree with looking on Pinterest, loads of ideas.
This is what I've got to so far, the tv unit will be going soon, getting white wooden blinds with silver/grey tapes and mid grey ikea curtains. Have got some light fittings that need to go up then will start working on accessories. Oh, new skirting to go up soon too. So much to do!
We moved into a fully magnolia house with no flooring so have had to do the basics and take my time to get things done right.

Forgot the photo 🙈

What way does the room face? When does it get the sun? Morning/evening?

I'm not sure, we haven't noved in yet, but I think the front of the room gets the sun first?

Thanks for the photo, I love your sofa! And your lovely dog!

I wouldn't go for grey, simply for the fact that it resembles the British weather far too closely.
I can see how grey works well in France say, where there is sunshine to counteract the soft, muted, nothingy tones of the grey.
Here it's just grey outside, grey inside. Dulux should call it 'Overcast' or '50 Shades'.

It's not much of an 'inspiration' photo but you can get the gist of colours and that it doesn't look dark. The couch is from next, I would only buy sale prices though. It would have been better if the chaise part was on the other end up but it's what we had from the old house so had to make do.

We have a pale grey room and one strong charcoal grey wall. Don't forget the power of accessories. We used copper lighting (habitat) and lots of cushions in different colours - yellow, floral, green. Sounds weird but it really works.

We've done similar to the pp. dark grey walls, wood floor and furniture , dark grey sofa , dark grey curtains, white shutters, black photo frames and a light rug. It all looked a bit dull until we chucked in loads of throws and cushions in yellows,oranges , blues and light grey! Also added some coloured photo frames on a black shelf.Sounds odd but it really works and looks very homely but smart!

See I love wooden floor with grey walls, but for us, carpet is an absolute must. If you weren't having Grey walls, but were having a dark grey sofa, what other coloured walls would you have? I prefer paint to wallpaper.

In my last home I had an olive green colour - something like this

I absolutely loved it and might go back to it

Just wrote a big message I lost.

Our living room has three light grey walls called pixie dust from lleyland trade store (much better quality than the pots in homeware stores) and one dark grey wall. Charcoal sofa and flooring but grey rug. I personally love grey. As long as you have lots of light (natural and lamps etc for winter) and accessories well it doesn't need to look over cast at all.

That's the colour there. It is a very light grey.