Living Room - Paint help please!

[Lemansky]

We're coming to the end of a year of decorating. Our living room should be being done towards the end of November/early December so we're looking at paint colours now. We will be using Dulux and our decorator has said we just need to tell him which colours we want and he'll get them in the trade paint.

The room isn't big and the window is quite small, it's also fairly north facing so doesn't get the light all day. There is coving but that will be white like the ceiling. Skirting and any other woodwork will be white.

We need a paint for 3 of the walls and then another colour for a feature wall where the fireplace & alcoves are. I know they're not terribly popular but I'd really like a bit of colour in the room!

Our hallway/stairwell is Dulux Almond White, there's Timeless, Daffodil White & a blue in the bedrooms upstairs so looking for something that's quite warm in the living room but doesn't make the room too dark. Also our sofas are black.

Many thanks for any help or suggestions!

Just walnut is a grey that is meant to work in north facing rooms. I like it here paired with teal (feature wall) and lemon (cushions), but obviously depends on your style. I'd also consider wallpaper rather than paint for the feature wall

www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/just-walnut

Polished pebble is a lovely light grey. It could work with all sorts of colours.

www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/polished-pebble

Thanks very much, three samples to try out when we get paint on the weekend!

Can I offer another - Pebble Shore, a really lovely light grey too, have used it lots in bedrooms and kitchen diner - looks fab on this link with the Sapphire Blue.

www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/pebble-shore

One of my friends has Chalky Downs in various tones in her house.

www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/chalky-downs-3
It's a nice warm neutral.

I'd be tempted to do all the walls in this and then see how you feel about the wall and alcoves.

We're just about to redo our lounge and are going for Egyptian Cotton which is a warm grey. We're also using Cornish Clay in the dining room and small downstairs study/music room and Timeless in a windowless inner hall area.

I think you definitely need to test in your room - we have Egyptian Cotton on our hall stairs and landing (in fact my hands are covered in it from painting last night) and its definitely a beigey mushroom type colour in our house, not grey at all!

We used a lovely, warm paint from Homebase called Pebble Beach in our lounge-diner:
www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/home-of-colour-pebble-beach---silk-emulsion-paint---25l-831946

We also have a fireplace and alcoves, and much of the furniture is dark brown/black and looks really nice to the paint.

I think finding something to tone with the black sofas is the tricky thing. If you go with something with brown tones it might jar a bit. I'd be tempted to go with a grey eg we have Chic Shadow in our dining room (although that faces south). I'd then have something like a teal or yellow for the feature wall. Have you played around with the Dulux visualiser?

Thanks very much for all the replies!

Yes, I've been looking at the visualiser and have been making a list of lots of colours that might work. I'll get testers on Saturday and make sure we loook at all the colours on their respective walls in different lights etc.

Can I suggest dusted moss 2 which is a dulux colour, it's a lovely light grey neutral. I had it in my last living room with darker coloured furniture and it was lovely.

There is a good picture of it here 3.bp.blogspot.com/_faqPS7Rgucc/THvuo8PuM5I/AAAAAAAAA0s/kDDaOLTyJ4g/s1600/IMG_1071.jpg. Not my living room!

Tried lots of samples last week and much to my surprise liked 'Lunar Falls' the best... It's a creamy white colour, gave a really warm glow to the walls.

I can recommend the Light and Space by Dulux - we used it in our north facing bathroom - it really does help lighten it up. ( I suspect it's the wrong shade for you though- Desert Wind - a warm white, with a tiny hint of pinky/brown)

I was also going to suggest a warm grey. Our small, north facing sitting room is Valspar, British shorthair, a mid slightly blue dusty grey, below the dado rail, Dulux Timeless above with a white ceiling and woodwork.

I second dusted moss 2! We have it in our bedroom and it's very calming. Sort of a greeny grey in some lights but purply in others! Or maybe my eyesight is just a bit dodgy. I love it anyway.

Thanks! Will check out dusted moss 2. Lunar Falls is actually what was in our downstairs hall when we moved in but it's now all Almond White.

I've got timeless in liv8ng room with polished pebble on one wall paper on another.

It's nice I have dark furniture and quite a shaded room

Another vote for dusted moss 2. I've used it in two rooms and it's lovely - comes up ever so slightly greener on my walls than in that photo, but a really soft pretty colour.

We went and got 12 paint testers yesterday & have decided we like Teal Tension for the feature wall, although just the chimney rather than the whole wall.

We've not decided on a main colour yet although Just Walnut or Polished Pebble seem to be winning at the moment. I've got a couple more testers coming from Dulux as I couldn't find them in the shop so hopefully we'll be able to make a final decision soon.

Funnily enough we've discovered that the feature wall the old owners did is actually Egyptian Cotton so we won't be choosing that for the whole room!

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Polished pebble is noce but lighter than i expected all over compared to what the tester looked like if you know what i mean

Downoad the dulix app on your phone:

www.dulux.co.uk/en/articles/the-dulux-visualizer-app

This should help with the choices.

*dulux...