Help me to decorate my living room!

[TorySteller]

Our living room is quite a dark, fully north facing room. It’s about 3m x 5m so it can also feel quite narrow.

Previously the TV unit took up loads of space, so we’ve bitten the bullet and had a media wall fitted - a bit like a false chimney breast to give the room more of a focal point.

We now need to redecorate and we have no idea what to do. We’ll also be having the flooring replaced with a walnut-style wood (we would’ve gone light but we just don’t like lighter wood, which is what we have at the moment) and neutral coloured sofas.

We were thinking of a very light ‘off-white’ on the walls, and maybe a contrasting colour for the new chimney breast? But me and DH are useless when it comes to interiors so any ideas would be appreciated

photos? floorplan?

what age of house?

do you already have any furniture that you will keep - sofa etc? or will you have everything new?

do you have any pictures on your walls?

This is a rough floorplan of the room.

Our sofas are just a dark beige colour, and we don’t have any pictures on the walls at the moment so it’s a blank canvas really.

House is around 30 years old.

Embrace the darkness maybe and decorate paint it all (incl ceiling in a dark tone)? Can oddly make the room look bigger yet still feel cosy - check out Abigail Ahern on Instagram for an idea.

@incognitodorrito I would really like to do this, but DH isn’t so keen!

I'd experiment with colours around the TV screen (put coloured card there rather than painting the wall) to see what colours enhance or degrade the colours on the TV or are too distracting.

Think about lighting - we have uplighters in one corner & the TV in the other corner of the room, & in the evening I find it more comfortable to watch TV if I switch on either an uplighter to the side of it or a little light which is behind it & gives the wall behind the TV a soft glow.

I also don't like things which are too contrasting/distracting in my line of sight if I'm watching TV.

If you're picky like me, start your decorating ideas there. Once you've found the right colour for your media wall, then you can connect things by having (shades of) that colour in curtains, cushions & rugs, along with whatever colours seem right to you, while keeping walls & sofas neutral. My rule of thumb is that everything doesn't have to match, but nothing should look out of place.

@ifIwerenotanandroid thanks that’s a really good idea!

My initial thoughts were to do off-white walls with a contrasting colour on the media wall. I think we’re going to paint the whole room off-white first and take it from there. The room just feels quite ‘plain’ and I’m terrible with colours and pictures etc.

But I did want to do the media wall in a contrasting colour that we could then tie in with cushions, rug, accessories etc.

I'd also say that if you shop around you might find something you fall in love with, & that's the bit of magic which brings the decoration to life or inspires the whole thing. In my bathroom it was some softly iridescent tiles: just a tiny amount of them lifted the room out of the ordinary for me. In the kitchen it's metallic glass splashbacks & an unusual radiator. In my tip of a lounge it's an eclectic collection of cushions in really neat designs which go together without being identical. Just find the one thing you can't do without & that will either tell you the direction for the decor or lift a neutral scheme & make it special.