Give me your decor ideas! Living room

[DragonMovie]

Hi all!

I’ve just moved into what I hope will be my forever home - a Victorian end terrace with large rooms and very high ceilings, original features etc. I’ve been dreaming of doing up a house like this for years but now that I’m here I think I’m intimidated by the scale and importance to me and my creative juices have abandoned me!

Help me design my living room.

It was originally a living room and a dining room but an opening has been knocked through leaving two clearly defined halves.

The large bay window at the front faces east, and is usually bright. The back half (used to be dining room) at the back is darker.

I don’t want to go too safe so I’m not looking for whites or off whites. I’ll try and include a floor plan and some photos.

Ps none of the furniture is mine - those are marketing pics from the sale.

Oh, exciting! We're in exactly the same position, same layout and everything. We're embracing the darkness and painting the whole thing dark blue as we have some quite dramatically bright furniture that will be a good contrast. I know dark blue has been done and done (I think sage is the next big thing) but it happens to contrast well with what we already have.

What colour schemes do you like? We had a similar house when we lived in London. Painted the double living space a sort of deep ochre. then one by one all the street redecorated in similar colours. We felt quite cutting edge. It really suited the space. A bit like the colour on the wall here

I also remember visiting a friend of my dad's who was a very camp priest and he'd done the double room downstairs in a deep peacock teal with lots of white gloss wooden bookshelves. It looked stunning.

We've just repainted in a smoky lavender colour which is beautiful in every light. It's a bit of a castle-library colour but suits the room.

What a beautiful room. What sort of feeling do you want? What colours and eras are you attracted to? Traditional or modern or mixture?

I would work round the the black and green of the fireplace. Contrasting colours could be lavender as mentioned above or pink, ochre etc.

I also remember visiting a friend of my dad's who was a very camp priest and he'd done the double room downstairs in a deep peacock teal with lots of white gloss wooden bookshelves. It looked stunning.

I just did my living room in French Turquoise Morris Blue and I love it. I took inspiration from these

www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.houzz.com%2Fphotos%2Fturquoise-living-room-with-a-music-area-ideas-phbr2-bp~t_718~a_34-481--88-14&psig=AOvVaw3DNAiJwo6ZbqvRMIfZUMCV&ust=1639152626792000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCICQoMKN1_QCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAM

www.google.com/search?q=turquoise+living+room+piano&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjFubOzjdf0AhWL8IUKHQ-WDRkQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=turquoise+living+room+piano&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoHCCMQ7wMQJzoFCAAQgAQ6BAgAEEM6BggAEAgQHlDiDVjTF2DOGWgAcAB4AIABXYgBpwSSAQE3mAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=VCqyYcW_MovhlwSPrLbIAQ&bih=838&biw=1740#imgrc=qMmeR4pDYCDd7M

How are you going to use the rooms? I would probably go for two different colours assuming the rooms will be used for different purposes.

Will the back room be used mainly in the daytime or evening? If evening, then I would go with a dark colour there. My favourite is Squid Ink (Paint & Paper Library) which is a dark blue/green/grey. If there is green in the back fireplace like there is in the front one, then a forest green could be great.

For the front I would then go with a lighter colour which works with the dark colour.

However if the back room is going to be a daytime room (eg a playroom) then I’d be trying to lighten it up with a white or off white and some bright splashes. Or maybe a pale pink. Then use a deeper colour in the front.

Little Greene identify some of their paints by era: Georgian, Victorian etc, etc.
This might provide some ideas:

www.littlegreene.com/paint/period

I've used their paint. It's pricey but good.

How exciting to have something so lovely to decorate, I'd love period features and high ceilings.

I think it can be really helpful to not think about the colour scheme to start off with so what functions are the different areas going to perform? Is the back part of your room going to be a formal dining room or an office area or library? I think once you know that I'd decide whether to reinstate the wall, have double doors added or keep it completely open.

Then once you know what room layout/function you can think about how you want it to feel so, for example, do you want your front living room to be a grown up space if so then you might go for something more luxurious? Or does it need to feel like a super comfy family tv space? If so then you might go with squishier sofas and a more relaxed feel to the decoration. etc etc etc

So many exciting things to think about!

Thanks so much everyone for some brilliant ideas already!

The back room is going to serve a different purpose to the front. The back room will be a reading nook, library type space. I’m imagining bookshelves, low lighting and lamps, dark colours. Our neighbours have that section in black which looks amazing, not as overpowering as you might think and dramatic. The fireplace has been painted white and is very different to the one in the front room. It has a design of Roman women offering fruits etc to the gods - is very beautiful (much more so than the front room one in my opinion). Because it’s already been painted, I’m not averse to painting it.

I had navy blue in my last dining room - loved it but want to do something else this time for variety.

Front part of the room will be family room, tv etc.

My original idea for the rooms was setting plaster or sulking room pink on the walls with a mossy green sofa, like in the pic, but then I got stuck with what to do with the back room, so I’m back to the drawing board.

Love ochre, teal (though did a lot of teal in previous house so want to branch out).

Also need to buy a new sofa and can’t commit til I’ve sorted the scheme.

Thanks so much for the ideas! This is super helpful - keep em coming!

Lucky you what a gorgeous living room. I too am decorating a Victorian living room but it’s smaller than that and the previous owners had zero taste - think an incredibly shiny grey carpet, lilac walls 🤢

Anyway, following for ideas!

We have Setting Plaster, in a N facing room, works well .

F&B website suggests Setting Plaster goes well with deep browns - so you could do Setting Plaster in the front and deep brown in the back - not sure I’d be brave enough personally! I think the madaboutthehouse blogger has that sort of scheme in her house so you could take a look.

@minipie I just looked up squid ink - love it.

Join the Rockett St George Interior Design Facebook group. Loads of amazing makeovers on there mostly with a penchant for darker colours. Great inspiration if you want to steer away from neutrals. Also if you want you could post your photos and get loads of suggestions.
Nice house btw!

with those big windows, you are going to want some really nice curtains. I'd look at fabrics first and chose some dramatic curtains, maybe with a pattern. then pick one colour out of the curtains to paint the walls.

It will also depend on what light you get- what orientation is the room.
Colour combos I think should have 3 colours at least in such a large space.
If you do the pink, green scheme maybe add some grey in too? Teal, ochre and lime or navy blue and burnt orange are bold... I also love burnt orange and olive green with pops of ochre in. Basically if you have 3 colours 1 should be 60% of the room, another 30% and final pops 10%. I'm just going with your previous choices of jewel toned colours.

Another idea is to have same colours so sulking room and olive green but mix up the proportions in each adjoining room- so in one room the green is dominant colour and maybe the other is sulking room but then the furnishings are the opposite. You could also mix up the tints and tones so if one end of the room is darker they could have slightly lighter versions of the colour in with more pops of the deeper colour in a lamp or cushion...