Wall colour for living/dining room?

[roamingcat]

Hello all,

We have an open plan living and dining room and shortly need to choose a new wall colour (due to the layout this will also be the wall colour for the stairs and the upstairs landing). We are looking for something relatively neutral, but also something that will make the space feel homely/cosy - we have a duck egg blue sofa and a pink arm chair so it needs to co-ordinate with those.

Any suggestions for colours or even websites/blogs to visit for advice? We're not sure where to start or if we should just go for a plain white...

Thanks :)

I made the mistake of having too many colour charts, and eventually whittled them down to Little Greene. They have many lovely whites with red/blue/green undertones and are highly pigmented, as well as being eco friendly. Slaked lime appears very popular on the Little Green Facebook page.

Are you painting or papering? I've developed a love for dark blue - like a dark navy colour.

I know that's not neutral though!

I like Crowne mink. We have it in our living room, hallway and stairs. It's warm but not dark, people often ask what colour it is.

Then again, I've seen quite a few open plan spaces where people have used colour to divide it into zones. It looks lovely. Though I don't have the creative brain to understand what goes where.

Having recently been through the exact same scenario and currently helping my mother in law do the same I have some favourites I can recommend....

1. For a go with anything neutral I really like Dulux Romney Wool, it's not too beige and not too grey just cosy.
2. My favourite white is Warm White by Atelier Ellis, have just had my hall, stairs and landing panelled and painted in it. It's white but not bright and while it isn't cold it has the smallest amount of greyness so it doesn't look yellow. My friends are now painting their hallway in it too!
3. If you wanted something pinkier to pick up the colour of the chair and really make the room glow then Great White from Farrow and Ball is lovely.

I counted I had 96 paint samples before sending dh off to his mum's with them a couple of weeks ago so I feel your pain!

If I was you I'd have a think about how I wanted it to feel so cosy, modern, traditional etc. and then look at Pinterest for inspiration and start creating a mood board of what you're drawn to. Normally the more pictures you look at the more you can see what you're drawn to and that really helps.

Houzz is also a good website for interiors as you can narrow down by room, style and colour when you're a bit clearer on what you're looking for and then if you see a colour you like then they have a colour matching tool where you click on the image and it will tell you what Dulux colour shade it most matches.

I seem to keep recommending this on threads, but I really like Little Greene’s Portland Stone. I’ve got it in my living room and bedroom - I switch round curtains for spring/summer (duck egg blue check) and autumn/winter (red/cream check) and both work really well.