How to choose the perfect paint colour for your living room
The home of fashion and accessories designer Orla Kiely.
Are you considering repainting your living room? Here are some useful ideas to help you choose your colours and form your own style, creating a space you'll love to be in.
It's a good time to show your personality, be unique and draw on something that resonates with you. The colours of your furniture, fixtures, paintings, and ornaments should also be considered at this time.
The stunning living room in the image above belongs to Orla Kiely. She skillfully mixes and balances colour, pattern, and texture to create a relaxed environment. The soft pink walls complement the green and orange furnishings, while the leather and wood add warmth and invite you in.
Download my free Paint Guide to choosing trusted paint brands
Key factors to consider before you begin to research are:
Period of the house: Are there any period features to consider?
Your current interior style, your personality and your lifestyle.
Fixtures that are staying, window dressing and soft furnishings.
Lighting: how much natural or artificial light is there?
The size of the room and the height of the ceilings.
What are you painting? (walls, woodwork and ceilings)
Think about colours to connect the rooms that lead into the living room.
Whether you want to have a quiet spot for yourself or share it with your family and friends, your living room is a space to feel relaxed, cosy and comfortable in.
Collect inspiration from books, magazines, Instagram, Pinterest, and other people’s homes. Start to create a mood board of what colours you are drawn to—I always like to make a physical one.
Here's a paint brand guide for you, including the top 5 paint brands I champion. Get an assortment of paint colour charts to compare. Often, brands produce a booklet that shows some of the colours painted in different room setups; this is a great way to see how the colours look in situ.
Below are 4 different living room colour schemes to inspire you and help find a style that resonates with you.
1. Paint and Paper Library paint
This colour scheme by Paint and Paper Library shows how you can create a story where the walls or the furniture do the talking. 'The walls themselves provide the drama in a bolder, more confident shade'.
2. Designers Guild paint.
Designers Guild have used a group of 4 colours in their scheme to bring together a simple group of natural earthy colours together, tonally with the additional use of their wallpaper, fabrics and furnishings by breaking up the walls and creating a comfortable relaxing space.
3. Farrow and Ball paint
The scheme above comes from Emily Henson's book 'Be Bold, Interiors for the brave of heart' where a Farrow and Ball blue paint has been used on both the woodwork and the walls creating a seamless wall and the illusion of a larger room. She has also brought in the blues in the prints and soft furnishings. This shows the current trend of using a dark colour on your walls but breaking it up with accessories.
4. Fired Earth paint
This colour scheme by Fired Earth packs a punch in the strength of the pink colour on the walls, contrasting with the bold yellow. The rest of the scheme is simple with the lovely addition of natural materials.
Using a colour wheel as a resource is a great way to give you a quick indication of which colours work well together and can help you be brave in your choices. I truly believe that you will get so much more from your space if you think about colour psychology - as it affects our emotions.
When you think about your colour scheme as a whole and create a thread of colours throughout your home - it will begin to create a cohesive style that tells your own story.
Enjoy gathering inspiration!
