Whether you’re looking to give your living room a whole new look with a fresh coat of paint or want to spice things up with some new artwork and accessories, choosing the right color combinations can make or break your living room design.

Read on to learn the latest in color trends, color theory for interior design and how to update your living room or sitting room with the perfect color scheme!

Dramatic Living Room Color Palettes

Choosing a color scheme that truly highlights your living room is all about the unexpected. Color affects how small or large a space feels, whether you want to relax or feel more energetic and much more.

With a nearly unlimited spectrum of interior wall paint colors from which to select, the colors you choose should fit everything from the direction windows face, to the shape, height, width and depth of the space, the style and design aesthetics of your living room design and, most of all, your lifestyle and personal tastes.

Warm Tones Inject Energy

The trend in living room colors these days is definitely toward the warmer end of the spectrum. Warm shades of mocha and gold, paired with sensual tones of red and orange make for a dramatic and energetic living room, well suited to entertaining guests.

Warm gold, tan or taupe are always favorites, a trend that won’t change anytime soon in living room colors. Spicy colors such as an earthy brown, chocolate brown or even a rich, dark purple can add drama and energy.

One reason warmer tones like gold are so popular is that they create a warm glow in the room and reflect this warm light on your skin, which complements people’s faces and is “conversational” in tone. Gold accents work well with these warmer colors; a gilded gold mirror frame on the wall or painted gold drapery rods for example will nicely complement the warmer color palette.

Cool Tones Sooth the Soul

Often the living room is the ‘front room’, located just off the entry where you can greet guests without exposing the more private rooms of your home. It also typically has large windows and if the windows are south-facing it gets a lot of direct sun. If this describes your living room you may want to consider a palette that features the cooler color tones such as blues or greens.

These days you can find many shades of gray with undertones of blue or green if your preference is toward the cooler side of the color spectrum. Silver accents will complement these cooler colors nicely; silver or pewter candlesticks on the mantel, a silver tea set on the coffee table, etc.

Neutral Tones Showcase Other Design Elements

Many people still prefer the neutral white or off-white colors for wall paint in their living room. This is a natural choice if you have artwork to display since a neutral background won’t compete with the colors in your paintings, fine art prints or photographs.

Modern décor often eschews bright colors on the walls, allowing design elements of line, form and geometry to take center stage instead.

Getting Bold with Vibrant Colors

Another color trend gaining popularity is the use of vibrant colors such as gulfstream blue, gold crest, red ablaze or luau green. If you want a living room that really pops go with vibrant, highly saturated colors. Bright colors will certainly add interest and zest to your living room design.

A good way to use these colors without turning your living room into a carnival funhouse will be to paint one wall a bright color and leave the others white. Use white paint on your door trim, window trim, crown molding and baseboard to create a clean, crisp color contrast. Black accents can also work well with these assertive colors and create contrast; a wrought iron coffee table with glass top for instance.

Top 10 Living Room Color Tips

You may not have the budget to redecorate your entire living room but adding color with paint and a few accent items can go a long way to updating the look of your décor. Read on for our top ten ways to add color in the living room:

1. Paint one wall in a bold color – you can add nice color by just painting one wall in your living room; especially if you want that wall to be the primary focal point. Pick up accent colors in your furniture upholstery or choose a color that really creates contrast. Be sure to try painting a few test swatches before you settle on one to pain the entire wall.
2. Add house plants or floral arrangements – Mother Nature always has plenty of color. If you aren’t the green thumb type go for an artificial floral display on the mantel or coffee table. Changing out floral arrangements is also a great way to give your living room a fresh new look with each change in the seasons.
3. Add a new floor or table lamp – lighting can really change the color and tone in a room. Pick a lamp with stained glass lampshade and you’ll be surprise how it can change the feel of the entire room.
4. Buy a new area rug – especially if your living room has a wood, wood laminate or stone tile floor, adding a new area rug will warm the room and add color at the same time.
5. Recover chairs and sofas – if you can’t afford new furniture, you can re-upholster an existing love seat, chair or sofa to give it new life and change the color until budget allows for a replacement.
6. Throws and decorative pillows – one of the most obvious ways to infuse color in your living room is to add pillows on the sofa or love seat or drape a handmade quilt, nubby woven throw or colorful blanket over the back or arm of a neutral-colored chair or sofa. Practical and colorfully stylish!
7. Add a mirror to help reflect light and color – mirrors make a space feel larger and help brighten things by reflecting light and color. Choose a large wall mirror with a decorative gold or silver metallic frame to add even more color and complement the rest color scheme in your living room.
8. Add some new art – paintings or art prints nicely framed can really help add color, especially in a living room with neutral wall colors.
9. Paint book and display shelves – changing the color of a bookshelf unit can give it new life and color. One trick is to paint the face frames one color and the inside/back of the unit a contrasting color.
10. Buy one new piece of furniture – when budget is tight you can still add color and update the look of your living room with a single new piece of furniture. Pick the one item in your room you hate the most and which will impact the color scheme and look the most if you replace it!

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Many smaller homes and apartments will have a combined living/family room living space. Informal styles are typically more practical if you do not have a separate living room, lounge or sitting room since the practical aspects of the interior design must take precedence.

If you are lucky enough to have both a family or ‘great’ room and a separate living room then you probably will want to shift design emphasis in the living room to a more formal interior design style, since it likely won’t see everyday use.

Designing a Comfortable Living Room

Modern or traditional, comfort is important regardless; the living room is meant to be a place to entertain so having plenty of comfortable seating is critical in designing your living room. Choose sitting chairs and sofa that match the style you want to achieve but which are also comfortable.

Living room design tends toward more formal styles, but modern and contemporary styles are the trend, with sleek lines and bold color combinations often creating the most striking contrast. Look at plenty of photos, visit showrooms and talk to your interior designer about your ideas as you plan and select the design elements, furnishings and accents you want to pull together.

Taking your time to select furniture or even starting simple and adding pieces over time are both good ways to be sure you end up with a living room that is both comfortable and matches your design taste and goals. Rush to purchase an entire room full of furniture at once and you may find it doesn’t fit your living room’s style in the long term.

Traditional/Formal Living Room Styles

Often, people use the term ‘theme’ to describe a room. For instance, you might opt to design a ‘period’ room, meant to emulate the look of a certain period or culture, such as French provincial, English Victorian or Elizabethan.

Don’t over-emphasize the use of theme though; you can mix furniture, colors, fabrics and other design elements as long as these elements fit together cohesively to create a formal living room décor.

Rich fabrics, ornate trim such as crown molding and paneling will often be used to give the living room design a formal look. Draperies or interior shutters are more often found in the formal living room than blinds or shades. Patterns such as floral prints, flourishes, etc. often add to these traditional formal design aesthetics.

Modern/Contemporary Living Rooms

Modern and contemporary living rooms typically rely on clean lines and contrasting colors combinations. The look should be uncluttered. Bold geometry is characteristic of the modern living room, with rectangular and circular shapes being the norm.
Modern designs appeal to many people because they feel more relaxed and open.

The contemporary living room will more likely have windows left bare or use window coverings such as Venetian-style blinds or cellular shades that are less obtrusive than draperies; open the blinds or shades to let in light and open the view. When raised, a blind or window shade is almost unnoticeable.

Living Room Furniture Selection

Sofas should not be so tall or deep that people cannot sit comfortably; if you’ve ever sat on a sofa that forces you to sit up because you can’t recline you know what I mean. Throw pillows can help guests get more comfortable but if you have too many they may also just get in the way. Ottomans are always popular in the living room since you can either pull them up to rest your legs or place them strategically to provide extra seating when needed.

Tables should be at the right height to reach from your seating so that guests can easily set drinks down without having to get up and down. I’m not a fan of crowding tables with so many accessories and other objects that people do not feel comfortable actually using them, but this will be a matter of both personal taste as well as how often and how many people you typically entertain in your living room.

Light Up Your Living Room

If budget and time allow, use ceiling light fixtures to give your living room optimal ambient lighting and also to highlight design features such as a fireplace mantel or larger artwork.

The use of lighting cannot be emphasized enough in setting the tone and mood in a living room. Install dimmers or automated lighting controls so that you can easily change the mood as desired. Lighting makes the difference between an interior design that feels comfortable and one that lacks depth.

Remember that color and texture only stand out when properly lit; a living room without attention to lighting often feels flat or dark, especially if you select rich colors and fabrics that absorb light. Lighter colors such as pastels or a more neutral color scheme will tend to work better in a living room if you can not install additional ceiling fixtures.

Use floor and table lamps to add light and interesting accents to your design. These should be supplemental to natural light sources including glass sliding doors or French doors, windows and/or skylights. In a room where ceiling lights can not easily be retrofitted, rely on table and/or floor lamps to augment light levels as needed.

A well-lit interior can take on many looks if adequate lighting and light controls are installed so that light levels can be adjusted properly. A living room without adequate lighting will seem dark, while attention to ambient, task and accent lighting will give you a room design that is flexible enough to suit any occasion.

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Perhaps no room in a modern home deserves more attention to design and aesthetics than the living room. In countries such as the U.K and Australia this room is called a sitting room or lounge and it evolved from the 19th century ‘parlor’, a room which was where a recently deceased person was laid before funeral services.

Today, the living room, sitting or lounge is the room in our home where we tend to entertain guests, curl up by the fireplace with a good book, watch TV or converse with friends and family.

Many larger American homes will have a family room or great room which tends to be a more casual everyday living space while the living room is more formal, away from the bustle and noise of the family room.

Living Room Design: Architectural Focal Points

In terms of its placement within a home’s floor plan, it is commonly in the front of the home, just off the foyer or entry. This makes it a more ‘public’ room to greet guests without revealing the more private living spaces in the home.

A fireplace, entertainment center with large screen television or large picture window(s) with spectacular view will most often serve as the primary focal point in a living room or sitting room. It is critical to situate and arrange the room around your focal point as it becomes the starting point when arranging furnishings and design elements.

If your living room does not feature an architectural focal point you can create one by adding a feature such as custom built-in cabinetry and display shelving, a large screen TV or dramatic artwork. A secondary or supporting focal point can be distinguished by using accent colors or design elements that add interest without overpowering or competing with the primary focal point in your living room design.

Living Room Design Balance

A room with too many points of interest will feel out of balance and visually distracting. If you are lucky enough to have a living room with more than one focal point such as a fireplace and a picture window, the picture window with a spectacular view would be the better choice as your primary focal point.

Framing a picture window with an elaborate window treatment will help emphasize and give prominence to the focal point. Alternatively if you want to keep the view as open as possible you could use a simple Venetian blind or window shade treatment that stacks up neatly out of the way. Decorative casings and trim work can also add style and visual emphasis to your living room’s picture window.

If a fireplace serves as the main focal point, you can add emphasis and character by adding a unique mantel, surround and/or hearth. Use these design features to display interesting artwork or other objects to adorn the mantel. Woodwork, stone or masonry fireplace surrounds will highlight and emphasize a fireplace as the central focal point.

Choosing the Right Design Style for Your Living Room

Setting the tone and mood for your living room begins with selecting a design style. While the living room will often be the most formal space in the home, it should also be in keeping with the overall aesthetics of your home’s architecture and interior design.

While it may be tempting to choose a formal style for your living room décor, it is often a mistake to choose a theme such as baroque or Victorian in a home that is otherwise very modern in style. Remember that any style, modern or traditional, can be made more formal; you don’t have to go with a super-traditional style in order to establish a formal look, but you want the living room to integrate with and enhance the overall look of your home.

A key aspect of design that separates great architecture and interior design from the average will be how everything ‘fits’ together. Using repetition is one way to ensure a cohesive overall look; design elements that repeat or refrain such as arched entryways or windows or some design motif such as a specific pattern or shape help give a home a pleasing, unified look. This doesn’t mean that every room has to look the same, far from it! You just don’t want rooms to feel completely disjointed from each other.

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