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10 Ways to Add Colour to Your Living Room

12 Dec 2022

Open-plan kitchens are often made the centre point of new home builds or renovations with dramatic islands and high-tech features like built-in wine fridges being the pride and joy of homeowners.

And whilst the kitchen often really is the ‘heart’ of the home, it may surprise you to learn that after the master bedroom, the room you’ll spend most of your hours in a day in is the living room.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to inject colour into this vital space using a variety of methods suitable for everyone from renters with minimum flexibility to homeowners looking to transform their space.

furniture

Statement pieces can create a powerful focal point for a room, drawing eyes to a corner or area, and acting as the final accessory to 'complete' your living room.

Velvet sofas work well but can also dominate smaller rooms. Consider an occasional chair that won't be used as much as your main sofa to maintain the fabric throughout its life. This also means you can afford to be more adventurous with your design choices, opting for iconic (if a little less comfortable) chairs from renowned designers.

If you're not keen on replacing an existing piece of furniture, you can also choose to have it reupholstered in a more dramatic fabric and colour.

Plants

The power of plants cannot be understated: helping to clean the air you breathe and lift your spirits, a bit of greenery can also make the ultimate accessory in your living room.

Simple hanging plants can be matched with colourful, patterned vases to add another dimension to a living space. In the winter, you could create feature pieces with wild berries or ivy, opting for fresh flowers in the summer.

Curtains

With more and more homeowners opting to forego curtains in favour of simple blinds or shutters, it's worth remembering that curtains don't just serve to block light in the evening.

Rich, thick cuts of fabric can also soften sounds in a room and create a luxurious feel in an otherwise minimalist space. They're also the perfect spot to go wild with your colour scheme: nothing says warmth like deep, crimson curtains whilst grey linen can lighten and modernise a room.

lighting

Recent trends like strip LEDs have revolutionised room lighting with everything from neon red accents to TV frames which change according to the colours on the screen and sound.

But traditional light fixtures still offer plenty of opportunity for a splash of colour. Lamp shades - both hanging and attached to freestanding or tabletop lamps - can easily be changed to match an existing scheme or introduce an accent.

Larger freestanding lamps can also be statement pieces in their own right, consider antique brass to add a rich, golden hue to your living room.

rugs

Like curtains, rugs can serve multiple purposes: beyond just protecting floors from high-traffic areas, they can also soften the acoustics of a room helping to create a cosy feel.

They are also the perfect canvas for you to create an entire colour scheme in a room from simple, dark shades through dramatic concentric patterns, unusual textures and antique-looking designs.

Darker-coloured rugs are more likely to blend in with a wide variety of furniture and wallpapers or paints, and have the added benefit of being less likely to show their age.

mirrors

It may seem a little counter-intuitive to use a reflective surface to draw colour into a room, but mirrors are often the perfect vehicle to do so.

In all room sizes, strategically-placed mirrors can highlight accent pieces such as light fittings, feature walls and even colours from adjacent rooms such as the hallway, or reflect greenery from the garden.

Their frames can also be used to great effect with thinner frames lending themselves to bolder, braver choices like hot pink whilst thicker, more decorative frames work well with more muted colours like grey. They can also be decorated easily, meaning you can add an accent of colour to your room in an afternoon with nothing more than a can of paint, a brush and some masking tape.

artwork

Perhaps the only thing in life more subjective than interior design is art. And whilst both worlds have hard and fast rules, your choice of art should be entirely personal.

More abstract or modern pieces often revolve around only two-or-three colours which makes it perfect for rooms with a clear and distinct colour scheme with matching rugs, cushions and lampshades whilst more classical pieces often work better against a natural backdrop.

Like mirrors, the frames can be canvases in themselves. But if you choose to keep a classic gold edge or simple wood stain, these can work as their own accent pieces in otherwise natural rooms.

Cushions

Cushions have enjoyed a renaissance in interior design in the last decade with many high-street home stores offering a wide range of fabrics, designs and colours to suit nearly every home.

A popular design effect to achieve with cushions is to display the colour scheme of your room: for example, if you have a navy rug, yellow lampshades and golden picture frames, displaying three cushions with the respective colours on your major sofa is a great way to show the intent behind your design.

wallpaper

Offering more than just colour, wallpaper can add depth, texture and warmth to a room.

Single-colour wallpapers work beautifully, especially with linen textures, however, they tend to work best when applied to an entire room.

Patterned wallpapers make for excellent feature walls and can feature multiple colours, complimenting or creating a scheme.

paint

Of course, one of the simplest ways to add a drop of colour to your living room is... paint.

Perfect for a feature wall or even an entire room, you can breathe new life into your lounge in a single day.

While it may not be for everyone, why not look to Pantone's 2023 colour of the year: Viva Magenta? This vivid, deep red is perfect for a feature wall and pairs perfectly with lighter beige colours for the surrounding room.

When compiling this list, we were amazed by the number of ideas that could be realised quickly - and with little effort.

At Paint the Town Green, we're big fans of painting and decorating and love the effects that can be achieved on a home but we also frequently partner with interior designers and collaborate with clients looking for inspiration after we have decorated their homes.

We hope you can make use of any number of ideas from this list and add colour to your living room.

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out our case studies here.

VIEW CASE STUDIES