Living room paint ideas: 15 colour schemes to brighten your space

Researching living room paint ideas? Painting a living room is great way to create a complete new look, especially if you are re-decorating on a budget. However, there are a few rules of thumb to make painting your space easier. Larger rooms can take darker shades, especially if they have high ceilings. However, if you are working with a smaller living room, lighter colours are going to be your friend if you want the room to feel bigger and brighter. 

If you want to warm up a north facing living room, opt for rich tones like magenta and damson. By contrast, big airy rooms that get a lot of sun can handle cooler tones like blue or turquoise and, of course, white always works well. Other popular colours this year are green and grey. Yes, grey – it’s still a versatile colour and it looks fabulous with fresh white woodwork. 

Already feeling inspired to don your painting dungarees? Before you get started, take a look at these living room paint ideas we are absolutely loving and go and check out all of our living room design ideas for loads more decorating inspiration.

1. Be bold with a multi-coloured living room paint ideas

Want an on-trend look? Combine pastels with colour blocking to create a feature wall. Simply use the paler tone as an easy-to-live-with backdrop and paint different shapes in similar tones and a single, contrasting bolder colour on one wall. It’s a very effective – and quick – way to add interest to an existing scheme, too. 

Recreate this look by using the same colours: Pashmina wall; Tropical Ocean woodwork; Chance pale teal spots; and Quick Kiss accent spot; all Crown. 

Find out how you can master the colour blocking trend. 

2. Create an accent wall with teal 

Who says blue has to be a cool tone? Turquoise is fresh and inspiring, yet warm, too, making it the perfect living room paint idea for rooms that face north or south.

Mrs Booth by Fired Earth is a beautifully versatile colour that was named after a seaside landlady whose house had stunning views over Margate harbour. Its rich turquoise tones look great with accents of colour like a cheery yellow, tangerine and crisp white. Team it with mid-tone coloured wood as shown here for a warming look. 

3. Create depth with one bold shade for walls and doors

Painting walls a deep colour might look a tad too traditional for your taste, but this kind of colour scheme can be given a contemporary twist if the paint shade is carried through to the woodwork – doors, skirting and picture rails – too. Balance it with furnishings in paler colours, and add texture to the scheme with wooden flooring.

Make the scheme practical by using emulsion on the walls, but a wipeable paint on the woodwork. These Grenache 372 walls in Pure Flat emulsion and woodwork in Architects’ eggshell look great against the Lady Char’s Lilac 368 Architects’ matt that sits above the picture rail. All Paint & Paper Library. 

4. Living room paint ideas with a difference? Tackle the ceiling

The hottest paint trend for the year ahead is to paint your ceiling a colour. Yes! So, swear off the white emulsion, and pick up a bold shade, like Farrow & Ball Citron instead. Carry the shade down to picture rail level to create a cohesive feel, and pick a light but warmer tone, such as this Soft Wool,  for walls. Team with accessories and soft furnishings that have touches of your chosen ceiling colour to complete the look. We should probably mention too, you can easily paint your ceiling yourself, just check out our step-by-step guide. 

5. Pick tonal pairings for space-enhancing living room paint ideas

Painting a room with two tones of the same colour is an easy way to add interest while maintaining a feeling of space – but always use the darker shade on the lower part of the walls and the lighter one above if you want to make your ceiling feel higher than it is and your room seem larger.

‘Heart Wood’ was Dulux’s Colour of the Year 2018; it’s an earthy pink with a hint of lilac that’s warm and cosy, and perfect for a creating a relaxing feel in your living room. Here, it has been used with the lighter Pink Parchment on the upper part of the walls, with a thin stripe in between the two called Sapphire Springs 1, which adds still more detail to the scheme.

6. Make it monochrome

Black isn’t often a colour we consider for decorating living rooms, but take a tip from the Scandinavians: it works. Here, it looks fabulous contrasted with crisp off-white paint, but bear in mind that the key to getting the finish right is balance. In other words, break up the black with plenty of white: on ceilings, flooring, and other walls. Introduce texture and warmer tones, too, with accessories. In this living room, pendant lights, the artwork on the sideboard, and the white and wood tones of the sideboard itself all provide relief. 

7. Experiment with darker shades

Darker, dramatic paint colours are increasingly popular in living rooms, especially in spaces that are mainly used during the evening. But, if you want your living room to feel warm, bright and welcoming during the daytime, too, contrast furnishings and flooring in lighter colours with the paint colour on your walls. If you love this look, go and find more inspiration in our dark and atmospheric decorating ideas. 

8. Looking for calming living room paint ideas? Try a deeper shade of blue

Reminiscent of denim blue, this lovely Niagara Blues 2 wall colour is the perfect shade for a room with good natural light and high ceilings. Its blue/grey quality has a warming tone and it looks fabulous with white flooring, ceilings and accessories.  Accents of chartreuse, blush pink and gentle grey will look great with this colour and use pattern too – it creates a decorative element against the chalky blue of the wall. 

Similar shade: Eco Friendly matt paint, £45.75 for 5ltr, Lakeland Paints. All items shown, from George Home. See more inspiring blue room ideas in our guide.

9. Choose on trend grey living room paint ideas

There’s something very classic about grey and white together and it’s a colour scheme that works brilliantly for both modern living rooms and traditional living spaces. There are many different shades of grey to choose from; some have blue tones, others are pinker. Not sure which to choose? Err on the side of caution with pinker tones, which will make your room feel warmer. Obsessed with grey interiors? Yep, us too, so we wrote a whole feature on grey living room design ideas. 

10. Pep up soothing green living room paint ideas

Green is soothing colour – perfect for a busy family living room – and one that’s ideal for merging indoor and outdoor spaces, so a great choice if your living space overlooks the garden. The key is to pick the right tones to suit your room. Yellow-greens will add warmth to east- or north-facing rooms, and greens with a hint of blue, like Little Greene’s Pea Green 91, are great for rooms that get lots of sunlight as they will cool the room down. 

For a contemporary twist, combine a pale green with bolder shades. The bright pink, Leather 191 makes a dramatic contrast, while the dark woodwork in Obsidian Green 216 adds a touch of formality. The cornicing is painted in Slaked Lime 105. 

Get more inspiration from these green living room design ideas. 

11. MONOCHROME AND PINK? A DREAMY COMBINATION 

Pink isn’t always super-girly. Your living room needn’t look like the inside of a Polly Pocket house. Pair these sugary hues with a simple monochrome scheme for a grown up take on the trend. The bold print of the rug and the dark fireplace surround really work to ground the room, stopping it becoming too… pink. 

You can find a similar rug to this one at Wayfair. 

And if you love pink interiors as much as we do, we have dedicated a whole feature to pretty pink room designs. 

12. Or go for a pastel pink living room paint 

If pastel pink is a bit too saccharine for you, choose a more muted, plaster toned pink. If you are after a shade that’s more… mature, pick a living room paint idea that has a warmer, duskier undertone. Something like Farrow and Ball’s Sulking Room Pink, which has been used in this living room. Keep the look fresh by pairing it with bright, crisp whites.  

13. Go bold with a coral coloured living room paint

Since Living Coral was named at Pantone’s Colour of the Year 2019, there has been a surge in orangey hued interiors. We admit that at first we were dubious, but now we can’t get enough of this bright and versatile colour! You could be brave and paint all four walls or, for you commitment-phobes, try out just painting one feature wall. If you just want a pop of peach, pinch the idea from this living room and just paint your shutters or pick out a coral window treatment instead for a more subtle nod at the trend.  

For more Living Coral inspired interiors check out these 10 ways your can bring the bold colour into your home. We’ve got shutter buying advice, too.

14. Or opt for more muted honey tones

Living Coral just a tad too bright for you? Turn instead to Dulux’s Colour of the Year 2019, Spiced Honey. This paint is pretty much exactly how it sounds: warm, spicy and inviting. Though perhaps not a four-wall colour, inject pops of Spiced Honey by painting three quarters of the way up your walls and contrast it with cool neutrals like a grey or stormy blue for a modern look. 

For more tips on how to style your home with Spiced Honey check out our design feature. 

15. Paint the floor boards in your living room 

Much like the neglected ceiling, we often forget to look to the floor when it comes to decorating our living rooms. Painting floorboards is a great way to update a room on a budget – especially if you have the time to tackle the job as a DIY project. Ideally, you should use floor paints for a long-lasting finish, but most good quality paints suitable for woodwork will give you a surprisingly tough floor. 

Check out our guide to how to paint floorboards. 

Looking for more living room ideas?