Colorful living room ideas are on the rise as more and more of us grow in color confidence and look for bold ways to decorate to make our home stand out from the crowd.
As spaces where we relax, but also welcome guests, living rooms are wonderful places to showcase your personal style and set the tone for the rest of the home. While choosing one living room color idea is a great way to create unity and calm, we are increasingly seeing homeowners and interior designers experimenting with bold color combinations for their living room ideas, or choosing a neutral background for layered prints and colorful furnishings.
Whether you’re looking for color ideas for the entire room or just want to add some bold accents to brighten up an existing scheme, we’ve rounded up a range of fresh, colorful living room ideas that are guaranteed to inspire, alongside some helpful expert advice on how you can decorate your room. with color.
(Image credit: Interior by Kate Guinness / Photo James McDonald)
Colorful living room ideas
Introducing colorful living room ideas can be daunting as there are a dizzying array of ways to embrace colorful decorating ideas, from vibrant living room paint ideas and wallpaper ideas to living room furniture ideas.
Learning how to use the color wheel and becoming familiar with living room trends can be helpful in figuring out which colors go together. However, when it comes to color combinations for rooms, many interior designers advise trusting your intuition and choosing the colors you love.
‘I find working with color particularly rejuvenating. Putting different combinations of colors together makes me happy and some make my heart beat faster – it’s important to find the colors and combinations that bring you joy,” says fabric and wallpaper designer Molly Mahon (opens in new tab).
1. Choose the colors you love
(Image credit: Molly Mahon)
When it comes to family room paint ideas, don’t be afraid to follow your heart, advises Molly Mahon. ‘My reaction to color is very instinctive and I let this instinct guide my design decisions. I’ve been deeply inspired by the creative fearlessness Vanessa Bell embraced in creating a home in Charleston, and I’ve taken this liberating approach in my own home,” says the fabric and wallpaper designer.
‘Being bold has allowed me to furnish in a way that reflects my family’s true personality to create a home where we are all able to create, reflect, relax and grow. I followed my heart to do what feels right for our home. Whether that’s painting the fireplace, decorating a cupboard door or printing fabric for my living room curtains.’
2. Get creative with paint
(Image credit: Farrow & Ball Bamboozle and Templeton Pink)
Paint is a quick and easy way to create a striking look in a living room, but it can also serve as a clever visual aid. We know that light colors make small living rooms feel bigger and rich, dark colors give walls a cozy feel, but why not combine the two for an exciting, bold look?
In addition to being fun and eye-catching, painting the wall with a lighter shade over a deeper shade is a great way to break up the walls of large living rooms, making them feel more intimate and cozy. Above, the new Bamboozle (below) and Templeton Pink (above) shades from Farrow & Ball (opens in new tab) bring warmth and a playful twist to this traditional living room.
3. Watch your tone
(Image credit: Susan Deliss)
Interior designer Susan Deliss (opens in new tab) is another champion in decorating with the colors you love. “Don’t pay too much attention to color wheel rules and pink doesn’t mix with green or any other conventions. Do what you or your client likes and what suits the property you’re working on,” she says.
She does advise you to be careful with the tone of the colors you choose. ‘Don’t go for the brightest color on the map – unless you’re somewhere with brilliant sunlight like India, it’s best to tone down the color a bit.
“In a sunny climate you can probably get away with mixing sour greens and cobalt blue, for example, but in an English country house it’s important to keep things in check and look to nature’s greens and blues for inspiration.”
4. Add colorful accents
(Image credit: Project Barlow & Barlow / Photo Jonathan Bond)
Adding soft furnishings and accessories in bold accent colors is a fantastic way to bring life to a living room decorated in one colour, as evidenced by this beautiful blue living room from Barlow & Barlow.
‘Using different shades of blue, including sky and navy, adds real depth and richness to a room. Bold, impressive and elegant navy blue is also known as a calming hue, making it a great choice for a living room,” said Lucy Barlow, founder and creative director of interior design studio Barlow & Barlow. (opens in new tab) . “Adding touches of red or pink helps soften and warm the space, and we love adding a cozy window curtain in a fun print to amp up the vibe.”
5. Make a lasting impression with contrasting colors
(Image credit: Brent Darby)
Using a more unusual color combination in a room will change the mood of the room, explains interior designer Nicola Harding, founder of Nicola Harding & Co. (opens in new tab). ‘The more contrast there is, the more drama there is in the room and the less contrast, the quieter the room,’ says Nicola. “As a general rule of thumb, if you want a dynamic, energetic feel, you want to use high contrast.”
6. Use pattern as a starting point
(Image credit: Future/Jon Day)
Pattern plays a leading role in living room schemes designed by Turner Pocock (opens in new tab). “Our starting point is always a pattern with at least three colors,” co-founders Bunny Turner and Emma Pocock explain. “It could be a floral, geometric, ikat or stripe pattern, and it could come from something as small as a cushion or a large-scale fabric for a sofa, but it will form the basis of our design.”
7. Choose a colorful wallpaper
(Image credit: Jane Churchill’s Nerissa wallpaper in yellow)
A living room wallpaper is a fantastic way to bring color into a room. A mural or large-scale design can make a bold statement, but it’s not for everyone. For something easy to live with, opt for a small-scale repeat design like Jane Churchill’s cheerful Honeysuckle design in this yellow living room idea.
Placing it in wall paneling also helps to calm the look. Although at first glance this paper appears to be sunshine yellow, it actually contains an array of colours, including pink and red, which have been pulled out here as accent colors and used on the upholstery to create a playful contrast.
8. Mix and match colorful living room furniture
(Image credit: Anne Hepfer)
To brighten up this wood-clad living room, interior designer Anne Hepfer created a playful centerpiece with an assortment of seating and furniture in contrasting colours, bold prints and sculptural shapes.
“My clients spent years painstakingly restoring the nineteenth-century house, and my brief, once I was on site, was to fill the rooms with vibrant hues,” says Anne Hepfer (opens in new tab). ‘The timing was perfect: I just came back from three weeks in India, so the colors and hand-blocked fabrics I got to know there were my guideline. These people are fun, eclectic, and even a little outrageous; they move here for the summer and their cottage is buzzing with children, cats and dogs. Their favorite colors are green and raspberry, so that became the starting point for the preppy boho getaway of their dreams.’
9. Bring softness with colorful fabrics
(Image credit: Linwood)
If you love the idea of a colorful living room but are wary of using flat, bold tones, try decorating with colorful fabrics with small-scale patterns for a softer look.
The new Scalp Prints collection from Linwood (opens in new tab) has 10 ditsy repeating designs that are perfect for layering over curtains and upholstery to get a relaxed colorful look. Here, a curtain in Hopscotch is paired with a sofa in the Garden Gate stripe and an ottoman in the painterly trellis print, Maypole.
“Small-scale designs offer such versatility, they look great on their own or are ideal for tempering larger-scale patterns to create an interesting, layered scheme,” said John Smigielski, director of marketing at Linwood (opens in new tab).
10. Customize furniture
(Image credit: Annie Sloan)
Decorative painting on furniture is a big trend right now, and we’re seeing folksy freehand designs popping up all over the place. Upcycling furniture is not only a great way to create a unique statement piece for your home, it also prevents unwanted furniture from ending up in landfill.
In this painted furniture idea, Annie Sloan’s team transformed an old cabinet with her chalk paint with a bold bird design. “Going freehand means letting your creativity run wild. However, it can be intimidating. The biggest challenge is building your confidence, so get familiar with your brush and plan designs ahead of time. My top tip is to use small amounts of paint at a time for tighter lines and more control,” says Annie Sloan.
How can I make my living room colorful?
There are many ways to make a living room colorful, from eye-catching living room wall ideas to decorating with art.
Painting the walls a vibrant hue or introducing creative paint ideas is a quick way to make a lasting impression. Alternatively, a pretty multi-colored wallpaper can be a great starting point for a color scheme, as can a vibrant living room rug.
“We’re seeing people embrace bolder, more colorful designs and combine them with both coordinating accent colors on walls and woodwork, such as ‘Brodsworth’ wallpaper with ‘Marine Blue’ paint, and bolder schemes that use contrasting woodwork colors,” says Ruth Mottershead, creative director of Little Greene (opens in new tab) about decorating with wallpaper. “A bright yellow can work fantastically well with deep blue or indigo wallpaper, turning what appears to be a traditional wallpaper into a more contemporary design statement.”
For a more flexible approach to decorating, try decorating with neutrals on walls and floors and introducing color through furniture, housewares, lighting, accessories and artwork.
‘For me, art is not just the ‘finishing touch’ in a home. Art can really help define the feel of a space and be truly transformative. In addition to complementing a design scheme, it can also be the starting point for interior design, where the scheme is based on the colors of a work of art,” says Helen Armon-Jones, founder of The Art Buyer (opens in new tab).
