Is it time to add color to the living room? Do you not know what color to choose for the living room? In this post, we have gathered everything to think about before repainting and lots of color inspiration to take part in. Here are 10 awesome tips regarding what color to wear in the living room.
What color should you have in the living room? – 10 tips
Photo: JM.se
Photo: JM.se
The living room is the room we go to when we want to relax, spend time with family and friends or to watch TV. Here you want the right feeling to appear. One way to help that feeling a little on the stack, is to make sure that there is a harmony when it comes to the color tones in the living room.
As you will learn in this article, there is really nothing right or wrong when it comes to choosing colors in your living room. The taste is highly subjective and if there is any room that allows us to take the turns really, it is the living room.
Instead of getting excited about the latest color trends, the focus should be on finding the style and feel that suits you. It is important that when you enter your living room, you should feel that wonderful feeling of being able to be at home and just take it easy.
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Tip 1: Find the feeling you want to create in your living room
We are all different, which is amazing in every way. This means that there are many different ways to create the perfect living room. Who are you as a person and what do you want the living room to have for its primary purpose? Do you want a cozy living room or maybe an elegant one? Start by deciding what feeling you want to create in your room.
For example, do you want a darker living room, where you can curl up on the couch and watch TV? Then it can be interesting to take a closer look at the slightly darker wall colors that are available to choose from. You can, for example, paint the walls with Djurgårdsgrön 145 from Alcro Färg. It is a lovely darker color with tones of green. Here, however, it is important that other furnishings match the chosen color. Read more about this in tip 6! If you do not want the color in the living room to stand out too much, you can choose more neutral colors.
Photo: Houzz.se
What counts as neutral colors?
Neutral colors include black, gray and white. Then there are a myriad of variations and tonings of these colors. When it comes to colors for walls, these neutral colors are very common and very popular even among interior designers. The reason is that you can let furniture and furnishings come out and take up space. The details simply get more focus, than if you have, for example, a green – or blue-toned wall.
So if you want your new expensive Danish-designed chair to get all the attention, you should consider painting your walls in one of the neutral colors.
Tip 2: There is no right or wrong
Many people who are going to add color to their living room suffer from low self-esteem and are frantically searching online for what is the right color for the living room. But the answer is not online, but within you! There is no right or wrong when it comes to color in the living room.
But of course it can be good to take part in articles like this, so as not to end up in a situation where you get dissatisfied when everything is done, just because you did not think about basic things like how some colors interact better than others, etc. .
Photo: JM.se
Photo: erikolsson.se
How many colors should I decorate with?
Try to have at least three base colors as the cornerstone and with which you work actively. Then it does not matter if there is additional furniture that breaks off these colors and goes in a completely different tone. But if you paint your walls in some nice base color and let the pillows and decor vary in at least two other colors, it can not go wrong!
Tip 3: Get inspired
An easy way to find out what color you want in your living room is to take part in other people’s living room. Look in interior design magazines, check Pinterest and read interior design sites online, such as Interior design here. There are guaranteed to be interiors that are reminiscent of what you have in your home. Maybe you see some smart color choices that fit well into the colors you have in your living room. Interior design is very much about being inspired by others and then putting your personal stamp on it. This is how you create a personal and unique home that does not feel cloned and copied.
Thanks to social media, today the amount of available inspiration regarding interior design has completely exploded. Be sure to follow accounts that you think are good and have an open mind.
What color should you have on the walls?
When it comes to choosing the right wall color, it is usually recommended to choose matte colors. It is of course possible to choose colors that are not matte, but then it immediately becomes more difficult to create an atmosphere in the living room.
You can either choose one of the neutral colors, ie black, white or gray and then let the furniture and decor stand for the color. But if you still have to repaint your living room, why not do it for real and take the turns a bit?
COLOR TIPS: For those of you who are going to choose wall color, we can recommend checking out Dark Dijon from Nordsjö Färg. Or why not this wonderfully beautiful blue color that is completely new in the North Sea range – Krickelin Dimblå.
What color should you have on the walls?
When it comes to choosing the right wall color, it is usually recommended to choose matte colors. It is of course possible to choose colors that are not matte, but then it immediately becomes more difficult to create an atmosphere in the living room.
You can either choose one of the neutral colors, ie black, white or gray and then let the furniture and decor stand for the color. But if you still have to repaint your living room, why not do it for real and take the turns a bit?
COLOR TIPS: For those of you who are going to choose wall color, we can recommend checking out Dark Dijon from Nordsjö Färg. Or why not this wonderfully beautiful blue color that is completely new in the North Sea range – Krickelin Dimblå.
Tip 4: Keep track of the trend
You can find a lot of inspiration by taking part in the trends that exist regarding interior design. When it comes to color in living room 2022, we see a clear trend with the same recurring warm wall colors. Beige wall paint still dominates the color throne and why not mix the beige color with trendy wooden furniture?
Warm wall colors create a feeling of security and peace, which we probably need after going through a long pandemic. Blue colors are trendy in 2022 and also purple that has been around for a while now. Mint green is also high on the list.
Photo: JM.se
Tip 5: Choose matte colors for the walls
As we have mentioned before, it is good to choose a matte base color for the walls in the living room. This will make it easier to decorate and paintings and other hung ornaments will blend better into the wall.
Glossy colors will also be more difficult to illuminate, as the light will be reflected against the wall. A matte color does not mean that the room needs to be dark. The right choice of lighting makes the room exactly the way you want it.
What colors are base colors?
When we talk about color in general and in art / painting, the base colors are blue, red and yellow. But in interior design, people often talk about having a base color, which in that case can be any color. This is the color you start from when you decorate. You can, for example, paint the walls in a base color, for example beige, and then play with other colors in other interiors. But the base color for the room then becomes beige.
Tip 6: Match the colors with your furniture
Of course, it can be tempting to color the entire living room from scratch. But it would also mean that you would have had to replace or repaint a large part of the furniture in the home. Then it is actually easier to adapt the color scheme on the walls to the furniture you have.
For example, if you have a lot of white furniture in your living room, but want to get a slightly darker feeling in the room, you can paint the living room gray. Then you have in a smart way changed the feeling in your living room without having to do anything with the existing interior. All you had to do was repaint the walls.
Photo: erikolsson.se
Tip 7: Enlarge small living room with bright colors
This is a hot tip for anyone who has a smaller living room, but who wants it to feel bigger. Light tones make a room look bigger and more airy. You who want to achieve this should therefore see if you can find a matte color in, for example, light gray or beige for the walls in your living room.
There are many more tips for those who want to make a small room feel bigger. For example, you can paint the wall but leave a 10 cm wide border at the top of the ceiling, which you either leave the original color or painted in a different tone. The whole room will feel more airy and with more space.
In addition to color choices, we have the classic old trick with mirrors. Mirrors create a lot of space in a room and make it feel bigger. You can also experiment with contrasts of different colors. For example, a light gray wall contrasted with shelves in dark gray. This gives a feeling of a sophisticated home, at the same time as it feels bigger.
Tip 8: Use accent colors
Accent colors are the colors that you use in addition to your base color. When you use accent colors, you can, for example, let colors reappear in different furniture, pillows, paintings, etc. This is done by “picking up” colors in one interior detail in another.
Does that sound complicated? Let’s take a concrete example! You have a beautiful bench in your living room, perfect for putting some neat pillows on. Before you head out on the town to find these fancy pillows, study your living room and the colors you see. Maybe you have a background wall that is painted in mint green. Then it’s the base color in your room. If you can find a pillow that goes in a dark blue color, but has a mint green pattern, then you can work wonders when it comes to creating a wonderful feeling in your living room. In addition, you have actively used accent colors in your interior.
Do you want a tip on a nice base color to have in your living room? Box 287 from Alcro is a beige base color that is perfect to have as a base in a living room.
How many accent colors should you have?
In order for there to be some form of harmony and for the accent colors to really take place, you should not use more than three accent colors. Then you can of course break off with furnishings that go in other tones.
Here you can take advantage of the color wheel to create a personal color scheme that you use when you decorate and paint in your living room. The color wheel works as if the closer the colors are in relation to each other, the easier they play together. A tip is to choose one base color and then two accent colors on the opposite side of the base color.
The color wheel.
Tip 9: Paint the elements as well
The elements can be a disturbing element in the interior and put sticks in the wheels for those who want to create a feeling in a room. Or they can be potential interior gold grains, if you put a little color on!
For those of you who have modern elements that do not really fit into the feeling you want to create in your home, the color may play less of a role. Then there are solutions with element protection where you build in the element and in this way it hides in a nice way. This protection can of course be painted in any color.
But for you who have nice elements in the home but painted white, there is a lot to do with a little color. Take the opportunity to paint these as well when you are still repainting the walls. Either you can choose to paint the elements in the same color as you use on the walls, or you can paint the elements in a darker tone but of the same color. There is no right or wrong here. Maybe you can use one of the accent colors and paint the element in one of these colors?
Tip 10: Shelves and wall in the same color
It is very trendy right now to repaint your bookshelves. We see everything from sharp contrasts with bright blue shelves against a white wall to shelves that blend nicely into the color of the wall. The latter option is actually very trendy and stylish. If you paint your wall in a light blue tone, then try to also paint the bookshelf in the same color. The shelf will not disappear completely, as it refracts from the light and some parts will be shaded, but there will be a more uniform feeling in the living room.
