How to choose the color of the walls for the living room: design ideas and tips

Choosing the color scheme of the walls is one of the key points in the design of the living room. But it is far from easy to cope with this task. It is not enough to be guided only by your preferences and tastes – you need to know the basic principles and laws, take into account many factors. But by approaching this issue with responsibility, you can get amazing results.

Your living room will attract people like a magnet, harmony will reign in it, a feeling of warmth and comfort will arise. And isn’t this the result that every owner of the house strives for?

What determines the choice of wall color for the living room

With the help of color, you can visually compress or expand the living room space. You can divide the room into different functional zones, fill it with light, create a feeling of warmth or coolness, place accents.

To avoid undesirable results, it is recommended to consider the following points when choosing:

• Dimensions of the room. For a miniature living room, light shades are suitable, which “push” the walls, give a sense of spaciousness. In large spaces, it is appropriate to show creativity: combine colors, combine textures, experiment with transitions, drawing. In a room with low ceilings, you can use wallpaper with a vertical pattern – it visually raises the ceilings.
• Lighting features. Dark walls absorb light, light walls reflect it. If daylight enters the room only a small part of the day, and mostly it is in semi-darkness, it is better to use light tones. In addition, colors can be perceived differently in natural and artificial lighting. This also needs to be taken into account. A separate topic is the location of windows. It depends on him whether the shades should be taken from the warm or cold range.
• Functional requirements. Sometimes the living room is combined with other rooms, and in studio apartments one room generally performs the functions of a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen. Therefore, the color palette is chosen based on practical considerations.
• Feng shui (optional). Many design the room and taking into account the principles of Feng Shui – the ancient Chinese doctrine of the harmonization of space. According to this teaching, each color in its own way affects the energy of the house and the psychological state of its owner. It is necessary to choose shades for the living room according to Feng shui, based on the division into masculine (light, warm, bright shades) and feminine (dark, saturated, expressive colors). It is not necessary to take into account the principles of Feng Shui design. Some people believe in the teaching, others deny it. In this case, these are recommendations rather than rules.

• The location of windows in the room relative to the cardinal directions. Let’s look at this feature of interior design in more detail.

Choosing the color of the walls depending on the location of the windows in the living room

The choice of colors and shades largely depends on where the windows of the living room are facing:

• If the windows face north, then the sun looks inside the room only for a short time, but this can be partially compensated by choosing a light warm color scheme.
• If the windows face south, then there is a lot of sun and heat in the rooms, so cold shades, for example, from the blue and blue-green palette, will suit here.
• The sun rises from the east side, filling the room with the warm and soft light of the first morning rays – you can enhance and visually prolong the effect by choosing soft “sunny” shades for the walls: peach, apricot, honey, light yellow.
• For the western side, as well as for the southern, cold shades are preferred, for example, lucite, blue or neutral gray.

The cold and warm scales are so rich that it is not difficult to choose a color to your liking. These rules only give the direction of thought, but in no way limit the possibilities for the manifestation of fantasy.

Popular colors for the living room

The color of the walls in the living room should not be unnecessarily annoying and catchy, as it is tiring and can cause psychological discomfort. Therefore, the most popular options are calm, restrained, neutral shades, which, moreover, give more opportunities for combinations. In second place – more expressive colors, but in a muted interpretation.

Beige

Always relevant. It fits perfectly into any style, combines well, and has a calming effect. To make the room look more expressive, you can use bright interior elements or decoration with an interesting texture, for example, brickwork, Venetian plaster.

Depending on the location, you can choose a cold or warm shade of beige.

Gray

Interiors in gray always look stylish and modern. Color is a favorite of loft, hi-tech and minimalism styles, but its scope is practically unlimited. Gray has a fairly wide range of shades. Warmer variations will give the room noble luxury, cold ones – meaningful restraint.

You can make the whole living room in monochrome, using shades of gray that are different in saturation. This will give it depth. Bright color accents will enliven the interior, add mood.

Blue

Shades from the blue palette have a relaxing effect. For a family holiday after a working day, a blue–colored living room is the optimal solution.

Blue refers to cold shades, often used in southern rooms.

Dark blue looks noble and expensive, but it compresses space and can be somewhat overwhelming. Light – “pushes” the walls, creates a feeling of coolness and freshness.

White

White is considered achromatic, that is, like gray and black, it has no shades in its pure form. In fact, it is very diverse. Color impurities translate it into the category of warm or cold tones, and depending on this, the rooms may look completely different.

White will look good in a dark living room where there is little natural light. It always looks fashionable and expensive. The danger of impersonality is compensated by bright contrasting accessories, interesting texture or complex decor.

Green

Green refers to the natural range, associated with foliage, summer warm days, rest and tranquility.

It simultaneously fills with vital energy and soothes. It can be both cold and warm, go in different shades, so it is appropriate in rooms of different size and location. It looks interesting in various textures, often used for zoning.

Rooms made in monochrome will never look boring. Complex colors look best in the interior, for example, yellow-green or gray-green.

Yellow

Yellow is associated with the sun and gold, adjusts to the positive, warms, creates a feeling of sunlight even on gloomy cloudy days. In a bright variation, it is good for spacious living rooms, but in compact rooms it can irritate and pressure.

For them, it is better to take soft pastel shades that set up a calm mood, promote communication and relieve internal tension.

In muted interpretations, yellow can be combined with a variety of shades.

Brown

It is believed that the prevalence of brown colors in the interior indicates reliability, moderation and some conservatism of the owners.

Psychologists say that brown tones endow the room with restraint and at the same time with a sense of comfort and harmony. In spacious, well-lit rooms, deep, rich tones, for example, bitter chocolate, look good.

Light shades like coffee with milk visually expand the limited space. The color favorably emphasizes any texture.

Turquoise

Turquoise is a mixed color that combines the freshness of a transparent sea wave and the life–affirming power of green. The shade contains the properties of each of the components: soothes, relieves fatigue, adjusts to a creative mood.

It visually expands the space, gives a feeling of freshness and cleanliness.

Light variations are preferred, which are characterized by higher combinatoricity. Bright colors are better to use as accents.

How to decorate a living room with a combination of different colors

To make the living room look harmonious and meet your needs, it is important not only to know how to choose the color of the walls for the living room, but also to correctly use the basic rules of color combinations in it. Especially for this purpose, the Itten color circle was created, which all stylists and designers use in their activities.

Experts recommend paying attention to the following ways of combining colors and shades:

• Dilute the options from the same palette with shades from a neutral range (for example, blue, indigo and royal blue, combine with gray or beige).

• Take neutral options as a basis and add bright and contrasting accents.
• When using contrasting combinations (occupying opposite positions in the color circle), make one of the colors the main, the second – accent, they should be different in saturation and tone (light yellow and bright purple, pale olive and juicy red, bleached blue and orange or vice versa).

• Use related colors (adjacent in the sectors of the color circle) – they are perfectly combined with each other and look good side by side, regardless of brightness and lightness. Such options include, in particular, lilac and pink or orange and yellow.

Important rules for color combinations in the living room

It is highly undesirable to use more than four colors in one room:

• one of them should be the main background (it accounts for 70% of the color design of the interior),
• the second is a background auxiliary (approximately 25%),
• the rest are for accent (5%).

Accents are made with the help of bright and juicy shades. At the same time, all the paints used are taken into account, from the color of the floor and ceiling to pieces of furniture and decorative elements.

The Internet is full of colorful photos of interiors, which combine shades of equal saturation and brightness. But there is a huge difference between a beautiful picture and reality. Professional designers take into account the peculiarities of human perception and the psychology of color, as well as the fact that owners will have to spend a lot of time indoors.

Features of color selection for the living room

When choosing a color for the living room, it is important to take into account the lighting, location, area of the room, the overall color scheme of the interior. If the living room is small, its design should be distinguished by high functionality with minimal load of decorative elements.

This also applies to the color scheme. The room should not be overloaded in any way, so choose pastel colors and smooth textures. And to visually enlarge the space, use mirrors and reflective elements. In such rooms, zoning with the help of color will be a good solution. Zoning is also acceptable in a spacious room. But there are much more opportunities for creativity here.

It is always interesting to see a smooth transition from dark shades to light or from one color to another. It looks very modern and unbroken and is one of the most popular modern trends in interior design.

Depending on whether the transition is in the horizontal or vertical direction, with the help of such a technique, you can expand the area or “raise” the ceilings, add depth and volume to the space.

This technique looks harmonious in any style, including classical.

The color of the walls in the interior of the living room is determined not only by objective factors, but also by the peculiarities of perception. If the wrong choice is made, the room can be oppressive, irritating, some colors combined can give a dirty, fuzzy overall background, important interior elements can be lost and seem banal.

Therefore, this issue needs to be approached with full responsibility. We hope that our recommendations and photos will help you understand all the nuances and get a lot of useful ideas for yourself.

Photo-living room design ideas in various color combinations