When you are designing a living space, you are looking to create a welcoming atmosphere in which you can entertain guests at the same time make it so homely that you find it a place to relax and unwind after a long day. A living space can become an area of the house that you spend quite a bit of time in, hence when you deciding on the interior of the living space, you have to be very careful of colours. When decorating the interior of the living space, you have to know how to choose colours and understand which combination of colours work together.
You may be dreaming of the perfect living space with the perfect colour scheme that guides the mood you are hoping to create. You have to think about the perfect paint and how to match your furniture and other elements of the room to match the colours. After all, you want the space to stand out and portray your personality. The colours and the furniture that you use will decide the outcome of the space and the overall feel, hence when it comes to choosing colours, you cannot be too careful.
When you are looking to pick the colours for your living space, you would benefit from reading this word to word, so you know exactly what look and feel to go for. Hence, without further adieu, let’s dive into the details of the math.
Choose Colours Based on the Ambience You Want to Create
When you are creating a living space that you would want to spend so much time in, you want the ambience of the space to feel right. Hence it is a good idea to go with the ambience that you are looking to create.
The ambience refers to the tone of the room, the character that you want to portray and of course the atmosphere of the space. It has much to do with the mood of the space. Are you looking for a brightly lit space or have options for dimmer lighting? These are all elements that you to consider.
Are you looking to create an energetic space with a lot of vibrant colour, or are you trying to create a warm, earthy space with a lot of natural and neutral colours? The first thing you want to do is decide on the ambience that you want to create. This will provide you with a set of colours and combinations of colours that you can then work with.
When deciding on the ambience of the space, try to understand the role of the room. What will you be using the room for? Watching TV? Entertaining? Reading? Consider what the uses of the room would be. This will provide you with a better understanding of what kind of atmosphere you want to create for the space.
You would also want to consider things such as the time of the day that you would be using the living room. Whether you are looking to relax in the space or energise yourself. You should also consider things such as natural lighting and windows.
Pay Attention to Natural Light
When you are working on creating a space for a particular purpose, you want to consider the natural light that flows in during the day. You want to make use of the natural light as much as possible and choose colours that compliment the natural light of the day.
If the space is extremely sunny, there may be better combinations of colours. If you are looking to spend quite a bit of time in the living room during the day and the living space is particularly well-lit, you would benefit from chooing jewel tones and earthy shades. This will complement the space and give it a charming feel.
Colours like sapphire blue and emerald green are great shades for walls if you are exposed to a lot of natural light. You can also use darker earthy shades since the natural light will prevent the space from looking too dark.
However, these colours require a lot of light, hence should not be used in rooms that are not well lit during the night. Another thing to keep in mind is wallpaper colour. If you choose wallpaper in a room with a lot of natural light, you could expect the colour to fade over time.
If you are working with a dark space with sunny hues or if you are looking to spend most of your time in the living room in the evening, you should use colours that brighten up the space well. Ivory and buttercup yellow are great for rooms that don’t receive a lot of natural light. It will make the space look brighter and more welcoming.
You can also use light greens and blues to make a space that doesn’t get a lot of light, look bright and happy.
Try Using Warm Tones
You want to consider the warmth of the room, which is an element of the ambience of the space. How cosy is the space? You want to make the living space a cosy environment in which you can unwind and relax, watch some TV or play a video game or even read a book.
When working on the warmth of the space, try using warm tones such as deep reds, burnt oranges and shades of gold and brown. The combination of these colours is good for living spaces that are used both during the day and during the evening. The colours aren’t too dark for daytime.
You want to refrain from using brighter shades of red and orange as the dominant colour to the room since these colours could easily overwhelm the space. Remember, you are looking for a cosy space, not a space that will shock you. You can go with earth tones such as deep yellows, browns and rusty reds which all work to warm up the space and looks great in every light.
Choose Cool Tones for Greater Relaxation
When you are looking to design a space in which you are more likely to unwind and relax, opt for more cooler tones for a greater element of relaxation. You can choose from blues, cool violets and greys which are all very useful in creating a calm and relaxing atmosphere which is going to soothe your senses.
If you are looking to occupy the space more during the evening, opting for cooler tones would be a much better choice to create a relaxing space. Green is also a good choice of colour if you are looking to create a calming effect.
Choosing Colours for a Small Room
When picking colours for a small room, you want to go with light shades and not opt for darker ones. Dark shades will only make the small space look and feel smaller.
Lighter shades will open up the space and will work to make the space look bigger than it is. You can choose a natural light shade such as white, cream or beige.
If you are looking to add colour to the living room, go with a lighter shade of colour for the walls of the room and add colours that accent the space through art and furniture. This will enable you to have a richer combination of colours for the space.
Choosing Colours for a Large Room
When you are picking colours for a larger space, it is quite the opposite of what you would do for a smaller space. With a larger space, you want to go with darker colours which will make the space look more enclosed.
You have the option to branch out and pick a deeper shade of a colour. You can choose a deep hue such as navy blue or plum, just so long as the space is large and open.
Generally however, you don’t want to paint the entire room with a dark colour. It just wouldn’t work to create a beautiful room. Instead, you should opt for an accent wall with a dark colour and blend it with the rest of the wall with another shade or colour.
Use the 60-30-10 Rule
Despite the colours that you choose for the walls of the living space, you want to ensure that you combine the colours of the room in a proper manner. When looking at the combination of colours for the room, try follow the 60-30-10 rule. This means you should have a dominant colour for 60% of your room. 30% of the room should the secondary colour that you choose, while 10% should be an accent colour.
When you are picking dominant and secondary colours, go with something that you are particularly comfortable with. You can experiment when you are working with an accent colour, however, you want to ensure that the majority of the room has the right feel. Do not go with a dominant and secondary colour that you are not absolutely sure about.
When picking an accent colour, you want to go with bold colours that pack a punch. It will do wonders for the energy and character of the room. You can opt for a darker shade for the accent colour, however, for a sense of vitality, you may want to pick the brightest colour on your palette.
When picking the three colours, you have to ensure that the colours blend and complement each other. You can test the three colours in a small trial area to see how they work together before committing to the whole room.
When picking a base and dominant colour, you may want to go with a neutral colour as the base. This will ensure that your living space has the right look. Go with something like beige or grey, since these colours are more versatile and are considered classics.
Match the Colours with the Furniture
When you are picking colours, you have to take into account the furniture that will go into the room. You have to ensure that the colours that you pick, match and blend with the furniture well.
For instance, if you are using modern furniture, you would benefit from going with a modern colour scheme such as whites and greys rather than a traditional colour scheme with rich hues. On the other hand, if you have old and traditional furniture, you may gain by using bright colours to make the space look more charming.
If the furniture that you have share the same colour as the colours that you choose, complementing the colour of the furniture with the secondary or accent colours will help you to tie up the room better.
When in Doubt, Go With White
White is simple and clean and is the safest bet that you can make when you are picking colours. While some prefer choosing more vibrant colours to dominate the space, there is no denying the fact that white can create a very clean and beautiful finish to a space.
There are plenty of varieties that you can choose from when you consider white. There are various shades such as off-white, cream, eggshell, antique white and grey-white.
Hence, though it is a safe bet to make, you have plenty of choices within white to experiment along with.
Try Use Subtle Shades: Contemporary
If you are looking for a contemporary feel and look, you should go with contemporary colours that will make the living space look both vibrant and welcoming.
You can pick from subtle and muted shades of natural colour which will create a warm and calming environment while allowing to illustrate a bit of that personal style.
You can go with light browns and soft greys which can work really well as dominant colours and use a slightly darker shade of the same colour for the secondary and accent colours. This will leave you with a space with subtle shades in colour, which look brilliant in combination with each other.
Try Opt for Neutral Colours: Modern
When you pick neutral colours, you give the space more of a modern look and feel to it. There are certain combinations of colours that enable a more modern look and in general, neutral colours work well to create this look and feel.
White is considered the dominant colour in most modern living spaces, while black and grey work as great secondary colours. When picking an accent colour, you can go with a bright hue such as a bright green or fire engine red to give the space a more intense and modern finish.
Mix Neutral and Rich Colours: Traditional
When you are going with a more traditional look and feel to the space, you want to go with something that uses deep shades of elegant colours to bring about a formal and classy look and feel.
You can use neutral colours for the walls as the dominant colour, but use a mix of hues in rich shades such as red, blue or brown as the secondary and accent colours.
You can make the space look more regal by using historical colours such as colonial yellow or pearly grey.
Try a Transitional Colour Scheme: Contemporary, Traditional and Modern
A transitional colour scheme works to combine colours that you would find in contemporary, modern and traditional spaces. You can mix in the contemporary with the modern by using shades of tan and vanilla with rich hues such as maroon or navy blue.
A transitional colour scheme gives you a great blend of both class and fun. If you like the mix of both contemporary feel, mixed with the class of a traditional look, mixed in with modern colours, try a transitional colour scheme.
Get Yourself a Colour Wheel
Now that you have a basic idea of how to go about picking colours, you need to get your hands on a colour wheel and familarise yourself with the various colours on the wheel. This will give you the chance to understand how to balance your colours better.
The wheel will help you pick complimenting colours and will enable to you make a better colour combination for the space that you are designing. Complementary colours are found on polar opposite ends of the wheel and are generally considered the colours that compliment each other.
Hence, it is a good idea to get your hands on a colour wheel to familiarise yourself with the various colours and get a better understanding of what colours work together.
Pair Complementary Colours Together
Since complementary colours work to complement each other, they work to make one colour ‘pop’ or stand out. Complementary colours include red and green, orange and blue or yellow and violet. As mentioned earlier, you can find these complementary colours using a colour wheel.
Once you have the complementary colours paired together, you can go about picking the best pair for the room. Since complementary colours tend to be vibrant in nature, you would want to consider using muted shades of colour. Bright shades of complementary colours do not work as well together as muted shades.
Muted shades provide a pleasant feel to the space and provide a buzz of energy to the living space; which is what you want.
Make Sure to Compare Swatches and Colour Cards
When you are picking colours, you have to ensure that you match swatches and colour cards together before making the investment to buy paint or even furniture.
Use fabric swatches and colour cards to get a sample feel for the colours of the space to ensure that they complement each other and blend in well. You can bring these swatches and paint cards home to your living room and see how it looks during different times of the day.
It is a good idea to observe the dominant colours during different times of the day to ensure that it works in various shades of light.
You can make use of this mini test run before you make any investments of time and money towards the space. Colour cards are readily available in hardware stores and paint suppliers and you can get fabric swatches from furniture stores.
Go With Colours You Love
Don’t go out of your way to pick a colour that you don’t like but think would compliment the space. You are the judge and you should go with colours that you love.
Don’t work too hard to create an impressive living space, instead go for a comfortable living space and you would be impressed with the results. It is a living space at the end of the day and you should pick the colours that you like.
Go with your gut instinct and go with the colour if it makes you feel happy and peaceful.
Let Your Furniture Inspire You
If you have trouble deciding on the colours to go with, look at the furniture of the room. This would be a great starting point to draw inspiration on the colours, shades and blends to use.
You can complement your furniture with the colours that you choose. You can also plan ahead for what you are looking to add to the room. If you have illustrations or photos of these items, look into the colours and decor and see how the colour you choose works with them.
You can use a colour from the pattern on your couch to compliement the furniture to the overall colour scheme. You can showcase a piece of art on an accent wall to highlight the artwork.
Draw inspiration from everything that will go into the space and you will find the task of picking colours much easier.
What is the Most Relaxing Colour for a Living Room?
When you are looking for relaxing colours for a living room, you want to go with lighter shades that brighten up the space and provide a vibrant and relaxing look and feel.
You can go with colours that stand out, such as natural blues, earth greens or even pink. These colours work to promote tranquillity and peace.
You could also use softer colours such as white and grey, which ensure the space is calm and relaxing.
How to Choose Colours for Living Room
When you are picking colours for the room, you want to be on the safe side and not pick colours that will end up shocking you. In fact, picking colours for the living room is considered one of the most important tasks in decorating a living space.
You want to ensure that the room is welcoming to guests, while also ensuring that it provides as a beautiful space in which you would be looking to spend quite a bit of time.
We aimed to provide you with an insightful article that would help you understand what colours work together and how to go about the task of picking colours for your living room. We hope that this guide has proved useful for you and that reading this word to word has helped you understand how to go about picking and combining colours.
Remember, the choice is yours and you should go with the colours that you love. Don’t go out of your way to create something impressive, instead go with what you are comfortable with and you will end up with a cosy and beautiful living space.
Happy Designing!
