Ideas to Decorate the Living Room

How we chose to decorate our living room... Details of our interior design makeover. Real room photos and ideas for your own makeover...

It had been a long time since we decorated our living room, so thought it was about time we had a bit of a change.

The living room had been plain white for a while, which felt crisp and cool in the Summer, but did tend to feel somewhat cool, stark and a little unwelcoming in the Winter - not the ideal place to cosy up and relax as we wanted.

We wanted to go for quite a calm and sophisticated look in our lounge - something grown-up and elegant! But we still wanted a room to just relax in. We also wanted to make the room feel a little more spacious (as it is a very small room).

In the end, we managed to decorate the living room without too much hassle, and without too many major changes, or upheaval!

Choosing the Wallpaper to Decorate the Living Room

• We wanted a bit of drama in the room, so first of all, we chose a statement wallpaper to go on the fireplace wall.

  We sit opposite the fireplace, so we do spend a lot of time looking at this wall.

  This meant we needed to choose to decorate our living room with a wallpaper we wouldn't get bored of.

• The fireplace itself is bounded on either side by massive shelves of books which reach nearly up to the ceiling.

  This can tend to look a little messy.

  I love having all my books around me, so didn't want to hide them away. I think they make a house look homely!

• Instead, we chose a bold, statement wallpaper for the fireplace wall that draws the eye to this, rather than to the 'messy' (!?!) books on either side...
• The wallpaper we chose was a dark grey with a beautiful pattern of silver trees. Enough of a 'dramatic statement' in anyone's book! The color is dark, but there isn't much of it. It is also lifted by the use of white mirror and accessories.
• I think this beautiful wallpaper is a real work of art, and certainly lends the elegant and sophisticated look we were after.










Choosing Colors to Decorate our Living Room

• I must admit that before we chose our lovely wallpaper for the fireplace wall, we did already have a color scheme in mind. After we had chosen the wallpaper, we then just needed to pick a precise shade of that color to match nicely with the wallpaper.
• The color scheme we chose was a sophisticated dark grey. We used this on the bottom section of the walls, below the dado rail (which we painted in a shiny, metallic black).
• This choice keeps the bottom half of the room (with the dark furniture) all a neat and contained whole. The dark grey sets off well against the dark brown of our existing furniture, giving beautiful, co-ordinating neutral tones.
• The upper part of the walls are a bright white. This helps to keep the spacious feeling in what is a very small room. If you have a small room, you should always keep dark colors to the bottom section of your walls, to avoid the colors seeming too overwhelming.
• This choice of colors also gives us a very dramatic contrast between light and dark, to add interest to the interior decorating scheme.










Choosing the Accessories

• Through using neutrals to decorate our living room, we were able to keep our existing dusky blue curtains. These take on a cool, greyish tinge next to the grey of the walls, and lend a blue tone to the grey of the walls too (this helps the room to feel more spacious too).
• I love to have lots of green plants and foliage to naturally decorate my living room, so to complement this I decided to make green a feature of my interior design color scheme. Black and green cushions, with a foliage design go well with the colors in the room, and with the natural 'tree' or 'foliage' theme. The green also adds an essential little lift of color to the whole scheme.
• Other accessories are in monochromatic white or black (dark brown, or dark wood). These give an interesting contrast, but still keep to the main color schemes, so that the room doesn't feel too 'jumbly'.
• We were lucky enough to find a spot for a lovely old picture Ian had inherited, all in beautiful greys and blues, that fitted in just perfectly with the new color scheme.

Now you've seen my interior design efforts, feel free to show me yours. Show off your own home decorating projects and get feedback, or just look at other people's interior designs...

For more ideas and photos of real rooms, and inspiration to decorate your living room, take a look at these interior designs living room gallery pages

If you are ready to start your own living room decorating project, take a look at these interior decorating living room hints and tips pages, here...

Or look at the main interior design tips and home decorating guide pages for more information about how to interior design it yourself as you deocrate your own living room...

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