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DESIGN 101
Colorful Living Room Ideas Guide
Make a statement in your living room with bold color choices. From sofas and accent chairs to paint colors and throw pillows, experiment with ways to incorporate your personal sense of style into colorful living room decor.
Colorful Living Room Ideas
Mix patterns and colors
Bring life and energy into your living room with a mix of patterns and colors. If you're unsure if you should start by choosing colors or patterns, you're in luck: There's no wrong way to create a living room color scheme.
Select a color palette and then seek patterns in those colors. Or find an appealing patterned piece—like a brightly colored, patterned ottoman—and build your color palette around that anchor piece.
These tips for mixing colors and patterns can prevent an overwhelming combination.
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Mix various patterns — like floral, stripes, geometric, or abstract — rather than sticking to just one pattern.
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Choose patterns with more than two colors in them.
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Vary the scale of the patterns.
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Select a variety of patterned items, from wallpaper to furniture to accent pieces.
Choose vibrant accent pieces
Accent pieces are the storytellers against the backdrop of the rest of the room. Throw pillows, lighting, and other decor — like vases, candles, and artwork — are your opportunity to bring a personal touch into your living room.
The colors you choose for your accent pieces can share a story of drama and intrigue or might communicate peace and relaxation. Choose vibrant accent pieces that fit with your personal style.
Choose contrasting colors
Unless you're an artist or trained interior designer, you may feel unsure which colors to incorporate into your living room color scheme. Choose contrasting colors for a bold, striking look. Reference a color wheel if you'd like some validation for color decisions. But rather than depending on color rules, trust your sense of style.
Choose colors that appeal to you and consider the feelings various colors evoke. Note how your impressions of various colors change as you set them against each other.
Combine paint colors
Once you have a color palette of contrasting colors, these tips can help you combine paint colors in a pleasing manner.
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Use your boldest color for your main accent piece and your lighter tones in the rest of the room.
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Lean more heavily into primary colors than secondary to provide a more balanced contrast. Consider following the 60-30-10 principle: Cover 60% of the room (typically walls, furniture, and large decor) in the dominant color, 30% in a complementary color, and 10% in an accent color (throw pillows, vases, and other small decor).
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Select colors with more contrast for a more dramatic look, and choose colors with less contrast if you're working toward a calm, peaceful feel.
Colorful Living Room Color Schemes
Grown-up pink
Introducing a subtle, grown-up pink into your colorful living room with paint color, seating, or decor adds a welcoming, warm feel. A blush, earthy pink with depth provides a lighter tone against which contrasting colors can be incorporated.
Serene blue
A colorful living room doesn't have to be bright and energizing. A colorful lounge can also have a calming, peaceful feel by incorporating colors like serene blue with rugs, lighting, furniture, or wall color.
Jewel tones
Jewel tones can create an unexpected sense of drama and adventure, bringing a sense of fun into your living room. Lighting, artwork, seating, and paint colors in jewel tones work well in contrast against a neutral background.
Retro yellow
In a nod to decades past, retro yellows — including mustards, sunshine yellows, and soft, mellow yellows — can change the energy of any living room. A bright, modern accent chair adds a dynamic flair, while a chair covered in an intriguing pattern in a softer yellow brings a quieter, more intellectual feel.
Summer peach
Summer peach tones inspired by the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year, Peach Fuzz, warm any living room. Choose seating, a rug, or another decorative item in this warm, velvety color.
Style Tips
Choosing a living room paint color
If you've already chosen your color palette, your next step is to choose paint colors that complement that palette. Choosing paint colors that fit with your living room color scheme will be simple if you follow a few basic steps:
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Bring color swatches, small accent pieces, or other items from your color palette to your local paint store. Then, select paint strip samples that best match your color palette.
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Take your paint strips home and tape them up on the wall of the room. Compare them to larger pieces in your color palette, like your sofa or a rug.
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Narrow your color choices using the paint strips, and then buy samples of the colors.
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Put a bit of each sample color on various walls in the room. Pay attention to the impact of changes in light on the color samples. Live with the colors for a few days to decide which colors best fit your palette and evoke the feeling you hope to inspire.
Picking a living room rug
When choosing the color of your rug, consider:
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Your color palette: Rugs tend to be among a room's larger pieces, so consider carefully whether you want them in your primary or a secondary color.
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Your lifestyle: If you have small children or a pet with dark fur, it may be difficult to keep a light-colored rug clean.
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Placement: If your rug will be in a high-traffic area, a more durable material will serve you better. Material can impact the depth of a color as well as its tendency to fade.
Adding color to a neutral living room
If you have a neutral living room and don't want to paint, there are many colorful living room ideas to add vibrancy with items that can be replaced as trends and your taste evolve.
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Add boldly-colored accent pieces like throw pillows or blankets, vases, and artwork.
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Choose a colorful rug or small piece of furniture, like an accent chair or pouf.
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Swap out colorful accent pieces as trends and seasons change.
Choosing colorful living room furniture
Colorful living room furniture provides vibrant focal points for one of your home's most well-used rooms. Selecting colorful living room furniture can be intimidating, but these simple tips can help you choose the perfect pops of color for your room.
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Shop by style to filter your search to the exact style you’re looking for.
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Find an item in the color you like, then scroll to the bottom of your screen to search for items that are "similar by color."
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Use filters in your search to select the colors in your color palette.
Color Style Guidance
Creating a colorful living room can transform a neutral, bland room into a room with energy and vibrancy. With the tips in this guide, your living room color scheme will have just the feel you want. For additional help choosing colors, reference one of our many color guides prepared by our design and furniture experts.