STEP 1: CREATE A MOODBOARD
It’s not always easy to know where to start when you’re revamping your living room, but creating a moodboard is a great way to focus your thoughts.
When you’re looking for ideas for living room colour schemes, try to keep your eyes peeled for colours, styles and fabrics you like. Browse catalogues and magazines and think about any films, photos or postcards that could inspire you.
Once you’ve gathered fabric swatches, paint charts and images you like, pull your ideas together onto a large A3 sheet of card. It’ll help you visualise your living room colour ideas and allow you to share your plans with others too.
STEP 2: PICK FABRICS FOR TEXTURE AND INTEREST
In any new scheme, I like to choose my fabrics first. I tend to go for colourful prints so I choose the key fabric and then base the room colour scheme around it, picking out colours from the print for the walls, floors and accessories.
If you focus on choosing your main fabric first – usually the curtain fabric – you can then pick out complementary fabrics for your cushions and upholstery.
STEP 3: DEFINE YOUR BASE COLOURS
In all living room colour schemes, flooring and wall coverings are vital as they represent the largest area of colour in the room. Adding samples of paint, wallpaper, carpet or wood flooring to your moodboard will help you understand how the colours and textures you’ve chosen will work together.
STEP 4: SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO?
If you’re updating an existing scheme, you need to consider which items are staying and which should go. Decluttering your room before you start will help you pull together a cohesive scheme. If you find an item that’s particularly special to you, you may even decide to build your scheme around it.
Think about whether any existing pieces of furniture could be upcycled too – could a chest of drawers be refreshed with a lick of paint, or perhaps a favourite chair could be given a new lease of life with a stunning upholstery fabric?
STEP 4: PLAN YOUR UPDATE
Once you’ve considered your living room colour ideas and pulled together your moodboard, it’s time to start planning your update. In most rooms, there’s plenty you can do yourself. There are some brilliant tutorials online to help get you started – you’ll get a great deal of satisfaction from completing the tasks yourself and it’s cost-effective too!
