Living room ideas and inspiration

The living room is designed for friends and family to gather and spend time. For this public space, the best paint colour is one that fits the mood or atmosphere you want to create.

The main living area of your house is where you establish your signature style. Relaxed and casual? Modern and polished? Steeped in comforting tradition? No matter what your look, the perfect paint colour will underscore it. For help in choosing the best colours for your living room, use our designer-selected colour combinations that appear on every colour page to find one that fits your decorating personality.

Our tips for choosing a living scheme

Shifting into Neutral

Neutral colours are natural colour choices for a living area. Often living rooms and family rooms are open to other areas of the house so a great neutral can enable the use of colour in adjoining spaces. Picking the best neutral paint colour is a matter of style: warm shades tend to be inviting and cozy while hues with cool undertones have a chic, modern vibe. And don't consider white a colour cop-out - selecting from the vast variety of white hues creates a blank canvas for favourite art and furnishings.

A Case for Colour

If most of the big-ticket elements in your living area are neutral carpet, flooring and fabrics - the right paint colour can add dimension and interest. It helps to use our US pint size Colour Samples to see how the colour looks on different walls and also throughout the day.

Beyond the Pale

When you want to add design drama with bold colour but don't want the hue to overpower your space, paint an accent wall. Choose a wall in the room that makes sense as a focal point, such a fireplace wall. Select a colour that can be tied to the overall space with fabrics, area rugs, and accessories. The remaining walls can be painted in a lighter version of the accent colour, or select a neutral with an undertone that complements the accent wall.

See the Light

The amount of light your living room gets impacts colour. A room flooded with sunlight can handle more saturated colour, but pale shades tend to get washed out. Cool colours counter strong sunlight, but north-facing rooms feel cosier when wrapped in a warm colour. Choose Benjamin Moore Aura® paint in a matte finish to ease the reflections in a room with strong natural light, or for a soft effect in rooms where natural light is minimal.