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Choosing colours for a living room

A living room colour is chosen on three things: its aspect, which sets the temperature of the light; the hour you live in it, which decides whether the colour has to be beautiful at noon or by lamplight; and what is already there — the sofa, the floor, the fireplace — which the paint must serve, not compete with. A north-facing living room wants a warm neutral or a deep colour worn with conviction; a south-facing one takes grey-greens and fresh whites; an evening room is painted for the lamp, in mid or deep tones. Walls in Marble Matt Emulsion, woodwork one step deeper in Eggshell, and never pure white on the ceiling.

Page updated September 2026 · by the Mylands France colour team

Living room with matt warm taupe-grey walls, woodwork and fireplace one step deeper, natural linen sofa, oak floor, lamp lit, late afternoon — Egyptian Grey No.154 in Marble Matt Emulsion: the warm neutral that holds from morning to evening

Understanding

Three questions before the colour card

Where is the window? To the north, the light is cool and steady: whites turn blue, greys turn dreary; you need warm neutrals (stone, linen, taupe) or a deep colour that owns the half-light. To the south, the light is warm and strong: it warms everything, and grey-greens, blues and fresh whites are at home there. To the east, the morning is golden and the afternoon cool; to the west, the reverse — the colour has to be chosen for the hour you are there. The detail: How light affects colour, and our guides by aspect — north, south, west.

When are you there? A family living room lives by day; the living room of adults who work lives in the evening, by lamplight — and by lamplight a light colour turns yellow and flat, while a mid or deep tone turns warm and enveloping. What is already there? The sofa, the floor, a rug, a stone fireplace: the wall colour serves them. An oak floor calls for greens, blues, warm stones — Colours with an oak floor; a coloured sofa calls for neutral walls; a white marble fireplace calls for a wall that sets it off.

Six palettes

Six living room palettes, by light and by hour

For each: the walls, the woodwork (skirting, doors, frames), the ceiling, and the aspect that suits it. Walls in Marble Matt Emulsion, woodwork in Eggshell.

The warm neutral: any room, any hour

A warm taupe-grey on the walls, one step deeper on the woodwork, a warm white on the ceiling: the living room that goes with a coloured sofa, a wooden floor, a fireplace, from morning to evening. North, east, west.

Walls · Egyptian Grey No.154 Woodwork · Amber Grey No.156 Ceiling · Holland Park No.5

The grey-green: the south-facing room

A tender grey-green on the walls, the same family deeper on the woodwork: south light warms it without yellowing it. With oak, linen, rattan.

Walls · Beauvais No.195 Woodwork · Serpentine No.192 Ceiling · St Clement No.11

Linen and stone: the bright north-facing room

A warm linen white on the walls, a stone on the woodwork: the north-facing room you want light without turning blue. See Warm whites for a dark room.

Walls · St Martins No.37 Woodwork · Cadogan Stone No.59 Ceiling · Holland Park No.5

The deep green: the evening room

A bottle green on walls, woodwork and ceiling — drenched — for a living room lived in by lamplight: at noon it is dark, at 9 pm it is at its best. North or west.

Walls & woodwork · Pleasure Gardens Green No.214 Or ceiling · Hurlingham No.181

The blue-grey: the town living room

A mid blue-grey on the walls, off-white on the mouldings and woodwork: the Haussmann drawing room, or any room that wants its poise. South, east.

Walls · Long Acre No.102 Woodwork & ceiling · Charterhouse No.4

The earth pink: the warm room

A muted pink-beige on the walls, a deep brown-pink on the woodwork: the warmth of a lime render, with velvet and brass. North, west, evening.

Walls · Threadneedle No.262 Woodwork · Rothschild Street No.296 Ceiling · Kensington Rose No.22

Evening living room with matt bottle-green walls, woodwork and ceiling, lamps lit, ochre velvet sofa, bookcase, curtains drawn — Pleasure Gardens Green No.214 drenched: dark at noon, the finest living room at 9 pm

By aspect

Which family of colours for which living room

Aspect	The light	What works	What fails
North	Cool, bluish, steady all day	Warm neutrals (linen, stone, taupe), earth pinks, deep greens worn with conviction	Pure white, cold grey, pale blue: dreary
South	Warm, strong, yellows in the afternoon	Grey-greens, blues, fresh whites, cool neutrals	Yellows and ochres: too much, in summer
East	Golden in the morning, cool in the afternoon	Warm mid tones if you are there in the afternoon; cool if the morning	A colour chosen at 9 am only
West	Cool in the morning, golden and red in the evening	Warm neutrals, greens, blue-grey; the deeps for the evening	Pink and orange: garish at 7 pm
Two aspects	Changes side with the hour	A warm neutral that absorbs both, or a mid tone	Two colours, one per wall

Always test on two A4 boards moved from wall to wall, looked at three times a day and by lamplight — How to test a paint colour.

The finish

Walls, woodwork, ceiling: which finish in a living room

The walls

Marble Matt Emulsion: matt, deep, class 1 washable. Matt absorbs the light and gives the colour its depth; it is the living room finish. A satin on a living room wall shows every flaw.

The woodwork

Multi-Surface Eggshell, in the same family as the walls but one step deeper, or in the same tone to make the skirting disappear. See 8 wall and skirting board colour combinations.

The ceiling

The companion white of the wall colour, never a pure white, which goes grey. Or the wall colour lightened, or the wall colour itself under 2.5 m. See Which white for a ceiling.

To avoid

What makes a living room dreary

Pure white, everywhere. To the north it is blue, to the south it dazzles, in the evening it is yellow; a warm off-white, at least.
Cold grey to the north. The living room becomes a waiting room; a warm grey, a taupe, or a colour.
The lone accent wall. One dark wall and three white ones: the room has a hole in it. Colour on all four walls, or on the woodwork and the sofa wall.
Choosing the colour for noon when you live there in the evening. By lamplight, the light shade goes flat; a mid or deep tone.
The sofa's colour on the walls. It disappears; the walls serve it, in a neighbouring family or a neutral.
Satin on the walls. Every join, every flaw; matt.

Bright south-facing living room with matt tender grey-green walls, deeper grey-green woodwork, linen sofa, rattan armchair, pale oak floor, large window — Beauvais No.195 and Serpentine No.192 woodwork: the grey-green that south light warms without yellowing

Frequently asked questions

Your questions, our answers

What is the safest colour for a living room?

A warm mid-tone neutral — a taupe-grey like Egyptian Grey, a stone like Cadogan Stone — with the woodwork one step deeper. It goes with everything already there, holds from morning to evening, and ages well. See Neutrals for a living room.

Can a living room be painted a dark colour?

Yes, and it is often the finest living room, if you live in it in the evening: the dark colour on all four walls, the woodwork and the ceiling, never on one wall alone. At noon it will be dark; by lamplight it will be enveloping. See Colour drenching.

Living and dining in one room: one colour or two?

One on the walls, so the room stays a room; the dining end is marked by the ceiling, one step deeper above the table, or by the woodwork. See Double drenching for different rooms.

Which colour with a grey sofa?

Not a grey: a grey-green, an earth pink, a blue-grey, or a warm stone, so the sofa stops being grey and becomes a neutral. Mid-tone walls bring it forward; an off-white leaves it floating.

And a living room with a high ceiling?

It has its own page: Living room with high ceilings — the ceiling in colour, the mouldings in the wall tone, and the big surfaces that are not afraid of deep tones.