Living room in bright colors: how to assemble a boring interior (88 photos)

Popular and beloved, but dangerous and risky. All this about the interior in bright colors. This is the case when there are only a couple of steps from a light, airy space to a boring and featureless room. A couple of wrong moves. And in this article we will tell you how not to commit them. And also — how to decorate the design of the living room in bright colors in the apartment, so that it turns out to be multifaceted, interesting and voluminous. And we will show it in the photo.

All about how to decorate a bright living room

Living room design options
— Monochrome
— With the addition of pastel colors
— With bright details
Detailed composition of the palette
— basic tones
— Pastel
— Accent
Decoration Materials
Furniture
Lighting
Decor
Interior styles
— Scandi
— Minimalism
— Wabi Sabi
— Japandi
— Retro

What are the interiors of living rooms in bright colors

monochrome

White on white on white is not quite what they mean by monochrome room design. There really is one main, leading monopoly color. It fills the entire space: walls, floor, ceiling. Grabs furniture. But if you use only one shade, the room will become flat, like a piece of paper. Volume and fullness in monochrome rooms are obtained due to the many halftones and shades.. For example, more pale and dark. Saturated and vice versa, calm, balanced, warm and cold.

Another technique is a mix of textures for finishing walls, floors, ceilings, furniture upholstery, textiles. Smooth surfaces can be alternated with:

• embossed wallpaper;
• plaster panels;

• moldings;

• stucco;
• decorative plaster;

• microcement;

• wood and stone;
• elements from accent fabrics: boucle, jacquard, matting or linen.

Base and pastel colors

This is an option for those who feel uncomfortable in a plain interior, but do not want bright colors either. Introducing a few soft pastels is the safest way to add variety.

Pastel colors are the same blue, red, green, but muted with white, mixed with it. The result is dusty, calm, delicate colors.

Base + bright accents

If you want a holiday, rich colors — you can add accent details to a neutral base and pastel colors.

It is important to keep proportions. Non-professionals can use a simple scheme: 60% is the main color, 30% is an additional color, and only 10% is an accent color.

In the next section, we will take a closer look at the palette for decorating a bright living room interior.

Palette composition: how to distribute colors

Basic colors

These are the ones that form the space, fill it. They occupy the largest area in the room and are the backdrop for furniture, decor, textiles. For the living room, the base color is the color of the walls, ceiling, floor, large pieces of furniture: a sofa, bookcases.

White

In fact, designers rarely use boiled white. If you look closely, you can see a subtle milky, smoky or other of the many existing shades. This avoids the feeling of «sterility».

White is a rather whimsical color. It is often used in spaces where there is little light to add air. But here it is important to know: in dark, poorly lit rooms, it can become grayish. Moreover, white will look different in the morning and in the evening, in winter and in summer. Strongly influences perception and electric light.

But white has a significant plus — it is «omnivorous», combined with absolutely any color. White is the perfect canvas.

Pale gray

Another neutral, achromatic color. It will serve as a good background for furniture and decor.

Over the past few years, it has become so popular that it has competed with the eternal leaders — white, black and beige.

Gray is multifaceted, it can be warm and cold, have different subtle shades: green, blue, brown. It is suitable for sunny, hot rooms, the windows of which face south and southeast. It will help make the space more «cool».

Gray is easily combined with many other colors: yellow, blue, red, green, purple.

Beige

After an overabundance of beige interiors at the beginning of the 2000s, this color has been on the list of anti-trends for a long time. Beige was perceived as synonymous with boredom and monotony. And there is some truth in this. Such an interior can easily become faceless and dreary. Beige requires carefully selected accents. They are necessary to create character, dynamics.

In recent years, designers have returned beige to our houses and apartments. It is especially relevant for eco-interiors, styles that imitate the natural landscape.

In terms of compatibility, beige is more complicated than white and gray. Finding a mate is much more difficult. Different shades will suit different partners. And shades of beige — a dozen or more: ivory, gray-beige, sand, creme brulee.

Warm beige will be good with brown and terracotta. Cold — with shades of blue and green. And both are black.

Pastel colors

Dusty pink, peach, cream, grey-green, pistachio, mint, bleached blue, lavender and other pastel colors can occupy a fairly large area.

Since they are muffled and calm, they will not irritate the eyes. But the base ones will perfectly shade, make the space deeper and more voluminous. In such tones, you can paint sections of the walls, choose a pastel carpet or curtains, a sofa or armchairs.

Bright accents

Decorative pillows, a plaid casually thrown on the arm of a chair, a bright spot in the picture, a vase or a figurine — for all these small but significant details, you can choose a bright color. Or paint one of the pieces of furniture.

It can be:

• Shades of blue: turquoise, sapphire, azure, cobalt and others.
• Terracotta is one of the hottest colors this year. It resembles clay or brick.
• Sunny, energetic yellow. He returned to the interiors.
• Lilac and purple. Their shades have come to the fore thanks to the Pantone Institute and its 2022 Color of the Year.
• Green. Another consistently trendy color. Living rooms in a modern style in light colors can be complemented with elements of emerald, malachite, olive color.

Decoration Materials

Ceiling

In modern interiors, the ceiling is often decorated in a light palette: they choose white or the most pale beige or gray shades.

If the floor slabs are sufficiently even, communications do not pass through them, they are simply plastered or painted. In other cases, you can sheathe the ceiling with drywall and only then apply finishing materials. For apartments in eco-, country-style and Provence, wood is often used for ceiling sheathing: lining, imitation timber, plywood.

If you want to carry out the work as quickly as possible and without unnecessary dirt, you can stop at the stretch ceiling. Preferably a matte solid color finish. Solutions with a shadow adjoining, as well as a seamless joint, look interesting.

Walls

The most inexpensive option is to wallpaper them. Today you can find options with the texture of wood, concrete, stone, plaster, or just a plain plain coating. In some cases, a discreet and unobtrusive pattern will look organic. For example, vegetable or geometric.

One of the most popular ways to decorate walls is paint. More often choose a matte monochromatic coating of basic shades.

You can use decorative plaster, microcement. These are already more expensive materials. An interesting and rarer solution is draping the walls with fabric.

Floor

The choice of materials for the floor is limited only by the imagination of the customer, the designer and, of course, the budget.

The most affordable is linoleum. Now it is not used as often as it used to be, but if funds are limited, this option can be considered. Moreover, the choice of textures and patterns has expanded significantly in recent years. And the quality has improved.

In the category a class above — laminate, quartz vinyl and porcelain stoneware. The first two tactilely resemble a tree. The latter can imitate it only outwardly. But porcelain stoneware is considered a more natural coating.

Among the expensive solutions: engineering board and parquet. They are chosen by connoisseurs of natural materials.

As for the color, it does not have to be white or very light. Natural wood shades, as well as shades of natural stone, look harmonious.

Furniture in bright interiors

Furniture can sound in unison with the rest of the space, complement a single palette. Or maybe accent, characteristic.

In the living room, the dominant is the sofa group. It includes not only the sofa itself, but also the armchairs adjacent to it, ottomans, and a coffee table. In monochrome interiors, they set the rhythm due to interesting shapes and textured upholstery. Another interesting technique is to add one vintage item to modern items. If the interior of the living room is built on contrasts, one or more pieces of furniture can become bright spots on a neutral background.

Lighting

This is what creates volume and relief. Surprisingly, but in bright rooms it is no less important than in dark ones.

It is important to create several light scenarios at once.

1. The general, main light is the brightest, covers the entire room.
2. Working — for reading, a desk, if there is no office.
3. Decorative — for highlighting niches, textures of wall decoration, decor items, ceiling decoration.

Decor

A harmonious and almost always a good solution for decorating light walls is paintings and posters.

It can be both individual works and whole compositions assembled from several canvases.

You can easily and quickly transform a room with the help of textiles: curtains, tulle, decorative pillows, carpets, rugs can both continue a single palette in monochrome solutions, and act as contrasting details. The beauty of textiles is that they can be changed every season. For example, to collect different kits for summer and winter.

Well, and, of course, the interior comes to life thanks to the talking little things: vases with or without flowers, candles, figurines, decorative figures, mirrors — all this tells about the character, views, passions of the owners of the apartment.

Bright living room in different styles

Scandinavian style

White, beige, pale gray are the basis of Scandi. Features of this style: simplicity of lines, restraint, fullness of space with light, practicality, functionality. White walls, floor, ceiling, furniture — a classic version of Scandi.

Minimalism

Minimalism and white or pale gray colors are inseparable. As a rule, in this style for living room design, light solutions are ideal. And if they still build space on contrasts, then they prefer a combination of neutral tones and deep black or graphite.

Wabi Sabi

This is a special Japanese philosophy. As applied to interior design, it dictates maximum simplicity, modesty and unity with nature, close to asceticism. Grayish, beige shades, natural shapes and textures emphasize the sustainability of this style in the best possible way.

Japandi

Another fashionable phenomenon of recent years. And also associated with Japanese aesthetics. But formed at its intersection with the Scandinavian style. A minimum of decor, functionality, restraint, dislike for bright and loud accents, tolerance for slight imperfection — all this is about japandi. Natural shades, including light colors, are the base for it.

Retro style

Aesthetics of the 50s, 60s. Energy of the 70s. Return to the freedom-loving 80s and 90s. Recently, designers have repeatedly turned to the trends of past years, returning long-forgotten fragments to modern homes. And this trend continues. A light palette is a good background for experiments and the implementation of bold ideas.