Want to create a cosy, warm and timeless living room? Here’s my must have items to ensure you are on the right track with this free living room design. The best thing about it is that its totally adaptable. Don’t like sage green, but prefer blue? Just swap all the green items to blue so you can carry out the design to your taste and style.
Keeping the colour palette neutral, I would advise a light base paint to all walls. Something like Farrow & Ball skimming stone would be perfect for this. They describe it as a light warm grey and that is exactly what it is, having this to all walls will create the ultimate soothing, calm feel as a base for the room.
Tip - Make sure to paint all your ceilings, skirting, coving etc. in a crisp white to add a strong contrast to make your colour pop and feel fresh.
For the sofas, there's nothing more inviting than the ‘Teddy’ from Sofa.com. It offers deliciously deep seats, scrolled arms and a feather scatter cushion back to sink into at the end of a long day. I’ve opted for the Alpaca, textured boucle fabric for the ultimate snug feel in this design. Want a more opulent look? Go for the Dove Grey velvet fabric instead.
Tip – this sofa comes in a range of sizes from a 2 seat to 4 Seat. Make sure to measure your space accurately before ordering.
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If your room allows for more seating, finish the seating area with a pop of colour, with a sage green fabric in an armchair. My favourite is this matching ‘Teddy’ armchair in this beautiful sage green velvet.
Tip – Make sure to order free fabric samples from sofa.com before ordering to make sure you are happy.
For the flooring in here, I would suggest a warm oak finish and then add a large area rug to contrast from the floor and add warmth. As the other large items like the sofas, paint and flooring are neutral, you can get away with a pattern/colour rug here. This pattern moss green would be perfect, offering a subtle Persian vintage look without being over bearing. It’s a huge 200 x 300cm which will look great In the centre of your seating area.
Now we have our base with paint, flooring and sofas, lets move on to the details.
For a coffee table, my favourite thing to do is use a footstool which doubles up as a coffee table. By using a tray with handles this can easily be lifted on and off and hold items such as coasters for drinks, greenery and books. This round button footstool in a deep grey velvet offers you an elegant feel and it works fab in this dark tone to contrast from the sofa colour to add depth.
This gorgeous sideboard in an ashy oak finish has the most beautiful parquet detail offering both elegance and charm. Its is the perfect statement piece of furniture to add to the room, it has plenty of storage with the 2 x cupboards and 3 x drawers and room for extra decorative items on top such as lamps, vases and candles.
As the sideboard is so stunning, it is important to not over shadow this or jar it with a overly decorative mirror. Let it speak for itself and opt for a subtle plain black round mirror in here. Make sure you go big or go home and go for 100cm wide so that when it is combined with the sideboard, it creates the ultimate wow factor. This one from Dunelm is such a great price – bargain.
My most favourite go to side table is this round bronzed and glass Caprice. I have these in my living room, I love having the shelf underneath for additional décor items.
Now lets talk lighting and accessories – arguably the most important bit. Selecting artwork and décor finishes off the overall look of the room and creates homes/rooms that are individual and polished which capture the personality of those living it. That said, here are my favourite lamps out there at the moment, lighting is so important to set the mood, check out these below.
This beautiful soft patterned Eliza lamp is great for side tables and adds texture with its base.
I love adding oversized lamps to a room to create a statement and this one at 84cm high will do just that– place it on your sideboard to add height and overlap your mirror
Lastly, every room needs a floor lamp – they work best in the corners of the room to fill gaps and add height.
Tip – style around the base of your floor lamps with tall lanterns and baskets to hold throws. This will balance the height difference between the lamp and the flooring and create an eye catching section of styling items grouped together.
Artwork
Feedback from clients is that they always struggle to select artwork, this is where my favourite William Morris quote comes in ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ It’s important that you connect with your artwork, after all it’s going to be hung on your walls staring you in the face every day so it must resonate with you, have meaning or you simply just love it. So how do you make this tie in with everything else in the room? The easiest way to do this would be to select artwork within your colour palette. Here I have small pops of green coming through in the armchair, cushions and rug, so to tie all of these pieces together I have opted for green in the artwork. This helps to balance the colour around the room by adding a splash to the walls, so that the green is evenly distributed around the room without being over bearing.
Tip - If you have found your artwork first, then make sure to base the colour scheme of the room around this as a starting point.
These simple botanical prints are great to suit this soft living room scheme, I would recommend the 50 x 70cm size to sit in a group of 3 over the sofa. Don’t forget to get frames also, you could opt for black or oak frames in this design. I've chosen black for here as it picks up the black lanterns and the base of the floor lamp to add some colour balance.
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Lastly – the cushions!! To add those final details. Cushions are the place to add those final pops of colour, texture and pattern.
One of my all time favourite cushions (and one I have myself) is this Andrew Martin volcano in colourway canvas, I don’t know why I love it so much but it’s that perfect combination of stylish and elegant with a cool pattern and a soft warm tone – plus it has velvet piping for that touch of luxury, super good quality and never loses its shape after a good plump.
I always suggest a 'fur' texture to create that ultimate cosy feel – don’t like faux fur/animal prints? Go for textured plains like boucle, velvets and knits to add a similar warmth.
The sofa is a light tone and therefore to create some contrast, it is important to add our feature colour in the olive green. This completes the room by now balancing the green tone from the armchair to the sofas to the walls and rug so the room has a cohesive flow.
And finally, my go to herringbone throw to add the last bit of texture, perfect for snuggling up on the sofa.
And there you have it, my ultimate cosy living room. I would love to know if you gave it a go – send me a message
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