What colour for walls, ceilings and doors for a living room with dark wood coloured furniture?

Question

The room is north facing, and doesnt get alot of light.
The furniture in the room includes dark wood units and 2 chocolate coloured leather sofas.
There is quite alot of green in the form of houseplants.

It's basically a square room with a window on the wall opposite the fireplace. The wall with the fireplace has two alcoves either side of the chimney breast.

I'm looking for a warm, rich, inviting room, and I have absolutely no idea.

Answer 1

Without a doubt, gold is your color. It is very warm, so it will complement the dark furniture. You can sponge paint it, which will it give it some texture, this will make the room look a little larger and more unique. Using a neutral color like gold, you can add accents like vases and lamps in any color. In a room with little natural light, the little that you do get will 'shine' when it hits the gold walls, making the room a little brighter. I would do the ceiling in gold, a shade lighter than the walls. It will make the ceiling seem a little higher. Whatever you do, do not use a dark color on the ceiling!!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Don't go any darker than beige in that colour family, with all of that dark wood, or it will come out looking like a museum, but you said you wanted warm colours. Remember that the colour always appears darker than what it looks like in the can, after it is painted, so go down a shade from the one you like. Cream would probably look really good. Stay away from gloss or semi-gloss paint. White ceiling for sure. Try to open up the windows with sheers and drapes drawn during the day. Or even leave the windows uncovered if you don't have nosey neighbours and if it doesn't face a well-travelled area. For a bit of colour, I would try doing the smallest wall in an accent colour like burgundy. It would co-ordinate with the room and furnishings and break up the beige. Match the accent to something else of the same in the room, such as some throw pillows on the sofas. You can't just have a different colour sitting there starkly without something else in the same room in that colour, even if it is a small item. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

I used to have a hard time with this too because I absolutely the look of dark walnut and cherry stained woods! You could try using accents of white or lighter yellows to brighten things up so it won't look as dreary- you don't need a lot really. Maybe a vase of white flowers here or there, or white picture frames, ceramic decoratives or what not. Mirrors and good lighting also works wonders! The light will bounce off the mirrors making it appear brighter and the room seem larger than what it is. You don't have to have plain mirrors on every wall either - there are lots of great artworks and such with reflective "mirror" backgrounds that you can find inexpensively. Also can try fluorescent lighting fixtures - so this way you can add more lighting into the room than from conventional bulbs, without skyrocketing your electric bill. (Might be a little bit of an investment at first for the new fixtures, but is also a nice environmentally friendly move as well that you could feel good about!)

Answer 5

Flooring: Wooden flooring - much lighter than your furniture OR tiled flooring will be great. The place will look bigger.
Walls: If your room doesn't get a lot of light, keep the walls light in color also. It doesn't have to be the lightest in the color you choose. For example: if you are choosing yellow on a paint shade card, pick one shade that's darker than the lightest in the family, which will invariably be a friendly appealing light yellow. Paint the alcoves a shade darker than the walls. Put in beautiful display pieces there. Example: native american pottery or anything nice and dramatic you may already have. Ceiling remains white.
Window:
Curtain rods: Iron rods in bronze or black OR wooden rods in the closest color of your furniture.
The drapes/curtains: Bold reds with gold or bronze colored tie back cords since you have dark wood furniture and chocolate colored leather sofas. Red is a warm color and will always compliment dark furniture and I personally think it's a passionate inviting color. If you don't like red for any reason, try autumn shades of orange.
Doors: If wooden or masonite, dark brown color, close to your wood furniture color, with beauitiful grooves/skin.
Plants: Keep in the green plants, but not too many to resemble a courtyard or balcony with potted plants.
More ideas: Throw in a light weight silk comforter on the back of the sofa OR have the softest cushions/throw pillows (as many as you want) with covers of warm rich colors (if you can find them with gold colored fabric edges or interwoven with the color, it makes it better). Brocades and silks are fabulous. Since your sofas are chocolate, I will pick RED yet again.
Hope all of the above helps. Have a good time redecorating and finding pleasure in it. Ultimately the end result should be what appeals to you :-)

Answer 6

off-white walls and ceiling with a creamy or very light yellow coloured paint for the wood-work (i.e. doors, doorframes, windowsills, etc). If the room is big, all off-white walls can still be quite stark even with the dark furniture, so I'd go with textured walls, for some reason this looks much more inviting in a large room.

Another combi that could work, I think (depending on how big the room and the furtinture is), is a very light cream colour for your walls and light cafe-au-lait colour for the wood-work.

Answer 7

Since the wood is dark, off white or cream, beige, honey, are all warm colors for walls. White always for ceilings.

Furniture: If you like a splash of color, you can try putting in sober colored furniture with a touch of red, or royal blue.

The best way is to take sample materials and place it in the room. The lighting also makes a difference.

GoodLuck!

Answer 8

Since the room doesnot get enough light choose light shades which will go well with the color of your furniture for example lemon yellow. The wall of the fireplace can be painted with some shades of red.

Answer 9

may be this can help. Go for bright colors for the walls. Bright here means clear and soft like creamy white, pantine white or just plain white with a border line running across matching your sofa color. By having a bright background, your furniture will shine out and will bring out the 'wow' factor to your room. You may want to throw a carpet which is lite in color matching your chimney wall.

Answer 10

i would say a peach, cream, blush color-maybe a pink the shade of a ligght to a med. rose in shade. also, try to put the thicker kind of crownmolding to the room to givei t dimension and height!