Living Room Color Ideas: Which Paint to Pick

Though you’re seeing each recommended paint color as it looks in one room, the way it will look in your room depends on everything from your lighting sources and the time of day you’re viewing it to the colors of materials you arrange around it and the finish you choose. That’s why it’s crucial to dip your toe in a new tone: Buy a sample pot and apply it to a poster board that you can eyeball in different corners of your space before splashing out on a full transformation. Read more pros’ painting pointers below.

Deeper than off-white but more delicate than a robin’s egg, this bare hint of blue is practically a reflection rather than a color. It’s a fantastically subtle way to set the stage for deeper tones in textiles and accessories, and a feather-light way to introduce coastal style.

Try This Shade: Borrowed Light, Farrow & Ball

Paired with an abstract painting and area rug in similar tones, the dazzling sapphire on these walls is both serene and substantial enough to counterbalance an extremely vivid sectional. This tone highlights molding and lets the trio of matted drawings mounted on the wall leap to the foreground.

Try This Shade: Deep Ocean, Benjamin Moore

If the night sky inspires you, consider how this galactic almost-black becomes the star of the room when it envelops one wall and its cabinetry. Note that we said almost-black: To land this look, use paint with just a hint of blue to add dimension and dramatize details.

Try This Shade: Black Blue, Farrow & Ball