Living room colour schemes: seven palettes from one first meeting

Every project we run starts on a table, not a screen. Before anyone sees a moodboard, we pull physical samples, lay them out on marble and photograph them in daylight. Fabric, wallcovering, timber, a bit of brass. That’s a scheme, and it’s how every one of our living room colour schemes starts.

We rarely send one. On a recent family home in London we sent seven colour schemes for its two living rooms and bedrooms, in two rounds, with a long inspiration meeting in between. Here’s what that meeting told us, and the schemes that came out of it. (For finished rooms, see our Kensington townhouse.)

What the first meeting told us

The first round of samples went out before we’d sat down properly. Then we spent an hour going room by room. Most of what decides a scheme isn’t colour at all. It’s how the room is used and what the client won’t live with.

• Every room gets its own palette. Neutral backgrounds throughout, so the house still hangs together.
• Two living rooms, two moods. The formal sitting room balances neutrals with colour. The family room is where the colour really goes.
• No plain off-white sheers. Coloured or patterned sheers only. It’s a small thing that changes how every room reads in daylight.
• Velvet, but only in small doses. Curtains and cushions yes, a full velvet sofa no.
• At least one patterned armchair next to plain, colourful seating.
• Glass, not mirror. A glass-topped coffee table, because mirrored surfaces show every fingerprint.
• Dining chairs that wipe clean. Patterned fabric with no trim, or coloured leather.
• Comfortable doesn’t mean deep. And no sofa gets ordered until the client has sat on it.

None of that shows up on a moodboard. All of it decides which fabrics make the cut. Schemes 1 to 4 went out before the meeting. Schemes 5 to 7 were built from it.

1. Terracotta and brass

A rust and white leaf print does the talking. Behind it, oatmeal linen, an ivory herringbone and a monochrome print with flecks of mustard. Dark mahogany and an aged brass knob keep it grown up. A thin teal trim stops it going too sweet.

Terracotta has been creeping back for a couple of years. This is how to use it without the room turning orange: one pattern, lots of texture, nothing else competing.

2. Ink and plaster

The moodiest of the seven. Black textured wallcovering, an ink-blue fan pattern, a deep teal weave and a sculpted plaster-white paper from Phillip Jeffries. Tassels in ivory, copper, taupe and slate pull the whole range together.

Dark schemes need contrast to breathe. Here it’s the white relief paper doing that job, not a white wall.

3. Champagne and ochre

Soft and warm. A blush damask, camel and cream weaves, and a glossy ochre panel that reads almost like gold leaf. Dark timber and antique brass anchor it.

This is the one for people who say they want neutral but are bored of grey. Every colour is warm, so nothing looks cold in north light.

4. Mustard, quietly

A graphic chain print in black, white and mustard, set against oatmeal linen and an ivory bouclé. Walnut and brass again.

The pattern is busy. Everything around it isn’t. That’s the rule: one loud thing per scheme.

5. Tobacco, rust and teal

The first of the second round, built once we knew the family room should be the vibrant one. A tobacco and gold herringbone geometric leads, with a rust zebra-stripe wallcovering, teal and brick-red weaves, a multicoloured tweed and flax grasscloth underneath.

This is a lot of colour. It works because the reds, browns and golds are all the same temperature, with teal as the one cool note.

6. Midnight and gold

Navy leather, a black and gold brushstroke print, a denim-blue jacquard and an ochre linen, all sitting on a glittering textured wallcovering. A cream sculpted weave and a dark timber sample calm it down.

Navy and gold is classic for a reason. The texture is what stops it feeling like a hotel bar.

7. Duck egg and tortoiseshell

The lightest of the darker schemes. A duck-egg velvet with a copper patina, a woven wallcovering, a soft feather print, mahogany, and glass knobs in green, teal and amber.

The glass hardware is the detail people notice. It picks up every colour in the scheme without adding a new one.

How to choose a living room colour scheme

Because “I like warm colours” means something different to everyone. Samples settle it in minutes. Pick one loud thing, keep everything else the same temperature, and look at it in daylight before you commit.

On this project the client picked a direction for the family living room straight away. For the main guest bedroom, nothing landed. That’s not a failed round. It told us exactly where to look next, and the second set of schemes came from that conversation.

A scheme the client rejects is still doing its job. It’s cheaper to find out on a table than on a wall.

If one of these is close to what you’ve been picturing for your own home, tell us which number. It’s a good place to start, and you can read more about how our London interior design studio works.