Best Spring Colors for Your Living Room

Your living room is an expression of your style and warmth towards your guests. In many homes, the living room also serves as the family room or an entertainment room. Coordinated decoration along with appropriate wall colors can make the room cozy and lively. With spring round the corner, if you plan to give your living room a new look, here are some tips on paint colors that capture the spirit of the season.

Brands such as Sherwin-Williams, Behr, Benjamin Moore, etc. offer a wide variety of wall paint colors. Select an odor-free or VOC (Volatile organic compounds) free paint for an environment-friendly living room with good air quality. Depending on your taste, you can also choose from several wall finishes such as matte, satin, glossy, egg-shell, etc. A gallon of paint costs typically about $30-$70.

Spring spreads colors and brightness around. To keep this influence, your living room paint colors must bring Mother Nature home! Use lively colors that give the room a warm look. For a big living room with high ceilings, use medium to dark colors to give it a cozy appearance. For a small room, use light shades. If you have a mirror on one wall, avoid pale colors and dark shades on the wall opposite to it. You can also apply sponging, ragging, combing and crackling effects to your walls depending on the ambience you like to create.

Blues, greens and violets give a soothing effect while reds, oranges and yellows are warm colors. Before you select your living room paint colors, take into account the amount and direction of lighting (from both natural sources and from lighting-fixtures) in the room. Using a darker shade on shorter walls makes your room appear more spacious. Emphasize features (such as decorative crown-molding or trim) using contrasting colors. When used over a large surface such as a wall or a ceiling, colors appear darker than they actually are; so try out your shades in a small area before you decide to paint your whole room.

Here are some paint color suggestions to dress your living room this spring.

Bring the clear blue sky of spring with Sherwin-Williams 6786-Cloudless on one wall and contrast it with a lighter shade like Sherwin-Williams 7134-Tibetian Sky on the other walls.

For a regal look, try Sherwin-Williams 6691-Gliltzy Gold. Use a monotone if your room is large. Else contrast the golden color with a shade of white like Sherwin-Williams 6042-Hush White.

For a bright and spirited look, try a shade like Sherwin-Williams 6921-Electric Lime.

These colors can be viewed on a color visualizer on Sherwin-William's website.

For a gentle and fresh feeling, try Behr's 260C series of colors - Fresh Peaches, Autumn White and Salmon Creek.

Behr's 4708-6 Emerald Lake is a rich green color perfect for spring. It goes well with a neutral shade.

Behr also provides a color tool for your convenience.

Use a bright shade of red like Benjamin Moore's 2002-10 Vermilion with neutral creams or whites to give your living room a bold décor.

For more Benjamin Moore paint colors, check their color selector.

Remember to select your accents, furniture and upholstery to blend into the decor of your living room.