I Asked 3 Designers Their Favorite Living Room Paint Color — and One Answer Surprised Me
Whether you call it the parlor or the family room, one thing’s for sure: The living room is one of the most crucial spaces of any home. While other rooms are dictated by the essentials — yes, you do need an oven in the kitchen and a toilet in the bathroom — how you decorate your living room is entirely up to you. You can make a television the focal point of your living room — or don’t! Invest in a spacious sectional or opt for a few crowd-controlling armchairs — the sky’s the limit.
Although you can put whatever you want in your living room, a fresh coat of paint always manages to get the vibe just right. But with so many options, where do you even begin the search?
To save you some superfluous paint swatches, three designers share their go-to colors — and their picks are interesting. Neutrals might remain the status quo for this common space, but one designer proves that a bolder hue can give your space a jolt of energy. If you’re feeling inundated with options, this is a good place to start.
Light Gray
Living rooms are the ultimate entertaining room, and what better palette for parties, movie marathons, and intimate conversations than neutrals? That’s why Janelle B. Photopoulos of Blakely Interior Design calls Benjamin Moore’s Shoreline one of her favorite living room paint colors.
“This neutral light gray leans just a hint warm, which keeps your living room from feeling too stark,” the designer explains. “With a light reflectance value (LRV) of 68, it’s light enough to keep the room bright and airy, but has enough saturation to feel like a color versus a version of white, and lets the room decor take center stage.”
That said, a neutral room doesn’t have to be boring. In this Narragansett home, she offset the goes-with-anything gray with a pair of cobalt blue bookshelves, which act as an exclamation point to the easy, breezy space.
Bold Blue
Speaking of cobalt, designer Breegan Jane says Benjamin Moore’s Bold Blue is on her shortlist of color obsessions. “I feel drawn to deep, jewel tones that are grounding and have an earthy connection,” she explains. “Bold Blue has a nature-like quality that feels intensely oceanic.”
Another thing to love? Jane says it has the perfect undertones — “not too cool, and not too warm.” Though Bold Blue can create a particularly glamorous vibe in a smaller living area, it can also work in a bevy of spaces. In fact, Jane shares that she added this color to her son’s bedroom in her new beach house. She says: “I love to paint colors with immersive characteristics, and this one was ideal for the space!”
A Crisp White
Shaolin Low loves white living rooms and she doesn’t care who knows it. Though finding the right white to suit a space can sometimes be agonizing, the designer says that Sherwin Williams’s Alabasterhas “never failed” her — and she uses it in a lot of projects.
The magic behind this power pigment, Low says, is its enduring versatility. “It can be used in rooms with no light, rooms with tons of light, and so on,” she explains. “It’s the perfect color that is creamy enough to feel inviting and warm, but white enough to feel clean and modern.”