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Blue living room ideas: how to decorate with this timeless shade
Ask a random selection of people what their favourite colour is, and we'd bet a good deal that blue will come out on top. There are countless shades of blue, from the gentlest pale hues to deep, rich teal and navy. It's a wonderful shade to decorate with, offering something for every aspect and light level. Light-filled rooms will do well with paler shades (and we particularly love sky-blue at the moment), while darker rooms can come to life with warmer, more jewel-like tones. Don't imagine that blue is too cold a colour to use in your decoration – sure, some hues can veer a little icy in certain lights, but they can also easily be warmed up by the other colours in the room. Many of the interior designers on our pages pair blue paint with pink, red and orange fabrics and accessories, while the combination of blue and brown is a tried and tested one we love. Scroll on for the best blue living room ideas in our archive.
Blue living room ideas from the House & Garden archive
Christopher Horwood1/13The first floor living room walls of this 18th-century Huguenot house are in the same blue that they were when the owner bought the house in 2019, because they work so well (how we wish we knew the exact shade!). The Howard-style sofa is the perfect foil for the walls: it was made bespoke by Larsen Oliver and is upholstered in an antique Anatolian textile in black, red and white stripes. It's a colour scheme we're dying to copy.
Boz Gagovski2/13Teal is one of our favourite shades right now, and we love how Brandon Schubert has used it with orange and pink upholstery in this 16th-century Wiltshire cottage. The walls are painted in “Tea with Florence” from Little Greene, which contrasts beautifully with the ottoman, covered in ‘Demetra’ from Susan Deliss, and the ochre ‘Rooksmore’ velvet from Lewis and Wood on the sofa.
Paul Massey3/13Rich teals can be a wonderfully enveloping colour, and particularly when they're used on walls and the ceiling. In this colour-packed riverside house by Nicola Harding, the sitting room walls and ceiling have been treated in ‘Atria’ by Pure & Original. The deep, rich colour makes a perfect backdrop for the knotted hemp rug from Vanderhurd and contrasting Howe London sofas in Prelle’s ‘Toile Barbare’ fabric.
© Rachael Smith Photography Ltd4/13Sky blue is another lovely shade for a living room, preferably one where you have plenty of light. In this Norfolk cottage designed by Anna Haines, walls in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Porcelain V’, are warmed up by a variety of more richly-coloured pieces, including an ottoman in Robert Kime’s ‘Caspian’ cotton, a kilim from London House Rugs and slipper chairs in Rose Uniacke cotton velvet in cedar.
Dean Hearne5/13A similar colour scheme appears in Tom Cox of HÀM Interiors' Devon farmhouse, where he has used Farrow & Ball's ‘Oval Room Blue’ on the walls, which picks up on the blue of the delft tiles around the fireplace. Pink and terracotta tones again make the perfect contrast, this time in the shape of an antique reconditioned sofa covered in a stripe by Mulberry Home.
Christoper Horwood6/13The pantheon of blue living rooms would certainly not be complete without Lucy Williams' brilliant west London house, which launched a thousand copycat colour schemes. Painted in the archive Farrow & Ball shade ‘Yonder’, the walls are marvellously striking, and we adore the use of rich tan shades to warm up the scheme.
Boz Gagovski7/13If bright blue and tan make for a delightful colour combination, then the darker version in navy blue and orange, is just as effective. Lucy Mayers used the latter for the sitting room of her tiny London flat, painting the walls in ‘Oxford Blue' by Papers & Paints, and making the curtains up in a plain orange linen from Volga Linen.
Astrid Templier8/13While we're huge fans of contrasting blue with warmer colours, it can be rather stylish to go more tonal, and layer blues, or use green with blue. Designer Pandora Taylor has gone for cool, milky shades of blue and green in the living room of this Herne Hill house, and when combined with pretty details such as the floral curtains and ruffled sofa, it feels completely charming. The paints are ‘Parma Gray’ and ‘Calke Green’, both Farrow & Ball.
Lucas Allen9/13Interior designer Joanne Burgess of The Curious House has been particularly clever with colour in her Henley-on-Thames home. Here she has painted the windows in the sitting room, with their deep reveals, in a glossy green shade (Farrow & Ball's ‘Bancha’) to set them apart from the walls. This makes features of the window seats, which have smart cushions in contrasting upholstery.
Paul Whitbread10/13With its gentle blue-on-blue colour scheme, the drawing room of this Georgian flat in Marylebone, decorated by Anna Haines, feels like it walks a perfect line between modern and traditional. The colour is Atelier Ellis's ‘Double Smoked Green Blue’ – and it provides, as Anna says, a beautiful backdrop to a selection of artwork.
Michael Sinclair11/13The stormy grey-blue of the ceiling in this London house by Rachel Chudley provides another great example of how well this shade pairs with orange, in the form of hand-dyed curtains by Lucy Bathurst. Rachel has added a bespoke sofa upholstered in teal velvet, and papered the walls in 'Verdure’ wallpaper in tapestry green by Melissa White for Zoffany.
Paul Massey12/13Blue and pinky-red is another combination we don't tire of easily. In this 17th-century house by Nicola Harding, the sitting room is painted in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Constantia Blue’, a fresh contrast with cabinetry in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Crimson Red’.
Paul Massey13/13A final clever colour combination from Nicola Harding, who has used a favourite pairing of blue and brown on the walls of this elegant 18th-century house in Bath. Farrow & Ball’s ‘Stone Blue’ was used on the ceiling of this basement room and carried down to create a false cornice above the ‘Tanner’s Brown’ walls. The same blue was used on the woodwork, providing a contrast with the red ‘Basset Sofa’ from Howe and the green antique Swedish rug.
