Cost-effective color ideas for lovely family living rooms

1. Embrace color blocking

Can’t afford to paint the whole room? Try a bit of carefully planned color blocking instead. You could, for example, paint one color on the wall behind your sofa, then pick a tonal color for the walls around your windows and another for any alcoves in the room. Varying shades of coral work really well for this.

Which colors?

C6.22.61 / 30YR 41/263
D8.12.43 / 80YR 21/118
ZN.02.73 / 70RR 55/044

2. Paint doors in contrasting colors

This is a fun way to inject a bit of vibrancy into a plain white room. Go for bold colors for your door then paint the doorframe in a complementary color – for example, a red door with a coral frame, or an indigo frame with a yellow door.

Kids will love the bright colors and costs are kept low because you don’t have much surface area to cover.

Which colors?

B6.51.30 / 98RR 12/480
X7.04.82 / 79RB 76/076
FN.01.85 / 40YY 83/026

3. Focus on your frames

If you have your heart set on a particular color but can’t stretch to using it on your walls, you can create an equally striking effect by painting your window and doorframes instead. Go for a darker shade on your frames than on your walls and you’ll have the added bonus of making your room feel larger.

Which colors?

N1.06.61 / 50GG 40/064
T3.04.12 / 30BB 05/022
QN.02.82 / 72BG 75/023
B5.05.52 / 10YR 28/072

4.  Brighten up your bookshelves

If you have built-in bookcases or floating shelves, make them a focus in the room with a bit of paint. For instance, you could paint each shelf in a different color for a playful, rainbow effect, or choose bright colors that will help the shelf pop out. Complete the look by color-coding your books.

Which colors?

E4.05.45 / 30YY 22/059
G2.58.80 / 54YY 69/747
ON.00.90 / 81YR 85/004

Top tip:

Satin paint will work best for painting shelves, wooden doors and frames.

5.  Go for happy huses