9 Ways to Decorate a Living Room With Warm Colors
Get ready to cozy up and unwind.
Warm colors remind us of sunlight, sand, fire, and heat. Decorating with warm colors can create an especially cozy atmosphere. We gravitate toward a living room with warm hues because it creates a peaceful place to unwind and a relaxing space to catch up with friends. Keep reading below for a few of our favorite ways to decorate a living room with warm colors.
1. Indulge in Warm Colors & Soft Materials
The easiest way to add warmth to the living room is by swapping out the largest piece of furniture for something warm and soft. Choose a sofa in a warm color like rust orange, mustard yellow, or cranberry red. Because it is the largest piece of furniture, it will immediately uplift your space with extra warmth. Opt for a sofa that's made from a soft material like velvet, suede, or linen to maximize that fuzzy and calming feeling.
Living rooms with warm colors need a few neutral pieces to keep the room grounded. Choose a color scheme of creamy white hues rather than whites with bluish undertones so the living room still feels warm. We suggest a couple of ivory accent chairs or a beige ottoman. We love the nature-inspired chairs and stools featured above, because the warm-toned wood adds extra warmth to the creamy whites.
When decorating a living room with warm colors, it's always a good idea to consider the 20/80 rule. Choose the richest warm hue to be the bold accent and use that in 20% of the room – like the mustard and terracotta pillows, planter, and ottoman in this living room. Then use the other warm or neutral shades for the other 80% of the room – like this creamy white sofa and window treatments and the warm hardwood floors.
If all-warm everything isn't your jam or you're just getting started with warm colors, feel free to mix warm and cool elements together. To do this, look at the small decorative objects in the living room and consider what looks visually warm or cool. Wood decor and brass lighting have warm undertones and create a cozy atmosphere. Eye-catching glass vases and marble bowls are like a breath of cool air and will establish contrast between warm and cold.
Add extra doses of warm colors and coziness with the textiles and materials you choose. Buttery-soft leather furniture in caramel and nutty colors pulls double duty as it adds physical and visual warmth. Toss a handful of throw pillows and a blanket or two onto the sofa to add to your warm color scheme. We're loving the texture these patterned pillows add to this living room. If you have throw pillows you love, simply swap out the pillow cover for something in a warm shade.
Rich wood tones can give any space warm cabin vibes or evoke memories of summertime lake trips. For the large pieces of wood furniture like the coffee table or console table, choose warm tones that remind you of sunlight. Think: walnut, white oak, cherry, and maple. Shy away from ash wood and blackwood, as cool-toned woods can make the room feel chilly.
Area rugs are the ultimate choice for adding warmth to your living room. Choose a multicolored or monochromatic rug with a warm color palette of reds, browns, and oranges. Place the rug so at least two legs from each piece of furniture are on top of it. This will make the rug safe, but it will also create an inclusive seating area for evenings filled with conversation over a bottle of wine. If your floors are crafted from warm-toned wood, make sure to leave some space for them to shine – warm-wood floors are the perfect final detail for a living room with warm colors.
Lots of light will help warm up a living room of neutral shades and soften the ambience. We're big fans of multiple types of lighting: floor and table lamps and overhead pendants. When you have a few types of fixtures, you'll have more variety for how much light you can have at once. Choose warm-toned fixtures to channel warmth through your living room: brass pendants, wood floor lamps, and cotton lamp shades.
One final detail to help bring coziness to your living room with warm room colors is to consider Scandinavian design. Scandi style is all about light and warmth, natural woods, and bringing the outdoors inside. To do this, place plants around your living room. Put smaller ones on the coffee table, in a bookcase, or on the console table. Place large plants behind big furniture and near windows. You'll create a visually diverse and tranquil atmosphere. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your living room.
Ready to re-create one of these ideas?
