Decorating living/dining room-any ideas for colour scheme please?

Grey can work well - I have it in the dining end of my room - but it is generally an urban colour so I will eventually paint it out as I don't feel that it is country enough for me.

If you are struggling Loupylou it can be worth finding a wallpaper you like and getting a sample. You do not need to use the paper but just let it help you with the colours. You then use the background colour on the biggest expanse - probably the continuous through wall and possibly the curtains. Is there a wall with a natural break between the sitting and dining areas? If so you can decorate them differently but toning so perhaps use the wall paper or one of the colours you like from it in the other two walls of the sitting room and another (from the paper) on the two walls of the dining room. I think this works best if you do use the wall paper in the sitting end but some people don't like it I know.

loopy I've carpeted two houses in pale silver grey carpet right through (both were open plan) and it looked very classy and almost any colour will go with it, so each room looked different.

Have you thought of purple? Or on the purple spectrum, for a feature wall maybe. It would look good with red and you could then bring in some cushions, throws, rug with both colours on to blend them together. Or find a wallpaper with both colours in and then accessorise with cushions etc. I do find cream or grey very boring and will inject no energy into the room.

I have a mural of flowers and stone columns which has lots of different shades of green and some flowers in cerise. I have an opposite small wall in cerise and the room is then grounded back down by an moss green colour on the other wall and round to the cerise. It gives the room energy, light, cheerfulness and brings the garden inside somewhat.

Lots of super suggestions, thank you so much!

Gracesgran there's an offset wide archway between the living room and the dining room extension. I hadn't considered looking at wallpaper for colour options, I'll certainly do that.

Lona, that does sound lovely, but does it show every mark? I always take my shoes off indoors but would have to train DH pdq . I like the idea of silver grey I must admit, but how practical is it? The beige flecked carpet is ok-ish but 'traffic' ways show up despite annual cleaning and vacuuming daily.
That carpet's turned out to be a big mistake because it's had to be re stretched twice (it rucked up) and now the blasted thing is 'bubbling' despite being professionally cleaned. The shop went bankrupt so I don't have any redress although it's only. Few years old, and it wasn't cheap

What's the best type of carpet to go for? Wool/wool mix or what?

Lovely ideas rubylady but I'm not that adventurous, sadly. I'm hoping to have a colour scheme I can easily adapt in the future.

to you wonderful GNs x

Don't go for loop pile. Got ours from John Lewis - paid a good price - (bedrooms). It's bobbling! And now I find on the internet that you have to expect this from a wool loop pile. Didn't tell me that did they?

I always go for wool with 20% man made. Wool bounces back when furniture has dented it, spot cleans with warm water, and feels lovely underfoot.

I was put off man made on stairs, when a friend fell downstairs and had terrible burns from the man made carpet.

Having said that, we wanted a new carpet for our bedroom ( to be left when house sells) and settled for a the man made one in the colour we wanted.

X

Must you have carpet? Couldn't you have a natural wooden floor with rugs? Much more stylish and practical.

I would love one but the floor's concrete underneath the carpet. I also have two heavy dressers/sideboards so it would have to be a very substantial wood or it would dent very easily.

I have a silver grey carpet too Loopyloo but I do have a large darker grey rug in the sitting-room end and a paler grey one under the dining table. The curtains are a grey too.

The contrast to the shades of grey in my room (why do I find that worrying? ) comes from the furniture which is painted - a sort of ivory cream. The dining chairs have covers in "straw" - a soft yellow. The long, unbroken wall (with the fireplace in the sitting room end) is in a colour called "calico" if I remember rightly - another cream really but it is exactly the colour in the background of the wall paper on the sitting-room window wall and the recessed wall that makes the sitting-room wider. I do hope that makes sense. Over all the grey is contrasted by the cream through to soft yellow and soften from what could be too urban by the wall paper which breaks up all the plain colour blocks. The big thing about going for a scheme like this is I could change it easily by changing the dining-chair covers and cushion covers - all of which are doable for anyone who sews but could easily be bought too.

I'm not sure if this helps but I often pick up little bits from seeing different rooms - a mood board helps and your choice of a wallpaper in the colours you like, even if you don't intend to use it, would definitely be a start.

I think you can have an engineered wooden floor under a concrete one. They lay a subfloor under it. Certainly strong enough for any furniture.

You can look on Houzz for ideas. I save the pictures I like on Pinterest to keep ideas in one place.

My DBH likes everything magnolia. I have just painted our bathroom in duckegg magnolia, and have used pink magnolia in the twins' bedrooms.

My living room floor is half floorboards and half concrete. I sanded the floorboards and painted the concrete with cream floor paint to look like large tiles. This has proved fairly hardwearing, except for one small patch where the paint won't stick (I did prepare very carefully), so I just paint that one 'tile' when I get fed up with the concrete showing through.

The walls are magnolia at the moment though. I have been painting some of the pine furniture with chalk paint in cream and pale blue. The room is due for a complete refurbish, but as I am hoping to extend our tiny kitchen, it is on the backburner at the moment.

A very pale pink is lovely in a living room. We had this colour in our previous living room and had a plain lightish sage green carpet. You then accessorize accordingly.

I have today sent DH to Homebase for colour tester pots. I am pretty sure I am having Dulux Spring Rose on the walls and Dulux Desert Wind on the radiator and paintwork.

Will decide on carpet when decorating done. But it won't be loop pile.

Or I might have Lagoon Falls for the woodwork/radiator. Oh! It's not easy.

Does radiator paint work? Mine are looking a bit dingy...

That's something else to add to the list, ours are beyond scruffy
I've just mentioned it to DH......met with a grunt!

Oh yes. We always paint the rads. (I don't think it holds the heat in!)

No - I meant does the paint stay on? You are talking about special radiator paint, aren't you? Or are you not?

No. Just whatever you use on the doors and skirting. You can get radiator paint but DH has never used it. Stays on fine. Rads must be cold when applied of course.

Actually most of my rads are the same colour as the walls. Just woodwork paint instead of the matt emulsion - or eggshell or whatever you like.

You probably have to have your paintwork colour mixed specially. They don't do a huge range of woodwork colours. But I think they can mix to match most of the wall colours.

The Dulux website gives you ideas on which colours complement your wall colours, which enhance it etc. Very useful.

Well, that's handy to know - thanks jingl!

I never knew that! Thanks jingl, perhaps it might make DH less grouchy about decorating!

I got eggshell wood paint mixed today in B & Q. Computer will sort any shade you want.

Also went for materials to paint large red brick fireplace....primer, latex eggshell etc. As per internet.
Assistant said....why? Masonry paint is brilliant on brick fireplaces and no primer needed. They also mix masonry paint to order. We came home with a tester pot. It's fabulous. Bricks look covered in one coat, the trial area that DH has done, but will probably need a second coat after drying. So back to store for the big tin of colour mixed masonry paint. It's going to look great.

According to this we could paint our old stone fireplace. There's a thought.