Beige sitting room

If you want to freshen up your beige colour scheme try painting the walls white. There is an incredible difference in the amount of light reflected by white walls compared to cream or magnolia.

Thank you for all the replies. I'm really enjoying looking at the Houzz website. Everything in our living room is brown or beige. One of our dogs has chewed my expensive chocolate brown wool rug so that will be the first thing to be replaced. We've had that dog for more than a year so don't know why he suddenly decided to chew it. Perhaps he doesn't like brown either. He's sleeping in the kitchen now at night and chewing the oak chair legs instead. We can't have cushions as the dogs chew them but I do have a lot of pure wool throws in bright colours (not in beige).

Nothing wrong with a beige/magnolia/cream sitting room - plain walls and classic, timeless, good quality pieces of furniture make the perfect neutral base to accessorize with different colours and textures, plus you can change those accessories to reflect the seasons, or whatever colours/styles/pieces are in vogue this year, and keep current without having to keep replacing expensive pieces of furniture.

I too have two 2-seater brown leather sofas. I have pale beige carpet and modern light wood fireplace and furniture. It is a modern room. I have brown plush stripy cushions and brown/teal stripy velvet cushions. Teal looks lovely with brown. I also have quite a few teal coloured tealight holders in varying shapes and sizes on the mantelpiece and hearth. I also have 3 pictures I bought from Homebase with teal background and large white flower and vice versa. I am happy with it and everyone says what a lovely room it is. You could do the same sort of thing with your favourite colours of blue and green for the accessories, etc.

Even going to somewhere like Next is useful. They have lots of variety and matching/toning accessories, and often attractive displays.

I have F &B 'dimity' hall, stairs and kitchen/dining room which keeps it all light and airy. My kitchen units are a sort of blue/grey/green!! I prefer plain light walls and have light greys/ blues /browns in other rooms so I can ring any changes without too much re-decorating! Light will make such a huge difference to a colour and we all see them differnetly. We went to see some friends the other day and DH said 'Oh look they have painted their house (outside) pink' It was not pink to my eyes more 'stone'

For goodness sake avoid that metallic wallpaper - it'll look like an old people's home. Get some mags like The English Home ( they are expensive but the library may stock) You should get good ideas from these sorts of magazines. Try to avoid it looking like a room setting in Laura Ashley or Next. Individuality is everything: if you haven't inherited interesting stuff, trawl some junk shops. We have great ones here in Dorset.

I too have a problem with decorating my new home, moved in 18 months ago but garden was such a jungle I have concentrated on making that into a "proper" garden, still lots to do but it's work in progress, now at least we can see rose bushes & hardy fuschias & few plants added (neighbour re-designing their garden so giving away their unwanted plants).

My home is decorated throughout in primrose, nice colour but need to freshen up. Kitchen is magnolia (not much wall space & small so needs light colour, can always change accessories!! Hallway I am going to do magnolia as well, lots of pictures to be added.

Bedroom, I have been given some lovely wallpaper with a sheen to it & pattern. Wet Room so no decorating.

Through Lounge has 6 windows & door to garden, so little wall space, very light room so need to choose carefully but it will be painted, when I have decided on colour scheme. Cream Settee & light wood Dining Table & Sideboard plus 2 large Display cabinets also light wood, curtains at 2 windows (navy) & cushions grey & cream plus navy rug

Expensive but dramatic Natural History museum will do a bespoke mural whatever dimensions you have for one wall, have a look, with your dark settees you could go wild with co-ordinates. A real impact ? Teal giant anaconda, ? Flamingos in their habitat, other walls white, it is your house make a statement of you, not what a decor guru chooses as the theme of the moment.

For a pop of colour you can't go wrong with cushions! When you want a quick change (or get fed up with the colours )it's quite an inexpensive way to make a completely different look.
We have a navy suite and at the moment it has one lime green cushion!

I find houzz really useful for colour schemes. Try looking at the Farrow & Ball website, they are good for colour matching. When you find colours you like try using Dulux or similar paint mixing service. Sometimes just changing 1 wall & accessories can give a room a new lease of life or give you a feeling of a new colour.

I talked Dad into getting a paper get similar, if not identical, to use as a feature wall in the hallway.It jazzes up a seriously dull cream entrance.

We moved a year ago and had the whole house decorated.Houzz is a fantastic website. Whatever ideas you have, type them into the Houzz site and they will come up with photos of projects using similar ideas. I now have dark blue (Stiffkey Blue F&B) alcoves in our sitting room. Pics on Houzz proved a) I hadn't thought up something new and bizarre, and b) the scheme worked!

I bought my cottage from an artist. It was BRIGHT!

Tangerine walls with maroon window frames in the lounge, navy blue bedroom walls, vomit colour green kitchen walls..........I thought it would be OK. It wasn't, I am magnolia throughout now with every colour int he rainbow on the picture frames and furnishings. Even my sofa is orange / green and cerise segment with numerous throws etc.

I do love colour but as the light changes throughout the day it can become a migraine situation..............

My living/dining room was magnolia and beige. Now it's duck egg/white and a silver grey carpet and I absolutely love it. It's restful and light and I wish I'd been braver years ago!
B&Q valspar paint can be mixed to match literally any colour, including scraps of cloth or a photo in a magazine. They also can match Farrow and Ball, brilliant service.

Oh dear, our lounge has red walls and 'brown' furniture - not fashionable at all!

I have always gone for neutral cream paint on the walls mainly because I didn`t have any better ideas . Last year I went with the very pale grey look , with one black and silver wallpaper feature wall . Furniture is mainly oriental from The Pier before it closed . I LOVE it ! and feel very calm when in my grey sitting room , I realise now that I like cool colour better than warm ones . Saving up to do the rest of the house and will have to pay someone as I am just not up to it any longer .

Just come back from visiting my DS and family. My DiL has painted one of their rooms a deep, dark green. It looks absolutely stunning. She has also started up-cycling furniture and that looks amazing too.

I love decorating and now that I live alone I am in my element finding bits and pieces to make it look different.

In my living room, however, I've got a full wall mural of a walkway with columns down one side, metalwork over the top and trees growing over it, with lots of pink flowers and lime leaves. It is very striking and beautiful, well, I think so. So the rest of my room is olive green on one wall, lemon/lime mix on another and bright pink on the chimney breast. Other than that I am going for an oriental look in here, with Indian cupboard knobs, oriental lamps, cushions, throws and a rug. Very colourful. I don't do Kelly Hoppen! Beige!

My stairs are carpeted red and I am putting emerald green with it, paint, and a light reflecting paint in light coral. With that will be stickers of butterflies going up the stairs, voiles at the window and wall decals.

The kitchen has gone retro. Very in just now, apparently. I have a new light box which I can change the words on depending on what mood I am in, it currently says "Party, Love, Fun" with smiley faces and cake.

Bedroom not much change, just change of bedding as darling son thought nothing of snuggling under my duvet so wanted new, not teenage smell.

Bathroom, new shower curtain in pinks/purples/teal with birds and butterflies on, small coloured glass bottles on windowsill, mirror repainted in curtain colours, new bin, bits and bobs, new storage drawers instead of the ones I have had since I was this big.

It doesn't need to cost a lot. Just a rug which is colourful and then pick out the colours in it to do the decorating. I like looking at magazines but I get my ideas by trial and error really. Working from one piece and then finding things around it and seeing it grow. I love it.

I do have two throws stapled to my wall in the bedroom as I wanted different textures in there and warmth as I don't put the heating on in my room. Along with rose wallpaper it makes it warm and cosy and feminine.

Thank you for all the recommendations. I've registered with houzz and pinterest.

Unfortunately they only do it in the (very pale) grey, above, or gold, cream or beige. It's called Ornella Ariana.

www.amazon.co.uk/Kevin-McClouds-Colour-Now-Choosing/dp/1849492190
Gretel my DD lent me this book and it was really helpful when we decorated the hall.
It shows many different colour palettes - what colours look good together.

I've just done my kitchen/study in Cookie Dough, which is a warm, dark cream. I feel like I'm living in a vat of strong coffee.

It's nice though; kind of cosy.

I'm doing my conservatory in magenta pink to counteract the dull beigeness of it..

We have cream sofas ans cream walls. But there is not a lot of wall as the windows are huge and there is an archway into the dining room. The one whole wall is red! - and boasts a red woodburner! We have bright patterned cushions on the sofas to add a splash of colour - the cushions do not match eaxh other and are pretty random.

Love the paper. Maybe it's the colour. Beiges tend to be flat and drain colour from a room. Do they do it in a green shade?