When it comes to redecorating your living room, starting from scratch can be expensive and time-consuming. The good news is that giving this popular space in your home a fresh vibe doesn’t have to break the bank or take months to achieve. By bringing in pops of color through furniture, accessories and other decor, you can elevate your family’s favorite hangout spot quickly and easily. Check out these simple tips from Ashley HomeStore to tastefully add color to your living room.

Create an accent wall

If your living room feels drab or uninspiring, creating an accent wall can help bring it to life with personality and warmth. Accent walls are perfect for most large spaces, including living rooms, because they can provide a much-needed focal point to help the room feel grounded. Best of all, they can make a big impact with little effort.

Here are some easy tips to bring your ideal accent wall to life.

• Paint the wall a bold color, such as a deep blue for a sophisticated approach or a cool green for a calming ambience.
• Use a bright wallpaper to bring in texture, pattern and a variety of colors.
• Put together an eye-catching gallery wall with black-and-white photos in brightly colored frames or vibrant pictures in black frames.

Cover your bare floor

Never underestimate the power of a fabulous area rug. If your living room feels like it’s missing something, an area rug could be the perfect detail that brings the entire room together. To ensure the rug that you choose makes the space feel balanced and inviting rather than busy and disjointed, pick a rug that complements its surrounding decor. A printed area rug could be a good option to add visual intrigue to the space along with incorporating accent colors for a subtle pop. On the other hand, if you’re striving to tone down the brightness of your living room accessories, a neutral area rug can help you do just that. 

Use artwork thoughtfully

The wall hangings you use to decorate your living room can have a tremendous impact on how the space looks and feels. If you’re unsure of how to add more color to your living room, a piece of artwork can act as a good foundation to work from. For instance, if you display a painting with lots of colors over your sofa, you can use a few of those colors as your inspiration for other accessories around the room. Decorative pillows, curtains, table lamps and pottery can all be used to complement the art hanging on your wall.

Pro-tip: Try to accessorize with only one or two accent colors in the space. While the art you use as your inspiration may have plenty of colors to choose from, using too many can make your living room feel chaotic rather than tasteful. 

Make the most of your bookshelf

Bookshelves are great places to store everything from your favorite beach reads to family photo albums and knickknacks. Likewise, they’re an easy spot to bring color into a living room. One great way to play with color on a bookshelf is to use a color block approach. Start by taking everything off your bookcase, so that you have a blank slate to work from. Then, put items back in groups of the same color: all shades of red together, the same with blue and so on. Placing darker colors, such as black and brown, at the bottom of your shelf and lighter colors, such as white and cream, at the top can help bring your eye up to create a chic yet playful result. You could also choose to emphasize one particular color on your bookshelf by adding pops of a singular color, such as green, with surrounding neutral books and accessories. 

Get creative

If you’re looking for a cost-effective way to bring a splash of color into your living room, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Upcycling a piece of old furniture that you already own or picking up something that could use an upgrade at your local thrift shop is a great way to reduce waste, save money and put a personal touch on your living room. Painting a coffee table, accent cabinet or bookshelf a funky color, such as turquoise or yellow, could provide a much-needed pop of color next to a neutral armchair or loveseat. 

Keep things balanced

Anyone can throw new decorative pillows on their sectional to change up the colors in their living room, but designing a space that is well-balanced and inviting is a bit trickier. To create a living room that uses color like a professional interior designer, it’s important to be strategic. Luckily, building a balanced living room is easy with the 60-30-10 rule. By having a plan of where to bring in color and how much of each color to use, you can create a living room that is stylish and one-of-a-kind. Here’s how it works.

• 60% of your living room should be the main color of the space (think: walls and large items, such as the sofa or area rug).
• 30% should be the secondary color that helps add visual appeal to the main color, such as curtains, an accent wall or a piece of painted furniture.
• 10% is the accent color that makes the space come to life, including throw pillows, artwork, table lamps and other accessories.

How you choose to incorporate color into your living room will make or break it. Designing a living room that feels warm, stylish and unique is possible by being strategic, using a specific pattern to work from and striving to keep the colors you’re working with balanced. For more tips on how to use color in your home like an expert and to find everything you need to create your perfect living room, Ashley HomeStore is here to help. Visit us online today to check out our large selection of furniture and décor for every room of your home.