Upholstery and colour scheme for living room with heritage furniture
Petra B
5 years ago
Dear Houzzers,
I need an advice for colour scheme of a living/dining room in my parents house. The room is quite spacious and has a lot of natural light. There is oak herringbone parquet flooring, walnut wood furniture inherited from my great-grandparents from the beginning of 20th century, two old but beautiful rugs, a dining table with upholstered chairs and big corner sofa with three armchairs. Now my parents want to change the upholstery on the dining chairs and the sofa as it is almost 50 years old and it is damaged and worn out.
I would need some advice on what upholstery fabric and wall colour to select to get a room that will work well together. Before, the dining and living part were in different rooms and now I have a feeling that there are too many patterns (rugs, chairs, sofa). On the other side I don't want the room to end up bland.
Also I am not sure whether to make clear distinction between the two zones (dining and living) by different wall colour or not. It would be also nice to add a little bit of more contemporary feeling to the room. Could you please suggest what colour and/or patterns would work in your opinion?
Many thanks in advance!
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KK1000
5 years agoI would repaint yellow walls in the same colour as the dining room . Remove table cloth and get a glass top for the table. Dining chairs are “old world “you could replace it with something modern like replica mid century modern chairs ,they are inexpensive and not fussy. Or if you are good with sawing machine you could reupholster them yourself in a fabric that would go with your couch, maybe mustard colour or duck egg blue velvet. Maybe a new coffee table? Use existing one as side table and remove chairs and cabinet on the left before the couch. They are really old. If budget allows change ceiling lights.
Petra B thanked KK1000
Jonathan
5 years agoPersonally I think you need to edit the furniture and move some of it around as in my opinion the room is a bit of an obstacle course.
In my opinion the sofa is very cool and recovered with a velvet could be stunning but personally I think it is too big for this room. Given that you said this furniture used to be in separate rooms (this house or another?) is there another sofa that could get moved in?
Alternatively could one of the tall cabinets and a couple of the lower things move elsewhere?
If it were mine I would put the tall cabinet on the far wall as I think it’s current position narrows the room. If it were mine I would also decorate with a deep opulent colour (perhaps Farrow and Balls Vardo) to show off the furniture and choose a plain upholstery fabric- probably a velvet in two different neutrals.
However since their current taste is so white I think the opulent colour would be a hard sell and it might be easier to go for a soft neutral. Something grey with a green quality such as Farrow and Balls Bone will showcase the warmth of the wood. This would also sit well with neutral upholstery.
You could also consider pink for the walls or upholstery- look up Farrow and Balls Sulking room pink- in my opinion a pretty pink would be cold next to the warmth of this furniture and you need something with a lot of warmth.
Let’s hope Juliette (a regular contributor) also comments as she has a professional eye for colour.
The illustration is to show suggested furniture placement not colour
Petra B thanked JonathanRelated Discussions
Need help with the furniture/arrangement of the living room!
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Carolina
5 years agoPetra B
5 years agoPetra B
5 years agoJonathan
5 years agoI meant to add that you should weight up the cost of recovering the sofa versus replacing it. I wonder if as time has gone by a higher backed version would be better for your parents and would be a better size for the room for similar money as reupholstering.
http://www.furnitureforfrance.co.uk/sofas/view/fixed-cover/broughton
rachelmidlands