Painting living room is the starting point for living room remodeling. First, choose a living room color scheme and choose paint colors for walls, doors, trims, accessories and accents. Living room paint colors should be chosen based on the largest piece of furniture that dominates the room, the focal point of the room, the size of the room, the height of its ceiling, the amount of light that it gets, the uses the room will be put to and most importantly, the feel you want in your room. Once the living room paint colors are decided, pay attention to the living room paint finishes. Paint finish can also alter the feel of your living room.

Flat or matte paint finish with no shine is best for walls that have minor surface imperfections. These days they have good stain resistance too. Eggshell or velvet finishes with a soft glow are best for living room walls and look elegant and sophisticated. They are easier to clean too. Satin or semi-gloss paint finishes are best for doors and trims and highlighting architectural details. You may also use gloss finish for door, trims and specialty areas according to your choice. The sheen of the walls and the smoothness of the texture in semi-gloss and gloss paints make them easy to clean and scrub. For families with small children, you may want to use washable wall paints that are very easy to wipe and clean.

For living room walls, it is best to use latex or water based paint that dries up quickly and can be washed using soap and water but it is better to use oil-based alkyd paint for doors and windows as it penetrated wood better does not stick when the doors and windows are shut for longer periods of time, especially during winters. To calculate the amount of paint you will need for you living room, measure the perimeter of the living room walls by adding up their widths and the multiply it with the height of wall from floor to ceiling. Subtract the area of open areas from it such as doors, windows and archways to known the wall area that needs to be painted. Some paint types and colors may need more than one coat so take the number of coats you need to cover the walls into account too. Usually, a gallon of flat paint color covers 400 square feet but you may take paint manufacturer’s instructions as your guideline.

The entrance foyer, family room and the living room are heavy traffic areas and are the first places of your house that is seen by your guests. Hence, they define the first impression about you and your personality in your guest’s mind. Experiment with colors and patterns to create a stylish and great looking living room to make the right statement. Make sure that you maintain the harmony and visual flow and take into account the rooms visible from your living room. If you practically live in your living room, you may prefer to have glazed, marbleized or textured walls as they do not look dirty or show up finger marks so easily. This can be easily achieved using faux painting techniques that are so popular as living room painting ideas these days.

You may want to add height to the living room without breaking the monochromatic look of the room by using dark color alternating with lighter shade of the same color or glazed version of the same paint color to create stripes on the walls. Instead of flat paint finish, choose pastel colors and it is advisable to use chocolate brown or very dark colors in satin or semi-gloss finish, so that they don’t look drab and dreary. You may add faux crackle finish to your living room wall by first painting it with dark color and then with lighter color. Thus, when the paint crackles, the darker color from beneath gives an interesting look to the living room walls. If you are using faux painting techniques, choose the right kind of paint. Faux dragging technique may not be able to use latex paint as it dries too quickly. You may also want to add interesting murals to your living room walls to cheer up the room a little.