As UK Flooring Direct’s Home of Inspiration we’ve invited a collection of the country’s most talented interior stylists to share their expertise with you. We’re delighted to continue the series with the lovely Lucy Gough, pioneering a spring-inspired living room look.
Colour Scheme: To achieve a crisp, bright, spring scheme in your sitting room you can't go past a neutral palette. However, I find that whites, creams, and pale greys are often the hardest to get right. I find myself painting large swatches of a dozen colours all over my walls before I decide. When picking a white you need to look at the blue or brown undertones. White with blue mixed in will appear cooler and one with a brown or red undertone will appear warmer on your wall and overall give a cosier effect.
On top of this, you need to see the paints in different lights on different walls. So ideally, paint the same colour swatch on all four walls and see how the light hits it at different times of the day.
If all else fails, take a sample of your favourite white from home (a book jacket, a pair of shoes, or a cushion etc) to Valspar Paints at B&Q and they will colour match it for you in a few minutes! They have thousands of colours to choose from.
Flooring:
I'm in love with white flooring. It has an effortlessly cool, Scandinavian feel and this one from UK Flooring Direct’s Galleria Professional range would be perfect to incorporate into the scheme above. Have the planks running down the longest axis of the room to draw your eye down the lines and give the illusion of a larger room.
Furniture:
The Leon Chaise from sofa.com is pictured above and I can personally vouch for how comfortable it is. Perfect for relaxing after a hard day's work and stretching out to watch a film on.
If you haven't heard about Living Tables, then you need to! It means a table where greenery and succulents are embedded into a section of the table, so it looks like it's growing out of it. The ultimate spring decorating idea! This beauty I found on Etsy.
You could do it yourself too by embedding your vessel into your existing coffee table. Search “living table” on Pinterest and you'll find hundreds of inspiring ideas.
Storage:
If you, like me, live in a small house you will need all the storage you can get your hands on! I love this Casper Sideboard unit from John Lewis - you can hide magazines, remote controls, your DVD player, and more in this beauty. The colours go perfectly with our fresh, spring scheme and there are a couple of different shapes in this range so check them out online.
Lighting:
Lighting is so important to a living room. You ideally want a statement ceiling light on a dimmer, then various individual sources of light like a floor lamp and a table light for your side table. These add ambience and mood to your room for when you decide to turn off your ceiling light in the evening and especially when entertaining guests.
Above left to right: Tub table light and Liv drop cluster from Habitat, Tripod wood floor lamp from West Elm.”
About Lucy Gough: Australian born, London based interior stylist Lucy has worked for big titles such as Livingetc, Alto and the Sunday Times, as well as many well-known brands, businesses, and designers. Lucy has been a fabulous addition to what is a growing list of Inspiration Centre guest stylists. Read Lucy’s other article here.
