The Worst Living Room Paint Colors (& Better Alternatives To Try)

Repainting the walls in your living room is a simple way to transform the look and feel of the space. However, that transformation is not guaranteed to be a positive one. Choosing the wrong paint color can make a room look outdated, small, sterile, overwhelming, or just plain depressing. Whether you're looking to do a full living room remodel, or are just wanting to spruce up the walls with a fresh coat or two of paint, don't make a rushed decision that you might live to regret.

Unfortunately, even the best intentions sometimes don't turn out as expected. If you're not in the real estate or design industry and don't have the opportunity to see the devastating effects that the wrong paint color can have, you might not realize the error until the final coat of paint has dried, the furniture is put back, and it's too late. To help you avoid making a decision you regret (and all the hassle of repainting), we reached out to interior designers and real estate professionals and asked them to share some of the worst living room paint colors. During exclusive interviews with House Digest, our experts revealed which hues they recommend steering clear of, as well as a range of better alternatives that you might want to try instead.

You might think that choosing a bright white paint for your living room will make the furniture, décor, and other aspects really stand out. Or, perhaps you think that having white walls will give the illusion that the space is actually larger than it is. However, Shiva Samiei, an interior designer and the CEO of Shiva Samiei & Co, strongly cites choosing bright white for the walls in your living room as a serious mistake people can make when selecting a paint color. During an exclusive interview with House Digest, she recounts how one of her clients learned the hard way that this color was a poor choice. Instead of making the space feel larger, she shares, "The stark white created harsh shadows, made the room feel clinical, and highlighted every imperfection in the walls. The flat brightness also washed out their furniture and art pieces."

If you still want to maximize the brightness in your space, Samiei recommends choosing an off-white paint color with subtle undertones that will deliver a more welcoming — and less stark and sterile — feel for your living room. She explains how she was able to convert that same client's clinical and shadowy living room using the School House White paint from Farrow & Ball. This paint offers a much softer feel with some subtle pink undertones that make it more suitable for a room where you want to relax or entertain. After switching to School House White for her client's living room, Samiei explains how "the space immediately felt more inviting. The slight warmth brought out the richness of wood furniture and made artwork pop against the walls."

If you want to make a statement through the paint color you choose, you might be considering something deep and dark. However, if one of the options you're looking into is chocolate brown, you may want to think again before painting it on your walls. Samiei explains how this color choice proved to be quite problematic for one of her recent clients. "This dark shade absorbed 70% of natural light and made a 400-square-foot living room feel like a cave. It also showed every fingerprint and dust particle," she says.

Just because chocolate brown isn't going to be a good choice for your living room, don't feel like you have to abandon your dreams for painting the walls with a rich color. Samiei highlights Benjamin Moore's October Mist as an excellent alternative that won't absorb all that precious natural lighting or make your space feel cramped. She says, "This sage green brings nature indoors while reflecting 55% more light than chocolate brown. I used it in a Vancouver living room last month — the color shifts beautifully throughout the day and pairs wonderfully with both modern and traditional furniture."

Gray paint will likely always be in style. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't some serious mistakes you can make when choosing gray paint. You can't simply grab any can of medium gray paint and apply it to your living room walls. In an exclusive interview with House Digest, Giovanni Scippo, the director at 3D Lines, a company providing architectural visualization and rendering services, cautioned against choosing gray paint for a living room. He explained how the wrong shade could lead to the room feeling lifeless or dull. "It absorbs light, which can leave the room feeling darker than you might want, and it doesn't create the warm, inviting atmosphere most people look for in a living room." You may have heard that millennial gray is a popular color. However, it is now becoming stigmatized for all the reasons Scippo mentioned. More and more designers and homeowners are moving towards colors that deliver a warmer and lived-in feel. This move away from cool grays ties in with the maximalist trend towards brighter colors and more personality in design. 

Scippo offers a few warmer alternatives to consider. For those looking for more of a neutral paint color, he recommends opting for a soft ivory paint — such as Benjamin Moore's Cloud White — that will bring some warmth and brightness to the space without making it too stark. If you were considering gray paint because of its cooler tone, he suggests Sherwin-Williams' Sea Salt or similar paint. He says that this paint color "pairs nicely with neutral or natural tones, giving your space a modern yet welcoming look. These colors bring much more life and warmth to a living room than gray ever could."

While some people are dead-set against painting their home's interior green, others are intrigued by the prospect of green walls. If you fall into this second category, you may be considering deep olive green. As an earthy tone, you might anticipate that olive green will transform your space into one that is the perfect mix of sophistication and soothing relaxation. However, while some natural tones can have this positive effect, Alexis Orivri, a real estate investor and the founder of Riv Buys Properties, strongly cautions against olive green paint for your living space. During an exclusive interview with House Digest, she explains how the deep green color can actually "make the space feel dated and overly heavy, evoking a sense of nostalgia that's not in sync with current design trends favoring fresher, more vibrant aesthetics."

Orivri recommends choosing a greige paint for a soothing home or another softer, neutral color. She notes that these color choices can "strike a balance between warmth and sophistication, creating an inviting and adaptable backdrop. They make the space feel light and open without being stark. Greige and warm neutrals complement a wide variety of furnishings and accent colors, making it easier to update the space with décor changes." Consider Orivri's recommendation of Edgecomb Gray from Benjamin Moore. She describes it as a choice that can make your space feel welcoming, without making it overly cold or clinical, thanks to the warm undertones.

Another alternative to deep olive green paint that you could consider is a softer green or blue color. "Light greens and blues with muted undertones promote relaxation and provide a subtle hint of color without overwhelming the room," notes Orivri. Like Scippo, she highlights Sea Salt from Sherwin-Williams as a top choice to make a living room feel fresh, relaxing, and welcoming.

Are you looking to make a statement in your living room? Perhaps you're considering using red paint to really make the walls pop and give the whole room a bold and daring look. In an exclusive interview with House Digest, Stephanie Engel, an interior designer and home stager at HouseCashin, shares some very compelling interior design advice on why you should avoid painting your walls red. As a very emotional color, she explains that red "can evoke feelings of anger or passion, for example, as well as trigger and increase physiological responses such as quickened heart rates or blood pressure." If you choose red paint, she cautions that it could completely overwhelm your room and overshadow all of your other décor pieces and accents that also deserve some of the spotlight.

Instead of choosing such an intense color, Engel highlights beige and greige paints as much more suitable options to bring warmth to your living room. "Since the pandemic, we have seen a shift to make our homes more cozy, inviting, and warmer, especially since we're spending so much time home," she notes. Some of the color choices that Engel recommends include Neutral Ground by Sherwin-Williams, Tapestry Beige by Benjamin Moore, and Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb Gray (which was also recommended by Orivri above). However, she also highlights the importance of hiring a professional designer for a color consultation. This will help ensure that the color you choose is perfectly suited to the specific elements of your space, such as its size, lighting, and décor. After all, as Engel notes, paint color can be very psychological and visceral, so you want to feel confident that you're making the best choice possible.

Renee Towell, an interior designer and the founder of Home Inspo TV, identifies charcoal as the worst color for a living room. In an exclusive interview, she tells House Digest, "The dark and moody trend in my humble opinion is not what homeowners should be striving for." Painting your walls with such a dark color will not only make the room appear smaller than it really is, but it can give it a very depressed feel, according to Towell.

If you want to incorporate some of that moody feel into your living room, she recommends sticking with darker accent items and choosing a more inviting color for the walls. "To have a timeless feel to your home, particularly the living room which is typically a focal point in a home, you want off-white walls so you can accent and mix and match furniture and textiles," explains Towell. She notes that cream or light gray paint colors can offer a similar effect. Some of her favorite paint shades include White Snow, Sanctuary, Alabaster, and Oyster White, all from Sherwin-Williams. By choosing one of these lighter and more inviting colors, Towell says it "frees you up to use the color black as potentially a built-in bookcase, you can build your living room design from the foundational lighter colors and create a look around it."

Jewel-toned paints are one of those trendy (or, once-trendy) paint colors you'll want to rethink before using on your walls. During an exclusive interview, Sal Dimiceli, senior owner of Lake Geneva Area Realty, tells House Digest that jewel-toned walls (or even accent walls) don't have a place in modern design. "While these deep, rich colors were designed to create focal points and add drama, they can look unbalanced and out of date," he explains.

Dimiceli favors the effect that soft neutrals offer for a living space. He shares, "Shades like beige, taupe, and warm gray offer a calm, inviting atmosphere without overpowering the space." He highlights Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore as one example that can help you achieve this look and upgrade the overall style and feel of your living room.