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Brown Living Room Decor Ideas 

Brown is an incredibly versatile color, coming in shades from palest ecru to deep, chocolatey hues that resemble velvet. Our brown living room decor ideas illustrate how the color can be dressed up and down. Earthy shades can look rustic and relaxed, while paler browns and bold, saturated options can offer soothing surroundings or convey elegance. Check out our many brown decor ideas to discover how beautifully it coordinates with almost any other color.

A Bevy of Browns - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas
Designed by Liana @freshstartfarmhouses - Instagram

A Bevy of Browns

To decorate a living room in brown while keeping things light and airy, paint the walls in a creamy taupe or beige, then use medium and dark brown in touches throughout the room. The wood furniture, artwork, and accent pieces warm up the room and tie it to the adjoining, darker dining area. Don't be afraid to layer rugs for added impact, as with this Persian style rug over a larger sisal rug.

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Wooden It Be Lovely?

When you have gorgeous hardwood floors and a statement piece like this rustic armoire, let them shine. These rich shades of brown look best when you pair them with light neutrals like a gray couch and richly patterned rug in grays, browns, and creams. Keep everything else minimal and subdued to ensure the focal points stand out.

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Wooden It Be Lovely? - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Gold's Time to Shine - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Gold's Time to Shine

Gold tone accents work marvelously with dark brown. If you have a dark leather sofa and dark wood hutch, opt for bright white walls to open the space. Work gold into the room for some shine, as with the lamp, artwork, and hammered vase seen here. The stylish dark brown rug features golden threads to add a luxe touch.

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Staying Away from Staid - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Caramel Brown

Caramel brown is naturally warm, with touches of red and yellow undertones. For a soothing great room, furnish with pieces covered in caramel leather, then choose wood furniture in a similar shade. When you have lot of one color, balance it with crisp, white walls and sheers. A rug that's muted but richly detailed adds visual interest.

Staying Away from Staid

Brown seems staid or boring to some, but not if you choose fun and stylish decor. Cover your floors with a scattering of faux steer skin rugs for a rustic look, then add a sleek, mid-century modern chair upholstered in chocolate. Bold, geometric throw pillows complete the eclectic appeal.

Caramel Brown - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas
Designed by Suzy @sweetbungalow - Instagram
Raising the Roof - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Tobacco Traditions

When creating a masculine space, tobacco brown leather is the perfect way to invoke the feel of an Old World library or den. Reinforce the motif with a formal rug in unexpected shades of brown, mustard, gray, and olive green. Pull the accent colors out of the rug for gray curtains and a gold pillow for continuity and to break up the long line of the sofa.

Raising the Roof

When you have a show-stopping ceiling like this one, let it be the star. By opting for lighter browns and creamy accents, the darker ceiling becomes a central design element. White walls raise the eyes and give visual height to the room. A rug in two shades of toffee will warm the space while maintaining the open feel.

Tobacco Traditions - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

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Deep, Dark Luxury - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Deep, Dark Luxury

You can combine two dark colors successfully as long as both aren't at the deepest end of the range. Charcoal gray walls create a moody background that helps a toffee brown sofa pop. Use a faux hide rug combining the darks with cream and tan for balance. Ivory accessories lighten the look for a room that's cozy but cheerful.

Keeping it Light - Brown Living Room Design Ideas
Designed by Erin Wheeler @sunnycirclestudio - Instagram

Keeping it Light

Don't forget about accessories in shades of brown. In this room, the brown wicker light fixture is a focal point, standing out against pale walls and a white ceiling. By layering medium browns throughout a room, you'll create a serene effect, as here where the lighting, matching chairs, and oriental rug all feature mid-tone browns that pop against the light surroundings.

Light on White - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Decisions, Decisions

Not sure if you want to go gray or brown? Look for a statement piece of furniture in greige (a gray/beige shade) or taupe. This incredibly versatile neutral pairs with warm and cool colors, giving it tremendous flexibility. In this room, the velvet sofa and bench invite you to touch. Paired with a rug that has taupe as well as cream and a steel blue, this color changes with the light and time of day.

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Light on White

Keep brown from being overpowering by choosing shades like this oatmeal couch, particularly when the floors are such a rich, dark brown. The white walls and soft hues in the rug lighten the floor and dark brown table. For contrast, choose a cool color in the same tonal range, such as the pale blue pillow and vases here. With low contrast between colors, the mood is relaxing.

Explore White Living Room Ideas!

Decisions, Decisions - Brown Living Room Design Ideas

Variation

Whether brown is the sole color of the living room or just the primary color, there are plenty of ways to use the same color in fresh and inventive ways. Texture and material are two areas to consider. The brown velvet sofa, soft brown coffee table, warm wood chairs, subdued wood floors, and even brown elements in the neighboring room all feel fresh thanks to their unique shade and material. Taking this approach to design will help you create a dynamic living room with a focused brown color palette.

Calming Creams

Cream and off-white variations of brown are ideal for creating light and airy living rooms. Aside from these shades of brown, you can also include starkly different white and brown shades to create a more diverse color palette while maintaining a lighter room.

All About Touch - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Focus on Fabrics

If you're not sure what colors coordinate with brown, start with a bold, graphic rug with brown intermingled with jewel tones like topaz and garnet as a starting point. The golden-brown sofa looks wonderful in this room with creamy yellow walls. Add interest with fabrics in tonal prints, as with these chairs and drapes. Fringed and velvet pillows add richness.

Check out our curated selection of Best Living Room Rugs!

All About Touch

A room decorated in browns and creams needs textural interest. Brass studs on these chairs add a bit of bling. Include a floor lamp that's unusual in scale and texture (we love this embossed leather and brass version) for height, then soften the floor with a rug in buttery shades that coordinate with throw pillows to soften the effect.

Focus on Fabrics - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Contemporary Wonders

Brown and beige are often associated with more traditional color palettes. However, those colors fo far beyond that singular style! By using more modern furniture, contemporary art, and unique decorations, you can create an effective contemporary design in a warm color palette.

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Global Style

Global style living room designs often include bold pops of color and loud patterns. In these situations, a light brown color palette can serve as a simple backdrop for these more detailed elements. Even in these schemes though, adding in sudden dark browns and other bold colors can really hone in that global aesthetic.

Completely Coastal

Light brown, cream, and tan are three popular accents in coastal homes. Those colors can be presented in so many different ways to convey different tones and statements. As an example, this mid century modern beach home uses the basic coastal color palette with more modern furniture. Hybrids like these serve as inspiration on how two different styles can easily be blended.

Additional Modern Living Room Decor Ideas!

Mid Century Marvels

Mid century modern style is quickly rising in popularity thanks to its use of unique patterns, different materials, and dynamic design. This living room design masterfully displays how mid century architecture can inspire a calm but confident brown color palette.

Spice Notes - Brown Living Room Design Ideas

Beachy Browns

Yes, a brown leather sofa can be the center of a beachy, coastal living room when you choose blonde wood furniture and lots of accessories from the cool end of the spectrum. Here, light blues and aquas combine with white and sandy beiges for a breezy, refreshing room that's filled with light.

Spice Notes

Spice things up with a rug in shades of saffron, cinnamon, and oregano in an intricate, Eastern motif. Match it with a soft, caramel sofa accented with blue pillows to add a cool touch. Artwork can balance the cool and warm colors when you choose blue botanicals printed on sepia paper.

Beachy Browns - Brown Living Room Design Ideas

Architectural Inspiration

When designing any room, look at the room's architecture or built-in features to guide the room's design. In the case of this room, the stone archways natural add texture and color that impacts the furniture choices Since the stonework is so dynamic with its colors and dimension, the furniture in this room is quite subdued. Depending on your room's layout and the influence of the architecture, you may create your own balance.

A Clear Focus

Many living rooms have a clear focal point. This grand transitional living room highlights the arched windows curtains as the key focal point. When defining your room's focal point, look at what colors are in that area and how they can be reworked and reimagined to suit the rest of the room. That balance of color will enable you to create a clearly defined focal point and a cohesive brown living room.

Get inspired with more Large Living Room Decor Ideas!

Formal Focus - Brown Living Room Decor Ideas

Clean Lines & Color

For a more contemporary look, consider an unusual shade of brown, like this sleek sofa that leans toward mustard. Highlight a color this bold by paring down the other colors and accessories to the minimum. A rug with just a hint of color and furnishings with clean lines let the sofa stand out. For one other touch of color an oversized plant does the trick.

Formal Focus

For a cozy den or library, start with a brown, distressed leather couch detailed with a tufted back and brass nailhead trim. It sets the tone for a formal study that's warm but refined. Choose classic furniture with a modern spin, such as a glass-front cabinet in distressed white. When the curtains and furniture are neutral, play with color on the area rug, as in this slate and cream rug with pops of paprika.

Clean Lines & Color - Brown Living Room DesignIdeas

Contrast

Contrast is a great way to create a more bold and dynamic brown living room. Like this room, you may accomplish that by using chocolate brown furniture and white walls. In smaller degrees, you may also choose to use darker accents like dark wall art, dark lamps, or dark decorations against light walls. There are too many possibilities to list when it comes to playing with dark brown and light brown tones.

More Small Living Room Decor Ideas!

Connection

Your brown living room's rug can tie the entire room together with its size, pattern, and color palette. In this white and brown living room, the rug displays many different shades of brown that then appear elsewhere in the room's furniture, artwork, and blinds. When your rug shows off the room's entire color palette, it unifies the entire room's design.

Discover more Living Room Rug Ideas.


Our brown living room decor ideas are versatile and easy to use, partly because it's such a restful color. It also coordinates successfully with almost every other color from pastels to jewel tones. Keep in mind that the deeper the brown, the lighter the contrasting or accent color should be so the room doesn't become too dark.

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