Less Stress, Less Mess: How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 1 Photo Courtesy: Aleksey Gnilenkov

Are you tired of your plain looking walls in your living room? Do you want to do something different but you just can’t hack picking out yet another paint pot? We all fall victim to the redecorating bug where we just need a change, without the fuss.

Here are some great solutions to liven up your living room without having to buy a single pot of paint – Interested?

Paste-Free Wallpaper

Did you know that there are removable wallpapers now too? This wallpaper requires no wallpaper paste – it peels right off the roll, is eco-friendly and prepared with no toxic material, so you can do your bit for the environment too. These wallpapers don’t leave sticky residue marks and you can adjust them – just in case you make a judgement error.

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 2 Above: Two of the Eco Wallpaper designs (left: Cottage Garden Wallpaper, right: Mystical Silver/Gray) among many other available at Graham & Brown

Wallpaper is a simple alternative to picking up that paint brush. Most people will opt to use wallpaper for feature walls, picking something that fits in well with the rest of the house. There are loads of different patterns and styles out there for you to select. From the flirty florals to elaborate patterns, there is something out there perfect for you. There are a few companies out there that will make bespoke wallpaper so your wall will be completely unique!

Wall Decals

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 3 ‘In the Garden’ Wall Decals – Photo Courtesy: Simon Mason

Wall decals are just a fancy way of saying wall sticker. They come in all sorts of different patterns and styles. Some of them are even words. If you were really looking for something to help bring some character into your room, wall decals are a quick and simple way to do it. You simply peel off the back and apply it to your wall using a squidgy that is in the pack. These stickers can liven up any living room and add a modern feel to your room. You could even add a border around your room, using some of the smaller patterns or shapes that are out there.

Don’t Be Shelf-ish

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 4 — A colored shelf in Lisa’s home in Roanoke, Virginia, USA – Photo Courtesy: Lisa Plummer

If you really didn’t want to change your living room walls and you just wanted to add a splash of colour, you can add some coloured shelving. It sounds crazy but if these little shelves were filled with colourful bottles, different sized candles (coloured of course) or pictures of your family in chunky frames, they can really bring your room to life. It’s a great way to incorporate some storage into your room as well without compromising on style.

Fabricated

There are loads of ways that you can use fabrics to liven up your living room. Here are three ways that you can use fabrics in your home:

1. Colour Block Curtains

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 5 Beautiful Colour Block Curtains – Photo Courtesy: Sarah MacMillan

If you wanted to add some colour but you didn’t want to change the colour of your whole room, you can add some brightly coloured curtains around your windows. Remember your windows are behind these curtains, so try to pick curtains that compliment your window style. Long curtains to the floor will add a strikingly beautiful effect to your room. Play around with colours and patterns that you think will fit into the overall theme that you have. If you wanted, you could have these curtains go right down to the floor adding more colour and breaking up the block colour of the paint on your walls.

2. Stretch Fabric Wall

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 6 — Fabric panel on Corina’s living room wall in Burbank, California, USA – Photo Courtesy: Corina Sanchez

If you wanted something a little different for your living room, why not go for a luscious looking fabric panel? These panels can add a block of colour to your wall as well as texture; these can be any fabric you want and can instantly add some warmth to your room as well. If you wanted to, you could use these fabric panels to pin things up, perhaps even create your own family mood board. It’s a great way to display children’s artwork, memos or important letters.

3. Throws, Cushions and Rugs

Less Stress, Less Mess - How to Decorate a Living Room WITHOUT Paint 7 — Stack of Colorful Cushions – Photo Courtesy: Ben and Kaz Askins

If you aren’t a fan of too much effort, you could just pop down to your local DIY store and you can pick out some coloured cushions and throws in a variety of different colours and patterns that work well with the colours that are already in your room. Try mixing up the fabrics and choosing some different coloured cushions so that there are different textures in your room.

If cushions aren’t your thing, why not try getting a bold patterned rug? If you opt for this, a large rug in an interesting shade can be the focal point of your furniture arrangement. To make the rug look like it actually belongs, co-ordinate it with pillows or cushions that match and any artwork that you have in the room.

Whatever you decide to do with your room, there are plenty of ways to decorate your room without having the hassle of washing up paint brushes and paint splats out of your clothes. So sit back and decorate in style without the fuss and mess of the traditional paint pot.

Vikki is a home improvements writer and lover of anything DIY that works alongside centralrollershutters.co.uk. In her spare time, she’s planning her next DIY project.