Our grey modern farmhouse living room is one of the most used spaces in our home — it’s where the kids play, where we host friends, and where our family gathers for cozy movie nights. Because it’s such an important space, I wanted it to feel both stylish and inviting while still being functional for everyday life.
If you’re looking for modern farmhouse living room ideas, these steps will help you design a room that’s cozy, warm, and effortlessly beautiful — from the paint color to the furniture layout.
How to Start Designing Your Grey Modern Farmhouse Living Room
Pick Your Paint Color
The paint colors are the foundation for starting your modern farmhouse design. Deciding on a neutral color palette that can be carried throughout your home, is an easy way to provide fluidity from room to room. We posted about our neutral color palette and all the top 50 Sherwin Williams colors we decided to use in this article here. Your neutral color palette is an important piece in deciding the overall look and feel of your home.
For the living room, we have carried in Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray from the kitchen. This soft greige tone perfectly balances warm and cool undertones, giving the space a cozy, inviting atmosphere. We decided to go more towards a gray sectional couch tone and the Agreeable Gray helps give the room a warmer tone.
Choosing a neutral wall color like Agreeable Gray also makes it easy to switch up your décor or furniture later on without having to repaint. You can bring in personality through accent colors, throw pillows, and wall décor while keeping the backdrop timeless.
Our color scheme combines Greige, Gray, Navy, and Soft Blues — a relaxing blend that complements the farmhouse aesthetic and creates a serene, welcoming space for guests.
Pick Your Furniture and Layout
When selecting furniture for a farmhouse-style living room, start by considering your existing pieces and how they’ll work with your paint choice. You want to create a layout that feels open and balanced while maintaining comfort.
In our living room, a large grey sectional sofa is paired with a smaller accent chair and side table to keep the room from feeling crowded. We’ve pulled the sectional about a foot away from the walls to create a more intimate seating area and allow space for a console table behind it.
This setup helps define the space, improves traffic flow, and creates a cozy area perfect for conversation or relaxing nights in.
Decorate Your Zones:
To create a balanced grey modern farmhouse living room, it helps to break your space into distinct decorating zones. In our living room, we have three main zones: the console or sofa table area, the side wall with an accent chair and table, and the fireplace and TV area.
Choosing pieces with similar tones, textures, and finishes ties the entire room together and creates that cozy neutral living room feel that makes the modern farmhouse style so timeless.
Console Table Styling
Whether your sofa faces the entrance or sits against a wall, a console table is one of the best ways to add both lighting and decor to your living space. Our living room is long and rectangular, and I needed a place to display decor and lamps behind our grey sectional couch. Since I couldn’t find a store-bought table that fit perfectly, we decided to build one ourselves!
If you’re looking to make one too, you can follow my step-by-step guide here: How to Create a Custom Farmhouse Sofa Table — it’s an easy weekend project that adds instant charm to any modern farmhouse living room.
Once the table was finished, I styled it with two matching lamps on each end for balance. Then, I added simple modern farmhouse decor — vases with greenery, stacked books, and a few favorite framed photos.
A common mistake when decorating long tables is using too many small pieces. Instead, focus on fewer, larger decor items. This makes your console table decor look intentional and polished, while keeping your grey modern farmhouse living room uncluttered and welcoming.
Sitting Area
This area features the largest wall in our grey modern farmhouse living room, so I wanted it to make an impact without feeling cluttered. To fill the space with wall decor, I found a beautiful three-piece wall art set from Kirkland’s that ties together the wood and metal accents found throughout the room. The softer wood tones complement our neutral color palette while the mixed materials add subtle texture and warmth.
If you’re working with a large blank wall, try creating a modern farmhouse gallery wall or hanging one oversized canvas to anchor the space. Both options bring visual balance and keep your neutral living room design cohesive and inviting.
Fireplace Makeover
Our fireplace makeover completely transformed this space! We used a whitewash painting technique followed by a light layering method to add dimension and texture to the brick. The result is a softer, brighter focal point that ties in perfectly with our modern farmhouse living room decor. If you are looking for an easy project that will easily update your fireplace, here are two great guides for a step by step transformation: How to Get Your Perfect Rustic Whitewash Fireplace AND How to Get Your Perfect Rustic Whitewash Fireplace.
The TV is mounted above the mantel, so I kept the decorations simple — just a few neutral pieces that don’t compete with the screen. The fresh look instantly elevated the room, turning an old eyesore into one of my favorite features of the home.
Living Room Design: Accents
Drapes
One of the first decor items you should decide on is your drapes. This will help you decide on the color palate for the rest of the room. Drapes are a great way to incorporate prints and color into your room. They can easily be changed out as well. The floral drapes we used in the living room had several tones of blues and grays that I could then incorporate through other accent pieces in the room.
How to Hang Drapes
To elevate your farmhouse living room, one of the easiest tricks is learning how to hang drapes the right way. Always hang your curtain rods as high as possible and extend them slightly beyond the window frame. This simple technique instantly adds height to the room and makes your windows appear larger — a favorite designer tip for all interiors.
Depending on your preferred look, drapes can lightly graze the floor (within half an inch), rest just at the floor, or softly puddle for a more relaxed, elegant finish. No matter your style, properly hung drapes help create a bright, open, and well-balanced feel in any neutral living room decor.
Pillows & Throw Blankets
Once your drapes and main color palette are set, it’s time to bring warmth and personality into the space through throw pillows and blankets. These cozy accents are the easiest way to tie together the shades from your drapes and other decor pieces, while also adding texture and comfort.
For our modern farmhouse living room, I used a mix of soft blues, grays, and neutral tones to complement the floral drapes. You can keep your pillows neutral for a timeless look or introduce pops of color to make your space feel fresh and layered.
As a general rule, use three pillows for a small couch, five for a larger sofa, and seven to nine for a sectional couch — depending on how much symmetry or fullness you prefer. The key is to mix sizes, textures, and patterns while keeping a cohesive color story throughout your farmhouse living room design.
Décor Items
When styling your grey modern farmhouse living room, décor plays a huge role in pulling everything together. Choose pieces that are the right size for your space and complement the overall theme of your home. Incorporate your accent colors throughout the room with warm wood tones, soft whites, and black or metal details for contrast.
Some of my favorite farmhouse decorating ideas include stems, faux florals, vases, books, boxes, candles, and small sculptures. Mixing textures like wood, glass, and metal adds dimension and warmth while keeping the space cohesive. Layering décor items of varying heights on console tables, mantels, or bookshelves can also help create visual balance.
Rugs
If your modern farmhouse living room feels incomplete, a rug can make all the difference. The key is scale — choose a neutral living room rug large enough so that at least the front legs of every major furniture piece sit on it. This simple rule helps anchor the room and visually connects each furniture zone.
Natural woven textures or subtle patterned rugs in shades of gray, beige, or cream complement neutral farmhouse interiors beautifully. They also soften hardwood floors and create a cozy, inviting atmosphere.
Review of Living Room Design Tips
Here’s a quick recap of the essential living room design tips to help you plan and style your space:
- Paint: Start with neutral paint colors like Sherwin Williams Agreeable Gray. This gives you a flexible base to layer accents and seasonal décor.
- Furniture Placement: Pull furniture slightly away from walls to create balance and flow. Arrange seating to promote conversation and warmth.
- Drapes: Hang curtains high and wide — at least 6 inches beyond the window frame — to make ceilings feel taller and windows larger.
- Decorations: Choose décor items slightly larger in scale to avoid clutter. Group pieces in odd numbers for natural visual appeal.
- Rugs: Opt for a rug that grounds the furniture layout and enhances your modern farmhouse aesthetic.
By starting with foundational pieces like paint, furniture, and rugs, you can build your farmhouse living room decor step by step. Then, layer in accents, pillows, drapes, and artwork that reflect your personality. Over time, your room will evolve into a cozy, stylish, and welcoming space that truly feels like home.
