apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I think I'd like to see some chocolate brown walls, or a nice warm mustard-with-some-pumpkin-in-it or something.

Creamy Ivory. If you don't have any vintage ivory laying around the house, find a piece of vintage French Ivory/Pyralin/Celluloid at an antique store and match it.

Ivory sounds good. BM's White linen has an ivory cast to it. And it would still look good with your white trim. It holds itself well with bright colors. And that is a FABULOUS cabinet. Love that color.

A slightly bluish gray is my pic. Love tomato red with that - it'll pop.

i love the cabinet too. it looks almost orangey-red on my computer. Either way, i would consider a very bold black and white palette. Graphic stripes or another pattern (damask?) throughout, and then you can use this red color wherever you like...
and maybe some bright oranges here and there...

Every color works with Red.

But my favorites are Blue (Navy? Ocean? Powder?), Dark Brown, or a bright Apple Green.

Red furniture seems to be a current trend, and I actually like it very much. I have a large cabinet from Afghanistan that has a lot of embellishment but comes across as mainly red, and I love it. The ivory suggestion is intriguing.

The creamy yellow sounds good, or perhaps minty green or baby blue. It's a lovely piece of furniture!

I'm partial to camel and red.

Red? It looks pretty orange in the photo!

In any case, you're creating a color palette for the whole room, not just a backdrop for the piece alone. The wall color has to help tie all the furnishings in the room together.

The theory behind picking a palette of hues is pretty well established (http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm#color_harmonies), and also consider how value and saturation hold all those hues together.

I think a medium-value wall color would exploit that "red-orange" very well-- rich chocolate brown for an analogous color scheme; or dusty blue for a compliment.

I vote for blueish gray as well. It's a nice neutral without being too bland!

I recognize that photo setting from Nadeau. Great pick!

I know it's considered trendy by some, but I vote for a peacock blue-green/aqua blue color.

Looks >> http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/look/bold-color-combo-red-aqua-065803

How about a cool gray with a green hue. Red and green are my favorite complimentary colors.

Try BM Ivory Tusk--it works great with strong colors.

Or, one of their "greiges" like Stonington Gray. But I agree with the poster above re a palette for the whole room.

I have a deep red couch and for my walls i used a color by sherman willams (i think?) called Torchlight. It looked really nice.

If you had this color of blouse, what color skirt or pants would you wear with it?

Granny Smith apple green, or medium grey.

Buy the cabinet, then decide.

Ivory, camel, or blue-grey for contrast.

Go with complimentary colors. Red and green are complimentary. So are orange and blue. So are yellow and purple.

This is a cross between red and orange, so I would contrast the walls with a greenish-blue color. That way, you get the green for the red, AND the blue for the orange in the piece.

I vote for a greenish blue, like a shade of greenish turquoise aqua.

I think the pale yellow would look nice with this. I have a yellow kitchen and it helps to keep things bright and yummy looking when you're cooking.

But I also have a light olive green living room with a red sofa and I like that a lot too. I almost went with a minty color, but decided against it because I didn't think I could do my whole living room in mint. But I think you can do a lot with a kitchen as long as it is bright and happy, dark kitchens are discouraging I think.

I'm hearing a lot of suggestions for strong contrast colors, some of which are cool colors. Mixing cools and warms creates a muddy palette and you don't want a contrast color strong enough to detract from the cabinet. Pale yellow is fine. Antique ivory is great and greys would look good as long as you pick warm earthy tones to compliment the red.

I would buy the cabinet, pick a few colors you like and test them in the room where you can see the effect light plays on them. Rather then wasting money on a bunch of sample pots I like to get a handful of the paper samples to create one large enough to be useful.

(Just remember to take them back when you buy your paint.)

A very light blue. I still think that the combination of light blue with a bold red is one of the best color-combos.

I agree with Nina79 and others who advocate for blue. Pale blue with red is gorgeous. A pale dull green (I have used Behr Dried Palm) would be pretty too and take it in a different direction.

Red can function almost as a neutral, these days. I'd decide based on whatever else will be in the space and the light level and the general architecture of the room. It would look dramatic against a dark color, but if that would make the room oppresive rather than cozy, it would also look good with lighter colors, which would give it a totally different mood and flavor.

I think red with light yellow or light blue seems rather Scandanavian. With dark green or navy, slightly traditional. With bright green or full intensity hues of almost any color, it becomes tropical -- Caribbean, maybe. With white and blue, obviously, patriotic. With black and white (and maybe metallic gold), it seems Asian.

You can probably make it work in any decor, so if you love it, bring it home and work out the details as you go!

teal... yep teal...

I agree with lizzapearl - a treasured piece of furniture is harder to find than a paint color. Let the red cabinet sit in your yellow room for a few weeks and see how you like living with it. My guess is that it will look fine. If you don't care for it, pick up a bunch of paint chips in colors you think are possibilities and stick them on the wall next to the cabinet and leave them there for a while. Take them down gradually as you rule them out until you're left with the combination that you like the best. It may or may not be one you would have originally thought!