Good Questions: How Do We Pull All The Colors Together?

11.2couch.jpg Hello AT,

This weekend, my boyfriend and I are moving from a sublet situation into our very first place that is truly ours to decorate with our eclectic mix of mid century and modern tastes. It's an open layout with stainless steel appliances, so we bought the couch shown in dark gray...

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We wanted to compliment the appliances, while contrasting with all the natural colors of the mid century modern pieces. But, we have 2 mid century chairs that are upholstered in an orange fabric (not too bright, not too muted).

Neither one of us are really skilled at selecting rugs or curtains. How do we pull all the colors together? Please help!

Thanks! Kara

Dear Kara,

A few more pics would help, but here are a few rules of thumb to guide you:

1. Keep the family together - colors live in families and if you can find an inspirational source - either a picture or an object - that contains the family of colors you are trying to work with, it can guide you. For example, if you have a rug you love with a number of colors within it, pulling all your colors from that one object will ensure that everything works well together.

2. When in doubt with windows, go white - we fall back on white shades and curtains all the time and never have any regrets.

3. Go for contrast - when you are putting furniture next to rugs next to your floor, make sure there is contrast. If your sofa is neutral medium, go with a dark, colorful rug. Don't go with a neutral, medium rug or it will all blend together. As a guiding rule try to make sure you see variation in shade and contrast throughout your room: dark to lights, color to neutrals (and whites).

Anyone else??

Comments (12)

I am a big fan of the way light blue (like robins egg) or even Tiffany blue goes with oranges, greys and browns. Throw in a few citron/yellow accents and it should look great.

Here's how you compliment your appliances:

"Refrigerator, you are looking very shiny today, and you're doing a fine job on keeping the milk from going sour."

"Refrigerator, you are looking very shiny today, and you're doing a fine job on keeping the milk from going sour."

lololol That's hilarious; that'll be my quote of the week.

Deborah - If AT ever runs a contest for the wittiest, non offensive, politically harmless and truly funny comment you should win.

Thank you, thank you, I am known to many, and cherished by some, as a smart aleck.

Slight highjack - where did you get your couch? It looks just like the Bantam sofa from DWR, but that is not a color they offer.

Orange and grey are a great start!
I've been experimenting with MGR's recommendation of composing a room with 80% neutral and 20% colour--like your orange. With those chairs you are practically there!

I scanned in this photo from House Beautiful to give you an idea of how fabulous this combination can be. Those orange tones in the wood are no accident either. Sneaky way to incorporate orange as a neutral!

Wall colour is given as Seapearl by Benjamin Moore.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46773919@N00/1829666652/in/photostream/

Kara, I love that couch! Could you tell me where it's from? I'm currently couch-hunting myself.

As for advice on color choices, the thing that has helped me the most has been to take a painting, photograph, or tear out of a magazine that I love, boil it down to about two major colors and two or three accent colors, and go from there. There's a reason great artists made the color choices they did, so I just shamelessly draft off their expertise. Good luck!

Nomi

This sofa reminds me of my recent Corona sofa purchase from Macy's:

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=251335&CategoryID=30249

Similar lines, and most importantly a fantastic price! It's quite comfortable.

I'm in the same boat at Nomi. Looking for a new sofa and love the picture above. Kara, please let us know where you found this! :)

That's a beautiful sofa. Great start! I too am a big fan of orange and gray together. Keep an eye out for some real-life examples of these colors mixed in with one or more other colors. Look at fabrics, art, in design mags, etc. White, greens, blues could all work well.

In addition to Maxwell's advice about color values, I'd say also pay attention to the scale of any patterns you choose. Particularly if you have patterns next to each other, vary the scale. If you are keeping it within one color family, you can mix up the patterns.

Thanks for all the tips! I was away on vacation. We actually got the couch at Home Court in Carroll Gardens. It's made by Younger furniture. Our friend liked ours (dark gray like their floor model) so much that he bought it in green. And it's comfortable, too!