apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I say blue for the walls, add accent pieces in red and black and white.

I like the creamy yellow tan that shows in the top left for the walls, so the painting will not be lost-so much is whitish grey, red and black. Use all those colors for the rest-an adjacent wall in the red, bedding in the steely blue, drapes in a soft grey, a lampshade with the red, maybe a lot of black iron accents and a charcoal grey carpet, like Flor's poodle, made into a rug. Very nice art-good choice for building a room's palette!

I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard this question. It's very common on my design team. The advice I always give them, "if it's behind glass, let it match but original works of art should always stand on it's own".

What's important here is make sure that the original piece stands out in the space and does not look as if you matched the decor to it. This would be a great injustice to the artist and certainly defeats the purpose of having an original piece of artwork.

Could you imagine waking into a room and seeing Van Gogh's starry night, only to notice that the walls are the same color of the painting. The work is de-emphasized, the focus is put on the walls and how it reflects into the painting...again defeating the purpose of the work.

By all means use color! Use lots of it!! Just don't use the same color in the painting. Always go deeper or lighter.

I would love to give you advise on bedding, window treatments and such....but you have not provided enough information. Are you modern, eclectic, transitional, or classic in your design? What are you windows styles? What type of feeling do you want to experience each time you walk into the room? Calm and peaceful? Moody and sexy? Energetic and whimsical?

I agree with Koikub.
Personally, all my walls with art on it are white. And those white walls with no art on it are "reserve walls" in case I have new art.
:P
My personal opinion is: a great piece of art can beat all the pillows, curtains, sofas in the world ( unless you have a highly sculptural sofa ala noguchi)... you can get away with messy books on the sofa easily if you have the art hanging above the sofa..... since the focal point will be the art.....

Koikub makes a good point - if you paint the walls to match the painting, it will probably give visitors the unfortunate impression that you bought the painting to match the walls.

Warm neutral walls will tend to bring out the colours in artworks. That's what I used in my bedroom, although the effect can be a little too serious for most people. Another option is to use a contrasting colour (say, a soft modern green) which will make the painting more of a statement and prevent the room from looking too contrived.

Oh, and I'd suggest bedlinen in blues and whites.

It's really not a good idea to match your walls to your art.

Shelly! What a fun question. The designer wannabe comes out in me with stuff like this.

Here goes: A nice medium khaki-taupe on the walls. White linens on the bed with pretty golden mustard bedspread with greyish blue pillows. A patterned fabric for the curtains that incorporates at least two of the colors from the painting (one of them being the deep coral or deep muted blue color) but also a couple more colors that are not in the painting to keep things from looking matchy-matchy.

Just for fun, I went to a website like
http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/ and then clicked on some of her fabrics. Open these up in a separate window right next to your painting. Even if you hate these particular patterns, you'll see that they all look so great together!

• nigela (stone)---/dark green/imperial fans

• lotus (faded china)---olive / geisha fans or (teabox)---camel / geisha fans or apricot / wall flower

• belle (eath and sky)---teal / coriander or (sunglow)---clay / coriander

• forest (dusk)---pods #100g

• sunbloom (earthy)---dancing mums #1a

While I agree with Koikub, an FYI about artwork: it pops against reds, such as Farrow & Ball's 'Eating Room Red' or 'Deep Crimson' from Dunn Edwards. I've the later color in the dining room of our house, and it works great.

Though the thought occured that the painting might pop against a dark biscotti-like color.

hi shelly! if you see this post, go to atla oct 3 post of kelly wearstler's den. those colors are like what i was thinking for your bedroom. your painting would look really cool in that setting, no?