apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm suddenly having serious trouble with this sort of thing. It all started when my lovely bottle-green couch pillows finally died. The green in those pillows pulled from one of the minor colors in the pattern of the couch slipcover (oh, ok, the Indian bedspread tucked over the futon that is my couch...).

I ducked into CB2 on a rainy afternoon in SoHo, to look for a replacement. I picked something affordable that seemed like it would be a reasonably good match for the colors in my living room -- charcoal grey with deep orange and lime green stripes. I got home to discover that they absolutely clash in every way with the couch.

I considered returning them, but since the only thing they clash with is the couch cover, I'm now off to Ikea to find fabric or a bedspread or something which will tie the pillow covers into the rest of the room. Which I know CAN be done. I think the issue is more emphasis on tertiary colors like oranges and greens, rather than the reds and yellows that currently are the focus of the room.

Novel of a comment, but bottom line: color is hard.

opoponax--

Color really isn't hard if you come to the understanding that colors really don't clash - it's patterns that clash.

Sounds to me like you really needed solid-colored pillows to harmonize with your Indian patterned bedspread - not stripes.

Also bear in mind that lighting is an issue (in the store, the colors may appear differently than in your living room) and that the amounts of each color will change the effect as well.

Greens are incredibly hard. All blues go together, but different greens clash horribly.

This post would have been more useful if there were some practical examples that demonstrate executing the theory.

no, it's definitely a color issue. the bedspread is very primary and undiluted red, blue, yellow, and green, basically the colors of a box of 4 crayons. The pillows have two shades of orange, and a slim lime green stripe (which seemed more bottle green in the store, hence my choice -- there are oranges elsewhere in the room, and I have a grey accent wall). The bold modern stripe looks fabulous with the rustic woodblock print of the bedspread, actually. If one of the stripes were cobalt blue or bottle green, it would be perfect.

Colors in and of themselves don't clash, but two objects with colors in totally different families and relations to each other can definitely clash. I actually feel like patterns generally DON'T clash, and it's easier to mix patterns with the same basic colors than it is to mix colors that just. don't. go.

Though at the end of the day, both pillow covers and futon covers are cheap, replaceable, and interchangeable! This is hardly the worst problem in the world -- it's not like I picked something that looks horrible with the rug, which was designed by a friend, handwoven by village widows, and shipped from India.

totally agree, bepsf.
i just finished decorating my new condo and it all came together really really easily, yet everyone seems to be really impressed. i kept it simple with a bold "new oregano" on the walls, with fuschia and some burnt orange accents (so i guess its a "tertiary" combination") and the only pattern i have is a bold chocolate/cream geometric color-blocked carpet anchoring the living room. there are lots of textures: leather, fur, gilt frames, silk dupioni, etc, but they don't interfere with the carpet.
Another thing about color: i read somewhere (i think house beautiful like last year?) when i saw a beautiful house tour i wish i had saved, that you can mix really any colors (even ones outside of the above combinations) as long as they are of the same intensity.
of course that rule isn't always necessary, but i love the results when followed.

Lisa Hunter, I agree. Greens are terribly hard to match, at least for me. My poor bedroom has been painted many many shades of green before finally landing on a pear green that is almost a lime. I swear I can combine any colors fine, can go into a Lowe's or a Home Depot and pick a paint color that matches a fabric perfectly- unless it is green. Why is that?

im just now coming to realize that my "white" walls are making my red couches look muddy. oh, and for some reason i was trying soo hard to use complimentary colors in my living area, but now im realizing analougus is the way to go. at least i think so.. for now, haha. now if i could only convince my husband that orange is gooooood.

deeboyayay, the problem inherent in trying to sell anyone else in your house, husbands or wives, or roommates, etc., what colors would look best is that they might not perceive the colors you're perceiving. You say orange, and that word to you covers a range of light to dark orange, clear to muddy. They are just thinking the color of orange soda is awful and inappropriate, and please don't subject me to that color, especially in large amounts.

The purpose of this post, although not exemplified, is that you're not supposed to take that color wheel above and introduce those colors directly to one another in the same room (unless you're really bold or use them as accents), but rather more like this:
http://r0k.us/graphics/SIHwheel.html
That's a more "advanced" version, which I think is more helpful in actual life. The "color theory" explained above is not exactly intuitive for a lot of people, so it has its place as well.

I guess my point is don't try to tell anyone you're going with orange for the analogous scheme, but to find something within the whole party of orange or find a name to describe the actual color. It's orange to you, but it's also tomato or rust or peach or something even more esoteric that they'll understand.