Name: Beverly Hills 180
Brand: Benjamin Moore
What would you do? My client had the walls of this room painted in a paler shade of yellow, and wanted something richer. I always love a rich color, but would have gone cooler and richer, either a dirty yellow or a green-yellow. The reason? Everything else in this room has a red base to it—redwood furniture, red leather, red pillows, red floor—and I wanted something to cut through the fat.
I’m usually looking for my eye to do a little dance: I like little changes as I flicker across the surfaces of a room, and that keeps my interest up.
The photograph posted is the final result, and I think I stick by my original instinct, but what saves it for me is the carpet. That green on the floor is what pulls the whole thing together, it’s like a bridge. It cools everything off and nods toward the color of the wall. Additionally, there are shear linen drapes of a similar green over the windows.
I probably would have picked a greener yellow, perhaps Ralph Lauren Mango Gold, VM34. What would you do?
- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I'd like to see a photo of the drapes to see how the green (which looks blue to me) impacts the room. Then I could have an opinion. I like the rug....
I would paint the wall in lettuce green, but badly painted, to give more energy and style into the room! Like the green behind the bunk in the photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtmoveis/80486163/in/set-1740947/
I would also get some blankets from designers guild, very colourfull and with a very strong feeling to put in the sofa (in the arms or in the back), and I would change the lamp...and I'd also add some paintings... The art in a house brings lot's of power, and it completely changes its tunning!
Lettuce green!
you're right. it looks like somebody has been smoking lucky strikes in there for 40 years.
Maybe it's just me, but the picture, as is, reminds me of a waiting room. Could it be the matching sofa set or the matching pillows? I like the carpet. Maybe I'm still madly in love with "nacho cheese," but I would prefer something in that direction versus dirty-yellow. I'm always afraid that those "dirty" "muted" colors will quickly get very dowdy and dusty from NYC grime.
if it were my place, i'd have the walls a very cool slate blue, and i'd replace those warm toned pillows with dove grey, ice blue, bottle green, etc. (ok, i'd maybe leave either the gold or the cream, but not all three). this way the reddish tone of the leather would pop as the exception rather than the rule.
that said, sometimes colors just resonate with people and even though the room would really shine with a cool palette, they like the reds and golds better and the space doesn't look like absolute shite. more power to 'em, i say.
I liked the comment about a cooler color to "cut the fat." I am more of a cool color person, but never thought about the warm/cool mix in those food terms. Made much more sense to me.
I agree that I would have gone with a cooler color - but I don't like the pillows at all either. Seems like it could be one or the other cooler, or both cooler. Not my style, but opoponax is right - it is their house.
The picture of the lettuce green scares me. I keep seeing it (with different names) more and more. I know the 80s are back, but not a fan.
That rug, on my monitor, does not read green at all, so hard to say what it adds. Or doesn't.
But I like the wall color. Call it "Chamois" and I'd be a total convert. Not sure why "all warm" is a bad thing here. I think the eye still dances due to changes in texture, sheen and value.
But I don't agree that everything has a red base.. that Congo table doesn't read red to me at all.
And, um, "sheer" linen, no?
Pale mossy green, pulled from the rug, is what I'd like here. The rug is great.
But the yellow isn't awful. It does seem a bit peachy, though.
Maybe the yellow is problematic in person, but it doesn't bug me in the photo. However, I agree with valerie that a mossy green pulled from the rug would accomplish what you want. If you want it to be pale, then possibly some version of the green that Restoration Hardware uses, but I'd like it to be more more medium than really, truly pale.
I agree with Elizabeth about the "waiting room" aspect, but think it's due to the lack of anything on the walls. Judging from the photograph I'd say the color is fine, the composition balanced - and maybe that's the problem: it's too finely tuned already, and thus perhaps too static. That I cannot conjure up in my mind anything that cries out to be added is perhaps what brings to mind instead the epithet "waiting room." On the other hand I could as easily say it's fine, don't fret so much. This well may be a case of the proverbial "too many cooks spoil the..." And thank you: just seeing the particular Benjamin Moore color, for me, useful and informative.
I like the wall color. I like walls in a soft golden color (it always feels italian to me). I think more critical in selecting a wall color is the quality of natural light. I love the soft 'restoration hardware' greens and had planned to use them in my apartment but on some walls the soft blue and gray greens read as a flat cement gray and on others the soft yellow greens read acid yellow - not what I had imagined at all.
Anyway, my point is that it is difficult to answer without knowing much about the light.
The room needs something - it's too showroom with furniture, lamp, pillows and rugs just purchased -- it's a start but it has a long way to go. there is no peronality at all. maybe it would benefit from accents in cool sharp colors that pop.
How about some more interesting pillows, faux fur or a fun pattern? Then some wall art that you love and some plants! Foliage is my favorite way to add some cool color. And a real side table that you can have your stuff on. It's not adding clutter in a room that bare, you need a spot for magazines and plants and not just the lone architectural lamp. Give it some personality and the paint color will be fine.
I actually really like that yellow (I agree that it looks very Italian) although I wouldn't have chosen it for that room myself. That said, I think it just needs to be tied in more, with pillows, etc.
Hmmmm... on my monitor, the wall yellow is a dead match with the left-most pillow on the couch that faces us, as well as with one shade of the wavy pattern in the rug. Another part of the rug pattern dead matches the orangy pillow.
The one thing I wish I was seeing was a large enough table to carry the green up solely in the form of a vase of white flowers with some leaves. I want to add just a tiny bit of coolness to such a hot room.
I think it's a little unfair to judge the success of this (or any) room based on just one shot... especially when that one pic was primarily intending to portray wall color...
And, um, I think the client is fine with the end result, it sounds like... even though seems like Mark wanted it ultimately to go another way.
Looks like the homeowner punted on wall color if you ask me. A better choice would have been something like Benjamin Moore's "August Morning". And are those couches identical?? . And don't even get me started on the rug- the only word that comes to mind is "vomitrocious"...
To off set the red, I would go toward a pecan, or chocolate brown wall.Any pictures hung on the wall, I would use a contrasting frames, depending on their style.Gold and brown are elegant,a gun metal silver, chic. Black would be too dark, ivory or white, fresh. Good luck!