apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The trickiness of off-greens reminded me of a wonderful pocket-sized book: Colorist by Shigenobu Kobayashi.

Among other interesting moves in dealing with subtle distinctions between, say, a gray-green and a muted blue-green, the author sorts sets of related colors into the "moods" that they go with. Your green sofa is probably in little danger of attracting earthtones, as it seems to fall somewhere in the chic-fashionable-elegant range.

The book gives guidance on triangulating your way to the right accent red, too.

Lighest hues of blues, bluegreens, i.e., ice blue, robyn's egg blue

How about a cool (as in tone) orange, like sherbet? It would look nice with the light blue wall too...Or how about a Chinese orangy-red...?

I agree with the warm grey off-white for walls

Orangey red could be a great accent color with this. The sofa makes me think of the sea with accents of coral.

Lots of white too:

I have a similar sofa and have covered the four big cushions in a contrasting fabric (zip off covers) and put two big ones in each corner. I've deployed the small cushions on other chairs. I think it updated the look of the sofa. I'd do white covers and maybe a coral and white lumbar cushion in the center.

aqua blue, yellow, orange, tomato-red ( all of the same hues)

OR

Hot pink, purple ( yellow or orange) a shade of blue

OR

get a pottery barn catalogue and browse through their section of linens ( mostly from India i guess) - you will get a color tray that will soothe all moods and seasons

grey-based tones can be tricky to combine with brights. You could always consider re-covering the sofa (either slip-cover or re-upholstery). Don't design around something unless you love it.

And for the pillow covers, if you wanted something like that and are a non-sewer, the Company Store does them in a lot of different sizes.

They have white cotton and ruby velvet, which might be interesting.

this is probably grossly inappropriate, but the color that shot into my mind when i looked at that photo of your new couch against that blue wall was 'international orange'.

you know, the bright reddish orange that the golden gate bridge is painted with. i don't know what you should do with it (i guess it might be kind of hard to go out to your local textile/design accesory store and say "so what do you have in international orange?"), but i think if you incorporated that shade into the room somehow it would be really cool.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_orange

another great option might be the saffron tones Christo and Jeanne-Claude used in their Gates installation in Central Park, of which many beautiful photos, sketches, prints, etc. have been made so it would be an interesting art option. unless you hate Christo, of course.

This is quite similar to my sofa color, which I chose myself. I was actually shocked at how neutral it was because when I picked out the color I was imagining something much more blue. anyway, the color palette I'm using is metallic gold, coraly pink, and ivory. If the coral pink type color is too girly, i also liked the idea of chocolate brown and pumpkin too. Different golds also went very well, so your inclination toward yellow is probably not all that far off!

re: "I was going to use a variety of blues and silvers"

Seems to me that plan could still stay very much in play, but that original plan did not seem too vibrant, unless you were talking cobalt.

But, um, can we stop assigning gender associations to color ("girlie purple")? The NY State Highway patrolmen wear "girly purple" ties...

That sofa is very much a "Restoration Hardware" color (in a good way). Maybe stop by your closest RH to see what they're pairing it with.

i was in the flatiron district restoration hardware last week, and they're very monochromatic in their displays lately. they had sage linens with sage walls and sage candles and all the rest - every textile or painted surface was the same color. and then their displays are set up to show off their color lines and how they have monochromatic matching EVERYTHING down to towels and hand lotion. it seemed like you'd have to get pretty creative and transcend their displays to get any real color inspiration. unless it inspired you to go monochromatic, which is always an option i guess.

Yes, it is *always* an option.

Monochromatic for walls and big pieces of furniture does have the advantage of providing a tasteful, restful, unified background that is really, really easy to update or seasonalize (is that a word?) with accessories.

Put up art that contains colors you love -- if you love colors at all -- and then changing the look of a monochromatic room is as simple as throw pillows, candles, flowers, and a couple of well-chosen tchotchkes. Complete rehab for under $100 if you get a good price on the pillows.

Now that p(too) has brought it up, I'm kind of liking the idea of that sofa with a heavily monochromatic scheme, including that green as a pattern with white, maybe with another accent that uses the same pattern in black and white or silver and white, and then some more of either the black or the silver. And I'm not usually attracted to mono...

yeah, i have to say that, while i'm not attracted to monochromia, the displays at RH were very restful.

and while i'm sitting here saying i'm not into the monochromatic look, that's just about what i'm going for in my bedroom now that i think on it. i'll have beachglass green walls once i get around to painting, my duvet is a similar blue/seafoam with white, and the rug is probably also going to be in the same color family as well. a lot of the art in my room is in fresh-but-subdued cool colors as well.

Well, blue-grey green can get some nice teals, and turquoise and, as someone suggested, aqua. Those are all cool and you can get as saturated and intense as you want. One thing about cobalt blue that's so good is that in its way it's saturated and brilliant and yet it's not garish at all.

I think the mercury glass lamp suggestion is wonderful, because it gives sparkle without an extra color, and it will reflect whatever other colors you do.

If you wanted to do some kind of warmth without actually earth tones, there could be some champage silver something in there. Off-hand I can only think of paint in that color, but I know it's in other things at the moment. Like there are probably pillows with something like that in there. It's not really a very yellowy gold, but it's just a tad warm.

today, i was rereading a recent issue of world of interiors, which featured julianne moore's townhouse, i think she sold it already. the living room was painted a deep color of grey, similar to the oversized grey sofa, the trim and doorways were white. it looked great and the sofa didn't seem so big because it blended into the walls, this could work for megan's sofa, painting the walls a green grey with white trim, then add warm accent items in natural colors with texture, like a mohair throw in icy grey and a large square pillow in congac. lamps like a large french or italian wine cask bottle base, an industrial steel floor lamp, and noguchi paper table or floor lamps would add contrast to the traditional sofa.

That sofa is growing on me more and more, partly because of listening to everyone's suggestions about what could happen with the colors in the room. We're just going to have to insist on "after" photos.

Personally I would go for a rich aubergine with that sofa but as you specifically said no purple then a pale turquoise for the walls and accents of browns everywhere else - cushions in warm beige silk, dark brown wood furniture, chocolate velvet curtains - really sophisticated - I don't think this would be "earthy" but would show off the colour of the sofa really well

Hi,
I just purchased a red sofa and matching loveseat last week along with two cream/khaki accent chairs and a red ottoman. The walls are a light beige/khaki and I really like the sage greens. Should I stick with the khaki's for accent pillows and such or go with more of the sage greens in the curtains, pillows, decor, etc.? Please Help!

Hi Again.
I have white kitchen cabinets, hunter green floors and i want to try a sage green ceramic countertop with red/burgandy walls, how would that look?