apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Great couch -- I'll take it!

As for color -- I don't think you have anything to worry about.

love it, i'll take second dibs.

Swap out your pillows with ones that coordinate with the couch/bring in some bright colors! It will look great!

What's the problem?
Is this the actual room?
What is a "more brightly colored room"?

Paint the walls a Putty color if you want something else besides stark white walls.

You could paint the wall behind it a pale smokey color to tone down the contrast. Maybe one of the greens, blues, or beiges pulled from your rug & pillows. Otherwise, as Aaron says, it already coordinates well.

Loose the little throw pillows and purchase, make or have made three pillows the width of each seat cushion (but not higher than the back of the sofa), in silk or perhaps a beaded fabric. A similar or darker color for the new cushions will make the sofa more sleek. Balance some art work -more horizontal than vertical - with the sofa and I think the plum would work just fine.
Cheers, designbyphoto
http://www.designbyphoto.com/Site%206/Home.html

I really like it as is, and the color of the couch is gorgeous. I think designbyphoto is right about the art, though. Something more horizontal, and perhaps introducing some additional colors, would tie it together well.

I agree! The sofa looks great to me, plus it coordinates with the rug and other furniture.

If the room pictured is not the room where the sofa will be located, the color should still work, short of your walls being painted some sort of flourescent color. Brightly colored walls will almost always coordinate with darker colored or stained furniture.

A steely gray color on the walls or even just one wall would make it rock, especially with the contrast of the wood pieces ~

agree with the bigger art suggestion - and i would pick up the green in the carpet and do the lighter cushions in that shade.

I think the main problem is the rug. Although I like it, it does contribute to the "old lady" vibe when paired with the couch.

Try finding a rug that has that plum shade in it--along with the orange you have going and whatever else you want to bring in. Perhaps something fun and a bit more graphic? A mid-scale design perhaps? A pattern would help soften the blockiness of the couch.

I used to have a navy sectional before my wife moved in... in a living room w/ white walls and very light beige carpeting. I painted one wall of the living room a matching dark blue as an accent wall (not one the couch was next to, and I got an area rug that had a combination of jewel tones and some lighter ones, as well as some throw pillows that matched the colors in the rug. I really liked the contrast of the look. Lo and behold, when my wife moved in, we kept her tan section because it was a sleeper, too. I actually just sold the navy sectional this weekend after 4 years in a storage locker, hoping it'd be used again.

PS--the rug needs to have lots of cream/white in it.

I also have a dark couch going in a bright room.. Originally, I really wanted a sleek grey tweed and do a really modern grey living room with white accents and maybe even electric yellow stuff like a ceramic or a cushion.. Like what Banana Republic does with colours on a seasonal basis (right now, they're doing grey and lobster)...

But I'm with you, I have no idea what to do as now it will be a dark couch in a lighter room.. I was thinking of doing something in a similar family...

For this couch, it would be kind of nice if you did a chinchilla or some kind of grey/taupe that has a little magenta/plum in it.

I would even go with a light colour for three walls but a darker accent wall behind this couch. Like a midnight kind of black would be kinda neat but trendy.

But I would go with a grey. Some kind of neutral grey.

without the original quesiton asker----i think this is the room the couch is in, she is inheriting it, and then it will be in a different room.
can we see pics of the room you need to put it into?

It's beautiful. Maybe use artwork and other accessories to bring the room together. Throw some bright pillows on there and I bet you'll be all set. I understand your concern because we have a heavy, dark moss colored sofa and armchair set and we worried that they wouldn't go with our gray-and-aqua walls but it all came together seamlessly in the end.

The couch is great. I would just go crisper, with crisp white or orange pillows instead of the mushy-looking ones and white or light-gray walls. I agree w/ all of the above about the art. There are a lot of floral, country-leaning objects in the room (rugs/art) & I would steer clear of that and go in a more up-to-date direction art & accessories-wise.

1. The sofa needs new cushions - the old ones are kinda sloppy. Sliver grey shiny ones would look good. Keep it down to one or two colours. And don't overload it like in the photo.

2. The "thing" above the sofa needs to go. Especially if you are keeping the rug. Too many patterns.

The couch looks a lot like the one in an apartment I recently looked at, http://www.finn.no/16289603

The dusty pink color looked great with the white walls and the light wood. Better IRL than in pictures IMHO.

If this is the actual room, then you have nothing to fear but if this is not the room, still, I think this sofa may help to anchor the new room for giving it a darker color will help to contrast w/ the lighter colors going on, unless the room is mostly one color, such as white and it's varying shade then it might stand out quite a bit but think of it this way, it could be the single punch of color that you sometimes see in b&w photography where only one element is in color while the rest is varying shades of gray.

In that case, embrase it but it would help if we had more info, a pic of the room it's going into to better help you.

And a possibility is that what if the plum won't go with what you have already? then it might be a problem but a slip cover in an appropriate color may be an answer.

I also have a dark couch coming into my normally bright room, right now it's full of chincy ikea furniture (Which is why I'm buying the new couch, old one broke; no, not a good story either) and has lots of bright red colour in the room. The couch I am getting is a super dark eggplant mohair, it looks really good but it doesn't go with my current decor, so I've been looking for a new rug and trying to decide what to do with the walls.

I want to have a lot more colour so I'm opting for a light minty-green on the walls in the living room, and then I'm going to have a friend paint a mural on this one real big wall. I think the green would look really good with the very dark colour of the couch.

As far as the rug goes, I'm looking for something plum/violet-ish with lots of white/cream colour in it. Or really just something cream colored with a few light colored accents. I'm really not sure what my friend is going to do with the mural so I'm kind of waiting on that before I go buy other stuff...oh, that and the fact that good rugs are FLIPPIN EXPENSIVE!

Hi, aaah thanks everyone is wonderful. This is the room it will be in, but the rest of the furniture is going to be replaced. The rug will stay but that's about it.

I've got an ikea poang chair in beech with a brown cushion but I'm planning on replacing it, I just don't know with what yet. The room is rather big, with huge west facing windows that bring in A LOT of light. The other things in the room are a beautiful 75g planted fish tank with a black oak stand and a big dining room table that I need to figure out new chairs for. If I can I'll post pictures of it.

I also need to figure out how to coordinate some sort of an entertainment center for a 46 inch lcd and 600 dvds without looking tacky. I was looking at the ikea stuff (student budget) but it's all looking really bulky and I want to open up the space as much as possible. Whatever coffee table I get needs to be functional because my boyfriend and I end up eating most of our meals in front of the tv despite all efforts.

If anyone has suggestions on where to go for an affordable rug it would be greatly appreciated, I think I'm going to go to etsy for the pillows. Can anyone suggest a good seller? Once again, THANKS!!!! This site is the best.

Oh, ps the building has a rule that at least 80% of the floor needs to be covered.

Can you put this rug under the dining room table, and then a more neutral one in the area next to the couch? Perhaps the jute rug from Ikea.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60050172

I've seen dark purple being paired with light grey or white walls and apple green accent colors...
Cheap Jute rug paired with white coffe table from ikea should do the job..

The post that was right below this shows a wonderful example of some fabric that would help tie the light and dark together.

Take a look:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/green-ideas/modern-ecofriendly-bedding-from-amenity-080699

About Affordable rugs

The cheapest source for nice affordable rugs is a good carpet store with a nice supply of remnants. Pick out an appropriately sized remnant or a giant one the store is willing to cut and then have it bound as a rug. You can also simply order carpet bound as well. Padding for the remnant can be bought cheap at Ikea, Home Depot, Lowes or a building supply.