apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Take a cue from the photo: It's the neutrals and white that make this appear greyish.

The blue walls, blue carpet in your place would make anything - grey, white, even some shades of green - appear blue.

where is this couch from? i love it! it would be perfect for my den.

The couch may have appeared grey in the store, because of the lighting conditions and room setting, I'd start with a few basics and try them out to see how they look. Colors that naturally lean heavily toward grey but aren't pure grey like a white with a grey undertone, grey stone, grey brown.

"where is this couch from?"

West Elm

I second taking your cue from the photo, the couch looks grey in it

You may also need to try using light bulbs that cast a whiter light. Tungsten lighting gives off a yellow hue and a lot of CFLs cast a pinkish hue which can change the appearance of any color.

I have this sofa, and I have neutral tones and it grey in my house

Darker charcoal grey, taupes, browns, silver. Gold-bronze would warm it up too.

I just spent some time playing with the picture in photoshop (yay for the Hue\Saturation adjustment!) Warm neutrals do seem the best at greying out the color of the sofa.. take a look at all the colors in the wood chunk being used as a table and the warmer tones at the top of the wood shutter. Ones similar to those those work really well, but there is leeway /- brightness, and to the yellow, orange sides.. Definitely stay away from cool colors, though.

I love the gold/bronze suggestion! My first thought was ivory or yellow.

orange

Just from color theory in art class setting a mixed color next to a primary (like a purple next to red) will make the mixed color seem more like the primary (purple will appear more pink). Just like setting your blue-gray sofa next to blue makes it appear bluer.
Likewise setting a mixed color (purple) next one of it's bases (blue) compliment (complement to blue is orange) will make it appear more like that base. So a blue-gray sofa next to orange is going to look more blue.
Unfortunately there is no compliment on the color wheel to gray. But setting the sofa it next to some other grays will make it appear grayer, also avoid blues and oranges.
I would go for grays with a small amount of purple and neutrals with just a hint of yellow (like the fuzzy cushion and the wood end-table in the photo) to make the sofa seem a little more purple. If you can, take a swatch of the fabric when you go paint shopping and hold it next to different swatches to see how the color affects the way the fabric looks.

Grey is an interesting color that can really change based on colors nearby, the type of light, and the time of day. Before you paint, bring in a whole variety of paint chips in whatever color(s) you are considering and see what happens when placed near the sofa. Test it in bright light and shadow, and at night too before making a decision.

I agree with those above who said to go with greys and neutrals. Anything complementary to blue (i.e. orange) will bring out the blue more.

One of the best investments I ever made was to buy a roll of parchment paper, pull off long strips (full width by about 18 inches), take my final few favorite paint chip colors and get sample pots, paint the paper, and then hang those around in various lighting conditions. It completely changed my final choices! Highly recommended if you're not a designer who can pick colors in a heartbeat...

Wow, everyone has given you such great ideas already. If you wanted to really change the look of it, you could have just the backrest pieces reupholstered in a fabric that includes more of the colors you'd like to bring out. They look like they would pop right off and I doubt they'd cost a lot to do.