What Colors Go With Orange? Try These 10 Combinations

In years past (well, since the 1970s, anyway), orange was likely not a color you pined for in your home. But that’s not the case anymore! Now, trendy shades of orange are coming back into popularity in a big way, including exciting color combos that can liven up any space (wait till you see orange and navy together!).

Don’t write off this cousin of red before you’ve done your homework: orange furniture, paint, or accents can bring the perfect touch of warmth, energy and excitement into your home, if you pair it with the right colors and accents. Here, we’ll show you how to strike the right balance so your space will look interesting and sophisticated rather than over-the-top and shocking (or like it’s off the set of That ’70s Show). If you love the color but need a little guidance as to what to pair it with, read on for five of our favorite orange-centric palettes.

Orange and blue are well-known complementary colors, but if you’re stumped on specific shades, take a cue from the living room of this colorful North Carolina home. Benjamin Moore’s “Blue Macaw” paint, a saturated sapphire, punctuates the bright orange sofa and matching bookcase, both from Italian furniture brand Tomasella.

Both earthy tones, orange and green work shockingly well together in a home. This London townhome even doubles down on the combo with both a punchy orange-and-white patterned rug and reddish-orange sofa. The different shades feel unique and not overly matchy-matchy, especially juxtaposed by the teal-green “Mid Azure Green” paint color from Little Greene.

For fans of mid-century modern style, you can’t go wrong mixing and matching dark wood furniture with orange. In this artist and graphic designer’s Australia home, sculptural Verner Panton chairs surround a vintage brown dining table — both of which you can find replicas or lookalikes of at a local high-end thrift shop.

Former Apartment Therapy staffer Kayla Shannon coated the majority her 375-square-foot studio in Lick Paint’s dusty “Orange 03 Matt.” As for her bedroom nook, she hung a large-scale red painting that further accentuates the warm paint tone and establishes a colorful-meets-cozy allure. To recreate this palette, try finding a more muted, subdued orange to offset red’s fiery, deeper tones (or vice versa, depending on which color you want to look more prominent).

This cozy, cheerful German home largely relies on soft pastel shades — as seen via the lavender paint color and matching light-toned decor — which makes the best backdrop for a bright orange accent to pop. The sculptural vase on top of the sideboard proves that even the smallest orange touches can pack a huge visual impact, with a relatively low decorating commitment.

Orange and navy combine for a classic, elegant look that’s hard to beat. Australian children’s book author Jo Dabrowski pulled this off well in her whimsical Melbourne bungalow, opting for a navy color base along the walls with a matching sofa. A bright accent chair supplies the orange that serves as the perfect contrast. 

If you’re still skeptical of decorating with orange, try combining it with touches of light pink or coral — thanks to their similar pigments, they subtly complement one another well. This railroad-style Brooklyn apartment plays up the pink and orange palette with Benjamin Moore’s “Springtime Peach” and “Calypso Orange” for distinct living room accent walls that skew put-together and cohesive overall.

Content creator Ananya of @athomewithananya painted the bookshelves in her 1850s London townhouse with Farrow & Ball’s “Dead Salmon” shade. The pink-brown, light taupe coloring complements the main focal point of the room — a burnt orange velvet sofa — and catches your eye without dominating the entire space.

There’s no shortage of pops of color in this neon, Memphis design-inspired Manchester flat (even down to the retro orange fridge), and cobalt blue walls make an eye-catching background for IKEA’s SÖDERHAMN sofa. You don’t need a huge furniture or paint makeover to maximize these shades, though: start small with throw pillows, wall art, or a rug.

Don’t be afraid to try all orange everything — or at least a matching sofa and floor-length mirror a la this ’70s-inspired Brooklyn rental. Bursts of orange brighten up the 400-square-foot studio, making it appear larger, and the renter also added smaller monochromatic accents like art, a side table, and a decorative swirl painted on the pink TV stand.