Help Coordinate Paint Colors With Living Room Decor

by Jeanne
(Bristol, TN)

Dilemma:

I need help choosing and coordinating paint colors with my existing decor.

The carpet and sectional are tan. The rug is multi colored. The dining room set is fabric burgundy.

There's a new french door we put in two days ago, and dark wood trim and doors throughout the house.

The pictures were taken on a cell phone and may not be very big. Thank you in advance for your help and ideas!

Critique:

Jeanne, whenever there's 3 or more colors present in the decor, it's better to re-use one of them on the walls. Otherwise things can start looking too busy and all over the place.

So that's what we are going to do with your living and dining room area - we'll use one of the multiple colors you already have in the space.

Since we have several colors to choose from, we need to use the process of elimination in order to zoom in on just one color.

So let's take a look around:

• We can't use the color of the sectional on the walls, because you already have several different shades of beige in the room - painting the walls beige will do nothing to unify the room color scheme. Instead, in a situation like this, you need "real" color to distract from the mismatch of neutrals, and pull it all together.



• The white found in the area rug would be wrong on the walls as well - because you have primarily earthy colors in your decor that wouldn't work with white. Plus, your living/dining room area doesn't get enough natural light, and white needs a LOT of light to look good.



• The violet is usually not the best choice for living/dining room areas, especially in an open floor house (difficult to transition). Besides, there is not enough of it in your decor to make an obvious connection.



• The same goes for this particular shade of blue in your rug - for that reason, it's also out.



• The burgundy would be too much and too dark for these rooms. And if you lighten it up, you end up with pink ;)

So, what are we left with? It's green of course!


A light shade of green will unify your entire color scheme and coordinate beautifully with your decor.

In the living room, it will be a great backdrop for your couch (because your couch has a green undertone to it). In the dining room, it will really offset your burgundy furniture (because green and red are complements).

Just choose one of the lighter green squares in the rug to match your wall paint color to. And don't worry about being exact because just like in nature, even different shades of green play well together!

So there you have it - an easy and effective method for choosing and coordinating paint colors with existing decor.

I hope this lesson was helpful!