Hi we have put red brown alder laminate floors in our L-shaped livingroom and diningroom. My sofa & couch & arm chair & ottoman are a dark grey blue color. My walls are a medium beige color. My tv stand & audio stand is black. My piano and diningroom suite is a medium dark brown. Collection of stuff over the years! Question is I would like to make some throw cushions and maybe dininging room chair seats matching. What color would look good. I do not have any decorating flair. Please help. Thanks in advance.
-- The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child.
One really doesn't need a major amount of "decorating flair" to pick good color -- just a basic understanding of color. For those who never studied art, an elementary color wheel would help to see what colors "go together," so to speak. You can find a simple one at
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or a more in-depth illustration of color theory and wheels at
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Otherwise, I can see why you'd be annoyed at your collection of colors, BUT -- unless all that stuff is in a single room unseparated by walls, IMO you're associating ALL your stuff with each other in a big global sense instead of associating what's in each room only with what's in that room. In fact, that's why it's perfectly acceptable for separate rooms to have entirely separate personalities and color schemes. There's no law that says everything HAS to match perfectly; in fact, there's one particular train of design thought that says a big hodgepodge of colors and furniture styles in one room is an attractive thing. It's called ecletic. Attractive for some, but rarely so for those with more-traditional sensibilities.
You don't need to match everything to the same color family (aka monochromatic) -- just get them *closer* to each other than they are. In fact, monochromatic rooms can be downright boring -- and seems to me that you've worked your way toward making for an overly dark room. You need some color, IMO. Unfortunately, most people are afraid of color.
You can't do much if anything about the brown-family floor, table and the piano, obviously, but that's OK because those things work together. The walls are OK since beige is a neutral color and goes with everything, which is why a lot of people paint their walls beige. In the future, if you ever get sick of beige, you might want to get a little color into your life (I'm personally so sick of beige walls that I don't even consider it a color anymore. Uck.) by going to softer/pastel tones of yellow, green or a dusty pink (more of a blue-hued pink than the red-hued pink most people associate with the color pink), which are somewhat neutral-friendly because those colors go with a lot. Since they're cheap, you could dump the black AV stand any buy a real wood stand in a mid-tone oak shade, or if you don't have the cash for a new one, paint it a nice informal shade of blue (not too light, not too dark) to go with the couch since those two pieces of casual furniture are closely associated with each other. As for the throw cushions, I'd go with something very light and very bright that contrasts with the gray-blue material of the couch for a major splash of accent color. Off-white or bright yellow would be my first choice, but if they're not yours, a bright blue. You could also slipcover the couch to a perkier color in the blue or yellow/orange (which goes with brown family that ar your walls, piano and dining furnniture) family.
One of the main things you're dealing with is the alder wood (a yellow based wood, usually) working against the blue upholstery. The first thing to consider are your biggest surface areas: walls, large furniture, then floors. If you can get these under control, then the pillows are a "no brainer" ;-)
No, there's no law that says you have to have everything match, but even eclectic settings need to have some relationship between the things in the room-- I mean, you wouldn't mix a Victorian loveseat with a Shaker-style chair because of the styles (ornate vs. plain)-- some things just don't make sense together!
Regarding color, I think the real question is :
A) Do you like being surrounded by all these things you have collected-- do they make you feel warm and fuzzy?
OR
B) Is it giving you a headache to have all this different stuff happening at the same time?
If you have a stress-filled life, you just might want some peace and quiet when you get home, and having complimentary colors around you might help you get calm you down, rather than dealing with a jumble of different colors, shapes and textures. If so, you might want to consider painting your walls in a shade of blue that is friendly to the floor and that blends the upholstery into the background. Look at the floor when you're in it the most. Squint your eyes-- is it more red or more yellow (it will be one of these two primary colors). Go to the paint store and tell the salesperson you want a blue with just a dash of one of those two colors. If they don't know what's in their paint, go somewhere else!
With that taken care of, your choice of color and fabric for the pillows will be a lot easier. You'll get a lot more bang for the buck with a coat of paint than buying a floor full of pillows!
I would think about this before you do anything: how do you want to FEEL in the room when you're there?
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