I recently bought a new house and am having some trouble deciding on color. I read your post [about LR rugs] where you suggested the Pottery Barn Blithe rug. I bought this rug for my living room and am trying to decide how to best use the colors.
My biggest problem is that my living room and dining room are open so I want it to flow right. I also have an area attached to my living room that was was converted from a porch. I painted this area red and the dining room blue and I am not at all happy with it. As you can see, I have dark trim and wood floors so I was trying to brighten up the space.
I need these three rooms to flow. Please help! Thanks so much,
Amanda
Ah yes, the Blithe rug. I still think it’s very pretty.
You’re absolutely right that your lovely stained trim will drag things down unless they’re tamed into submission. Avoiding wall colors that are too dark and heavy is a good strategy here.
I suggest that we:
– Choose warm colors. One of the reasons that light blue DR might not be working is that it’s too icy
– Limit ourselves to 2 colors, using the same color in the sunroom and LR
– Keep the LR lighter and more neutral and use a stronger color in the DR
Bearing in mind that proper use of color sometimes requires restraint, I suggest a rich cream for the LR and a medium orange or green for the DR. For creams, test Benjamin Moore’s AF-315 Jicama (yellower) and OC-88 Indian White (beiger). We’re looking for a color richer than the background color of the rug.
As for the DR, 2 oranges I’ve had great luck with are 2166-40 Soft Pumpkin and 2157-40 Beeswax. Likely the Beeswax, since it’s lighter.
Green would be the bossier option, because I want to keep a lot of yellow in it. (Green is inherently a cool color, but we can warm it up.)
I suggest 2150-40 Spring Dust or 2146-30 Split Pea.
Now that I think about it, Split Pea is SUPER bossy.
Please promise me that you’ll test all of these colors. The wall colors do not have to match colors in the rug perfectly (in fact, we don’t really want them to). But we do need to make sure that the rug and sofa are appropriately complemented.
Promise? Good.
Best of luck, Amanda!