Although white and gray sofas have been trending in the last few years, a brown sofa is also a nice neutral color that you can work with to create just about any color scheme. So even if such a sofa may feel like a dark hole that dictates everything else in the room, it is still just as easy to accessorize as any other sofa.
My sis-in-law (we’ll call her VW) and her hubby are moving to a new home this coming April, and she’s super excited about having a fresh start for her living room! However, she has felt a bit stuck with a common problem: how to make the room cheery and bright when they own a large, billowy dark brown sofa?
The key is to balance the brown of the sofa with light colors in the walls and floor, and have pops of color thru the room with items such as pillows, decorations, side chairs, and wall art.
Some examples:
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| via bhg.com |
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| via decoholic |
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| via bhg.com |
VW was tired of her current dark living room and wanted to go “more bold” and play with bright colors, so she asked me to help her sort out some ideas she was playing with for the room, starting by showing me some items she had saved from Joss & Main.
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We discovered that her style is an eclectic cottage feeling – fun and comfortable.
Next it was going through the colors she wanted to play with; VW was visualizing turquoise, orange-y coral, and bits of yellow. Here’s what inspired her color scheme:
She really wanted to add a colorful pop of furniture under her future bay window. I did a quick search on Pinterest for coral furniture and sent her the piece below – she loved it!
You can get this exact coral color using a mix of General Finishes Coral Crush and Persimmon milk paints.
Their paints are amazing and easy to use, and I have a whole tutorial for prepping furniture to paint!
Aha! So now the ball began to roll…
Her future living room also has dark brown carpet, so to continue with the theme of brightening the room, we wanted to add a rug to the mix that would be in the beige/white family. Same for the wall color, in which it would be great if it were Sherwin William’s Grecian Ivory or something similar in a light warm tone:
An example of Grecian Ivory in a room (it’s on the walls in the pic below):
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| via Houzz |
I now knew her style, preferred colors, and the feeling she wanted in the room, so now it was onto creating a mood board!
1.// Bird Side Chairs are from Wayfair – I can’t believe how perfect they are, containing all 3 colors she wanted, AND they flow with her original inspiration piece!
2.// White Honeycomb Lamp from World Market. I was excited when I found this lamp base that is very similar to the vase she had favored in her Joss&Main list! Here is another honeycomb lamp but without the holes.
3.// Turquoise velvet pillows are always such a lovely shade and texture (and these are just gorgeous and come in lots of colors!), and then these yellow honeycomb pillows give such a fun, vibrant vibe and eye-catching design!
4.// the Rug was on Joss&Main, but I found this similar rugs with gray lines instead of brown, or you could also use a nice jute rug!
VW was very happy with the board and she can’t wait even more now to move and start decorating. With this board she’ll now have a great visual for what works in the room as she goes shopping, and I’m now on the lookout for a buffet or dresser I can paint for her in the coral+persimmon combo, which I’m REALLY looking forward to as they’re colors I’ve been yearning to try!
Any of you moving or wanting to refresh a room in your home? Do you start with creating a mood board or collect things you love as you find them?
Shared On: motivationmonday, dotelltuesday, hitmewithyourbestshot, fromdreamstoreality
