I received this question in my email this morning in response to a post on my "other blog".
"hi.. i found you somehow and need help please!! i would like to paint my front room a green, I think. Everyone seems to like the restoration hardware silver sage.. what do you think? Is it too grey? Would the Sherwin Williams sea salt be better? I would like a nice tone.. not too grey or green. I am usually pretty traditional..pottery barn style.
My front room has a deep forest green leather sofa and two matching traditional bombay wing back herringbone plaid chairs and bown bookcase with light brown carpet. The end table is heavy circle and brown wood. Any ideas on paint color? Very large front window.. so i get good light.. thank you"
I underlined and emphasized the furniture issues, deep forest green leather sofa and plaid herringbone chairs.
Let's assume that the sofa is this color of green leather.
Or a little deeper green like the one above.
And the herringbone plaid chairs a bit busier as below.
This is a hard question to answer, as I am an agent and not a "decorator". For staging a home I would not use a green wall with a green sofa and plaid chairs. In fact the main reason I would use a color would be to highlight an architectural feature of a home such as a high cathedral or vaulted ceiling, and not to blend furnishings, which change from owner to owner.
When you have a green leather sofa, I would avoid green in the room, especially paint on the walls. Mixing green tones in a room is dangerous! You have to match the tone of the sofa, and that is not easy to do, nor is it necessarily going to give you the desired result! Plus the wall color has to blend room to room, and matching the sofa tone and trying to carry that color theme through the home is not likely going to work out well from an "entire home" perspective.
Can you see other rooms from this room? Rarely do I do a color on the wall unless the furniture patterns are quite neutral. A brown leather sofa would lend itself better to a green wall behind, then a green leather sofa. Herringbone plaind wingchairs are usually better suited to a background in the most neutral tone in the plaid, and not green at all.
I would be more inclined to use a color like Oak Ridge with a deep green leather sofa to play up the warm tones of the herringbone chair, without clashing with the green sofa tone. For selling a house, the neutral wall would lend itself better to a new owner's furniture as well.
Another option that is both green AND neutral would be a popular Sherwin Williams "green" called "Guilford Green" which is the second color chip on the right. This brings just a bit of green without feeling like you are in "The GREEN ROOM" in the White House. Only the White House can get away with rooms being completely different in color throughout. I've never seein a home that can truly carry separate rooms of dramatically different color themes as The BLUE Room and the The Green Room. Only The White House seems to be able to get away with that.
I think Guildford Green is about as green as you want to go with a green sofa. "Van Allen Green" is another good choice, and possibly the better choice, depending on what colors are in the Herringbone Plain Wing Chairs.
Those would be my choices as they are not too green, just a hint of green, and not grey either. But I am assuming that there are tan or brown or rust tones in the herringbone chair.
If the questioner would email me a photo of the room as is and a close up of the plaid in the chair, I would be happy to take another shot at it :)
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