Uh... now that I have red curtains....

Well, there you go! That's perfect then. Use the same acidy sage in the dining room if it matches the curtains perfectly and there isn't much wall! It will provide that "flow" of color I mentioned before. (And it will look different with all the red accents.)

Yeah but at a certain point you leave flow behind for redundancy. If I do go with green it would be something browner.

And, like I said, complementary colors reinforce each other and I want something more subtle than that.

The curtains in the living room pick up the green in the entry, then the curtains in the dining room pick up the red accents in the living room, so I think it all flows without all being the same.

I like a lot of subtle texture and variation.

Update. I'd love to know what you think. It's taking me a bit to get used to....

(Plus, I'm trying to decide if I'm brave enough to paint my living room such a dark brown (as seen in the lower half of this room (my living room is almost all windows though)))

Before:



After (same corner):



Just to give you a better idea of the colors without all the glare:

I like it. I especially like how the lower color matches the fringe at the bottom of the curtains. It kind of weights the room (and the curtains) down. Not sure if I said exactly what I meant there.

it seems kind of broken up to me

when I first looked at the after, I thought I didn't like the brown

on second, third ... viewings, I realize it's the trim

too much going on for my sensibilities, and I simply am not a fan of white (or what appears to be white) trim in a room that has two wall colours and bold window coverings

I like the top colour, I really like how the brown reads with the fringe (at least on this monitor) . I think I might have gone with brown as the trim colour - and the top colour as the colour for the balance of the room. Mebbe. The white trim's really throwing me off.

<applause> I like it very much!

Is the dark brown close to the same as the "cocoa" color in the kitchen?

It's interesting to me how different colors appeal in different parts of the country. When my sister moved from Oklahoma (typical clear blue skies, extreme hot & cold) to Seattle (cold, damp and gray), she found that the neutrals she'd loved before didn't have enough color to satisfy her. She craved warm, bright, flower-like hues instead...presumably to counteract the rainy climate.

Agree with ehBeth regarding the white trim. It makes the room way too busy.

Not quite liking the choice of colors. Can't quite pin down what it is that I'm not liking about them. It may be that they are not in the same color hue (one seems reddish and the other greenish) and they seem to be rather muddy.

Have to look at it some more.

Coincidence, Eva, I was just talking about that on the jewel colors thread.


I'm not loving the brown, am fine with the top color. But if it feels right to you that's what matters.

I like it, especially the upper color. I almost can see a bouquet of sunflowers on the table to make it perfect!

I see the comments about the white trim, it bothers me too. But I like white trim a lot of the time, so I'm trying to figure this out - it seems extra white white. The dividing trim adds to the busy brightness of the trim, I liked it without in the earlier photo, if I remember right. And I see what Butrfly is saying about the colors. I'm wondering what a lighter version of the bronzey green brown would look like. I said I like the top color, but also not in love with it. But.. again, it's not me that has to be pleased.

I'm a big fan of white trim.
Some day, I'll have to share pictures of my house...

For me, the three colors aren't working so well together with the curtains.
When I hold my hand over the top or bottom, it's not the yellow with the white trim that bothers me or the brown with the white trim, so I'm thinking it's the yellow and brown combo.

I just recently painted my kitchen, where I have a chair rail. It isn't easy to pick two wall colors to go with each other and everything else -at least it wasn't for me.
I solved it by using lighter and darker of the same color. And only a couple of shades different.

My suggestion -maybe a darker shade of the yellow?
But, sometimes it takes awhile to pick a color. I think you painting sections and living with it before deciding is definitely the way to go!

And if your living room is big and bright, I think painting the brown in there, would be fine and fun!

Ooops. Should have mention that I have not yet painted the trim.

The colors actually go together pretty good (Benjamin Moore Affinity "Carob" and "Honeymoon") so I'm thinking maybe the whiteness of the trim is throwing things off. The trim will be more of an ivory color. Or, maybe it's the red. Still, the yellow is the same yellow as in the curtain so that shouldn't really be a problem. Maybe I'll do a glaze over the yellow..... hmmm..... The yellow will be easy to change.

I did end up going a bit lighter on the yellow than I had originally intented knowing that I could go darker but I think once I get pictures hung up it will balance out better.

I really like the brown color. Our living room is big enough to handle a dark color but this might be just a bit too dark. Maybe I'll use this on the fireplace and go lighter on the walls..

Yay, caribou's here.

I've done a room in dark chocolate with white trim - might not do that today, but I loved that room. So I've been trying to pinpoint my discomfort.
I think I don't like the added trim between windows, and would like just one color as background for the curtains, which are gorgeous.

I'm responding to one post at a time, if I sound insane..

On the brown green - I'm still interested in bronze. One thing we did in the gallery is make room 2's tall wall lighter by a smidge, and that turned out to require several smidges, than the first room with the 15 foot high windows in front, since room 2 was naturally much darker. (Well, room two also had a lime fin wall, which helped cut any sense of gloom.)

Eva, there is a lot of truth in this:



The light is very different here, but I had the opposite reaction to your sister -- I went from using "clean" colors to more subdued, "muddier" shades since they're softer and mimic the light.

Did you suffer from SAD? Sis did. I think her yellow living room walls were a form of self-therapy.

She's been up there for 20 years now, and she's just now returning to muted shades.

This is very nice discussion and the topic which is discussed here i really appreciate that people cooperated with each here in a very mature way.