Open up almost any catalog, and you'll see room after room, all made up with furniture that is matched to a tee. Everything looks perfect, and it's all done to show how gorgeous a home can look, with a full set being sold by the advertiser. It's great, but let's face it, most of us don't have the money to buy full furniture sets in one sitting. But, does furniture color really need to match to look good? We've looked to the design experts to identify coordinating furniture colors to help you mix and match for any room.
When shopping for furniture, you do not have to match the color of your furniture pieces exactly. However, you do have to coordinate your furniture colors. This helps create a unified and visually appealing setting for your room, no matter the room you're working on decorating.
Being on the lookout for new furniture means that you probably wonder how you can get the best look with the resources you have in mind. Though it can be tough, it's always doable. This guide is here to help.
Is It Ok To Mix And Match Furniture?
Absolutely! In fact, mixing and matching is one of the hottest trends in interior design right now. While the old rules were that you couldn't mix and match, looking at any article about mixing and matching sofas and other furniture proves that things have changed. The key to mixing and matching your furniture (and furniture colors) is to know how to do it well. These tips below can help:
- If you have different chair colors, try to keep at least one element in common. For example, chairs of a different color should either have a similar design or should be made from the same material.
- The same rules that come into play regarding coordinating wall and carpet colors hold true for furniture, too.
- Keep your furniture in the same color palette as the rest of your room, unless you have a singular statement piece that you want to stand out.
- Contrasting colors are fine, but do it wisely and keep it in smaller doses.
- A quick way to make your furniture coordination work well is to choose colors that have similar values (light/darkness) to one another.
- When in doubt, coordinate your colors by choosing one focal color supported by one or two neutrals. It's a classic look.
What Are The Easiest Colors To Coordinate With?
Regardless of the color of your walls or even the focal color you choose, there will always be one category of colors that will work with your color palette: neutrals. Neutral colors are colors that do not have warm or cool undertones. They are literally neutral. Their entire shtick is that they go with everything!
Moreover, most neutrals have a way of making a room look larger than it really is, sometimes even adding an air of cleanliness to it. That's why most interior designers suggest having at least one neutral color in your room.
How Many Colors Should Be In A Room?
Officially, there is no limit on how many colors should be in your room. You can add as many as you want with good results, as long as you know what you're doing. However, there is a common rule among interior designers that can be easy to follow. It's called the 60-30-10 Rule.
The 60-30-10 Rule suggests that you should get three colors for your room. Then, you parse things out this way:
- Your main color should take up 60 percent of the room. This is usually the neutral color you choose, simply because actual colors can be jarring if used too heavily.
- The next color will be your other major color and will take up 30 percent of your room's decor.
- Finally, the third color (normally the boldest of the pack) will take up 10 percent. This is the accent color.
While you don't have to use this theory, it does seem to work out pretty well in almost all rooms. This makes the 60-30-10 Rule a good way to decorate your living room, dining room, bedroom, or even bathroom without worrying too much about the results.
What Is The Most Popular Color For Living Room Furniture?
Living room furniture tends to have cooler tones than many other parts of the room. Unsurprisingly, the sales tend to back this up. The most popular colors for living room furniture (wood excluded) are as follows:
- Grey
- Blue
- Beige
- White
- Green
Is Grey Going Out Of Style?
Though grey remains one of the most popular colors for furniture (and now wall paint too), the truth is that a lot of people are starting to give this neutral the side-eye. Or rather, certain color palettes are starting to fall out of favor featuring grey. This trendy color starts to fall out of favor, but only when used in a cliche or heavy-handed way.
If you want to go with grey, there's no problem with using this color. It's not like grey will ever be entirely out of style. However, it would be best if you still avoided some of the bigger mistakes people make. While things like choosing the wrong grey or a weird griege color are up there, there's a bigger trap that many designers fall for.
The biggest one to avoid is using a color scheme that is grey on grey, with accents of metal or dark wood. While this might look great on magazine covers, the color scheme doesn't really work for real-life rooms. The color combination is just too cold and sterile for a regular room. This leads it to be a pretty disappointing look when you actually see it.
What Are The Best Warm Colors For A Living Room Color Scheme?
Not feeling blue? Getting a little queasy of all the green? We don't blame you. Sometimes you just want to have a room palette that feels nice, snug, and inviting. To do this, you will need to get a color scheme with red or yellow (warm) undertones. But which color schemes work best with this vibe? According to the pros, these are some of the best choices:
- Red, Cream, Gold
- Cream, Tan, Peach
- Pink, Beige, White
- Warm Woods, Beige, And Orange
In Closing
Furniture is often sold as very large sets, but don't let that fool you into believing that you need to have a fully matched set. While going for matching furniture can always help add a sense of unity to your room, you do not have to stick to an entirely matched set of furniture if you don't want to. In fact, sometimes, it can actually be a rather monotonous look.
Being open to mixing and matching your furniture is a great way to give your home a modern and somewhat more realistic look. However, that doesn't mean that you can combine furniture colors willy-nilly. In order to get the elegant look you want, you need to keep an overarching theme to your furniture color combinations.
The easiest way to do this is to match your furniture's colors to the other colors in your home or to use the 60-30-10 Rule. With that said, it's up to you to choose the way you want your furniture coordination to work. After all, it is your home, right?
