Question: I have a medium-size living room with hardwood floors and a fireplace that has beige brick in it. My couch and recliner are a light sage green. The texture of the fabric makes it look as if there are tiny black and silver specks within the color. The room is not dark, but it is also not really bright. There are windows but no direct sunlight.

I would like color advice for the walls. I don't want white or off-white walls. What color goes well with light sage as the dominant furniture color? I'd like the color to brighten the room. Most of the other furniture is wood- colored, and the pillows on the couch are a combination of browns, dusty rose and tan that match very nicely.

CHRIS BERMAN, Berkeley

Answer: You've taken the first step by basing color decisions on the largest upholstered pieces. As the largest furnishing in the room, the sofa drives all other decisions. Your wood floors and wood furniture are ideal complementary materials to work with.

Begin by taking a piece of sofa fabric to the paint store. If you don't have an extra piece of fabric, take a cushion or arm cover.

Sage is a soothing, relaxing color, and my recommendation will sound as if it will make the room darker, but in fact, it will make it warm and inviting. Focus on the variations of sage that most closely match the sofa. Usually paint displays have color strips showing several variations of a hue. This will be helpful to you later, but for now, focus on matching the color as closely as you can.

When you find the matching color, look up and down on the strip and at the strips to the left and right. These eight to 12 colors are taking you in the right direction.

Now take these strips home and look at the colors in the light of your own living room. Colors change depending on the light, and the samples will appear different from how they looked in the store.

Again, evaluate your match. Once you've determined the color on the sample strip, look at the lighter color nearest it. This probably will be a good color for your walls.

I've often found that the best color winds up being a blend of two colors or one color with white added to lighten it slightly. But this means having to do some paint tests.

The next step is to go back to the paint store and buy a quart each of a few colors and custom blends. Also buy some white cardboard or foam-core board for color tests. You'll want to see how the color looks in different parts of the room, so buy enough boards to allow several sample boards of each color.

Once you've painted a few sample boards and labeled each with the version of the color that's on it, place them on the walls around your living room. Place the samples in different parts of the room. Watch to see how the room looks at different times of day and evening. The color will appear different in natural light, artificial light and in various locations.

Don't overlook the ceiling as the "fifth" wall for color. Painting it a white that complements the walls is the easiest choice, but painting it a lighter version of the wall color would make the room more interesting.

After you've had a while to choose the color that's the most pleasing, you're ready to start painting. Be sure to buy enough paint because another mixture of the same color could vary slightly.

Trim, crown molding and baseboards could be a soft white, or if they're a natural wood, leave them as they are.

With your walls now painted a soft, light sage, your sofa and recliner will seem to float gently in front of them. The colors of the throw pillows you already have can tie the room together if you use the same color in other areas. For example, a lap robe thrown gracefully over the arm of the recliner can also be dusty rose. Rose-colored flowers placed in another part of the room will allow the eye to travel easily around the space.

Paint is the easiest, least expensive way to make a significant change to a room. What I've recommended here is only one of many options available to make the room warm, inviting and pulled together. Now that you know how it's done, you can find your own best color for the space.

 

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