Furniture stores make it easy to choose a neutral (black, grey or beige) sofa, but a colourful sofa is way more timeless. So, here are 3 colourful sofa ideas to convince you not to choose a neutral when you are shopping for a sofa.
Miles and Miles of Neutral
I’ve been seeing a lot of charcoal furniture lately and as I mentioned in this post, it’s because that’s the only available colour in big box furniture stores.
Anything off-the-shelf, ready for delivery TODAY, is either beige, black or charcoal. These showrooms are full of miles and miles of neutral furniture.
It seems like custom is the only way to get colour. Yes you can get a colourful sofa in the furniture showroom but you have to wade through a lot of fabric, you end up with too many choices, go into overwhelm, and walk out with a neutral sofa. Or, as I wrote in 2008, the year this blog began, that’s why there is so much leather out there.
After all, neutral is easy. Simple.
Choosing between black, white, beige or grey is a lot easier than, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
Then, after you finally commit to purple, for example, it’s still not over because now you’re choosing between clean and dirty (muted), lighter or darker? Cooler or warmer? Next, between all the solid fabric choices, there are also all the options with patterns. The endless list goes on!
For example, if black was the only colour you had in your wardrobe, getting dressed would take no time at all.
And, shopping? Even easier.
I read an article that reported Obama only wore grey or blue suits:
“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” [Obama] said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
Decision fatigue is real, it directly relates to willpower. You start out with lots of willpower first thing in the morning and throughout the day, similar to how your muscles get tired at the end of a workout, the strength of your willpower fades as you make more decisions.
3 Colourful Sofa Ideas (to Choose Instead of a Neutral)
Therefore, I thought I would help you with the decision by choosing some colourful sofas for you today, and include some pretty living room inspiration as well.
Mustard Yellow Sofa Living Room Inspiration
Let’s start with this mustard shade that is currently trending big time (hooray):
Red Sofa Living Room Inspiration
Mark Sikes
Blue Sofa Living Room Inspiration
Ballard Designs (this sofa is stocked in this colour)
Over to you my lovelies!
Since we’re talking about colour I’m doing a poll. If you were starting from nothing today and had to choose two colours (besides adding in neutrals like black, white, grey or beige) to decorate with, which would you choose?
Red, pink, orange, rust, peach, mustard, gold, yellow, forest, emerald or avocado green, blue, navy, teal or aqua, purple, or lavender?
I’d love to find out what’s trending for my readers! I’m adding lavender to my yellow living room, that reveal is coming this Spring!
For even more colourful sofa inspiration, head on over to my Pinterest board.
Related posts:
Why a Colourful Sofa is as Timeless as Subway Tile
How did you know I was looking for a sofa? On top of that, I was about to pick a beige or gray sofa out of fatigue. I want a navy sofa but they are so hard to find. It doesn’t help that I am on a budget. The big box sofas look so cheap. Thanks for your post Maria. I will be checking out your Pinterest board.
Maria –
Just got back from Arizona had to hit all the shops!
Every furniture store we went to ( seemed as if furniture was larger )
Everything with a off white every store had off white couch’s in lots of different styles
Different textures .
Same in chairs
Personally I loved !!
Felt like I could go with any color of my chose with what I was seeing .
Most any rug / pillows etc would look good
Art work too .
I like color in those areas .
For myself I think I would feel as if a colored couch could also boss me around ????
But I also realize not every one could deal with a off white couch .
Children r just not their taste !
Every one have a great day and stay safe and healthy !!!!
Orange is my “go to” color! I have used it in some way, in every house we’ve owned. And because of you, Maria, I plan to get a rust colored sofa for our bonus room that has deep navy walls with white wanescoting. I think it’ll be fabulous!!
Yes to the orange! I plan on doing some version of orange/rust with my next couch.
I’m so happy navy was one of your colorful options. We recently purchased a navy sectional! My only issue is it’s so dark. I don’t know what colors to add to the room to make it pop and say hey I’m navy. Next to navy it looks almost black.
I currently have four sofas in my house. Two cognac leather. One deep blue/not quite navy leather. And one white cotton sofa. If I am lucky enough to get to buy another one, I’m going for an emerald green sofa, possibly in a good wearable velvet!
Greens and blues. They allow me to bring the outside in. I’m a gardener and the greens remind me of shrubs/plants and the blue for the sky.
Yes I completely agree with Debbie. Greens and blues to bring the outside in!
I agree 100%! These are my favorites too.
Yep, me too. I’m doing a custom build right now and I’m going with olive green and navy. I want something that brings in the vineyard views but still fresh and clean, not the typical Tuscan browns and wine tones.
Purple and aqua! The last time I bought a sofa I had done a lot of thinking prior and knew I wanted purple leather. I love to see fabrics, but leather is so much more practical with pets, woodstove, grubby hubby, etc. The problem was no one had one! (I hate how when you want purple, sale people pull out their swatches and show you the one shade of burgundy…Same for cars). So I’m living with dark brown.
Navy and blue. But I ‘m sure I will change my mind by next week!
BLUE! But if I already have dark reddish-brown leather wing chairs, do I have to go white to lighten things up?
Not a gardener, but love blue, green and teal. If I had to choose ONE it would be blue because around here at the beach, I’ve not heard anyone say they don’t like blue. But green is my favorite color, and I’m what my dad would call half assed about gardening. Lots of easy care plants that NOW I know can handle the salt sand and the wind after many failures LOL.
Me too. All shades of blues, and if I had to pick another color, I’d choose green.
I love greens and blues. I’ve had a forest green couch for over 20 years and have loved it in 5 different homes. I also had a beautiful blue couch in my last home that had both a living and family room. I honestly consider my green couch to be neutral along with blue chairs. I layer in more color and texture to tie everything together.
YES!!!
I would go with a turquoise couch. My favourite Color reflects the sky, the ocean and just pretty.
Rich blues and greens of varying shades – plus pops of reds for me! I love those red sofas you’ve shown Maria – especially the rustier one. Seems like more than a “pop” of colour, and a large commitment, but definitely inspirational for me!
I am loving coral these days. So I would choose green to go along. Inspiration came from a perfect beautiful tulip.
I would do red and navy! (I’m an Oregon Trail millennial)
Navy and rust!! (You all just completed a beautiful e-design for our living room and kitchen, and I’m fully immersed in fabric swatches, color boards, and countertop samples.)
My absolute favourite colour combo!
In my new, imaginary room, I would pick emerald and teal/turquoise.
I have been dreaming of starting over with a blue sofa. But what made me drool here was the RED. And I would never have considered a red sofa. That is terrifying. I have it so firmly embedded in my head that I would quickly tire of the color (but am I not tired of my beige sofa?) Or that those fabrics are impractical for real life. (But my beige sofa gets dirty from the dog and has to be cleaned too.)
My biggest problem is I’ve bought so much stuff thinking “this will go with anything” and I’ve ended up with a house full of stuff that doesnt work with anything else. These people that say buy what you love and it will look good together. That is just not true.
Go for it with your red sofa! My first sofa was a red L-shape from Ikea and I enjoyed it thoroughly for years. So bold and fun, didn’t show dirt, many things went with it.
Rich teal and mustard make my heart sing! Aqua and green do as well lol!
Same colors I’ve decorated with for the last 30+ years: forest green and emerald. (Ideally, with moss, chartreuse and teal here and there—dark and lush greens and blues—but if only two from your list—forest and emerald. :))
They just never get old for me. 🙂
I have a gold/mustard-leaning sofa I purchased from Ethan Allen almost 25 years ago and it still looks great. It is incredibly versatile. If choosing another sofa today, I’d go with an orange or slate blue.
Aqua and emerald green. Love red too.
Blues and greens (emerald.)
Great post, Maria!
What are some good quality resources you’d recommend for color sofa buying?
Can I pick three? Navy, dark teal, and forest. I love blues and greens! I like to accent with pops of warm colors, but the majority of my favorite colors are cool.
teal/aqua and navy. We are in the process of moving back to US from London and will need to buy all new furniture. There is SO MUCH UGLY out there, it’s painful to try and find the right pieces!
Teal/aqua and blues, are still my favourites. I have had a combo of things in those colors for many many years. Like some one else’s post, I would find a coloured couch too bossy for me. I have a white beige couch. I love it! Xmas out comes the rich reds, blues and teals. Spring the pastel colors come out, florals in blues and aquas. Summer I use aquas with touches of turquoise. Fall some oranges and deep yellow and rust. I can easily buy pillows, throws, flowers, trays, books etc to add the different colors that I use seasonally. I get bored with one color and love seasonal changes.
If I had to buy a coloured couch, I thought the blue one was lovely!
Cognac, green or dark blue.
Love navy and emerald green! These are my colors mixed with neutrals.
Blues, from navy to baby blues and red…love red, such a happy color, with hints of forest or yellow and of course a neutral, white or cream. Have loved these colors all my life!
I’m with Deb… that is me too! I have wanted a navy blue sofa for 20+ years. And dream of adding all the blues, reds, emeralds, yellow and linen accessories. What a joy that “will” be…
Perfect timing, Maria. I’m shopping for fabrics to recover our sofa. It IS overwhelming. But luckily, you featured one of my favorite colors, gold. There is just something so warm and inviting about that color. The oriental-style carpet in our living room is predominantly deep blue and red, with bit of teal, white, and gold mixed in. We also bought an original watercolor that features and picks up the gold in the carpet. I love the gold. Of course, the walls in your examples are cooler and I will have to adjust my current wall color but I think that it would be worth it!
After 32 years of marriage, both my spouse and I laugh because whenever furniture shopping we still both gravitate towards beige/greige furniture – sofas, accent chairs, dining room chairs, you name it. Beige, I think I will go beige……lol
I personally like neutral furniture because you can add in pops of color with pillows, throws, lamps, and art. It is a much more affordable way to mix it up and change regularly! If I had to pick a sofa color, blue, yellow, or green would be my picks.
Blue/turquoise and avocado (kelly) green. The same I decorate with now.
Definitely a white sofa. I love to add pillows and decor in seasonal colors. My home can change depending on my mood or the season. Maybe it goes back to the green sofa and love seat that I raised my boys on. We literally had that set for 20+ years! First in our main living room, and then we retired it to the basement. Never have I ever been so happy to see pieces of furniture go!!
Yes, as much as I love the idea of a navy blue velvet sofa, my white twill (washable) PB sofas have been making me happy for the last ten years. I’d rather make my color splash with a can of paint which is much cheaper.
Olive green and navy please!
Greens or blues for me.
I would love a pretty teal or aqua sofa or maybe emerald but I also love the richer cognac or gold colors. I know that is more than two, but it’s really hard to choose, lol!
Orange and navy blue are my two colors that I work throughout the house with a couple other accent colors and neutrals. Learned how to create flow throughout the house from Maria!
I would pick blue, like a blue jeans blue, and if I was more daring, a deep coral.
I’m building a new home and will be decorating with beige, white, and navy blue. I feel it’s a neutral that goes with nearly everything. Thank you for your posts, I’m learning so much!
Blue is my main and favorite color. I love all shades of blue and pair it with little touches of red and yellow. I think my fondness for red, slightly edges out yellow. But, I keep them in little doses because they are strong colors. Thank goodness that in real life, I don’t have to choose:-). Well, my husband said, “no, babe, you gotta choose. We can’t afford ALL the fabrics/furniture/art in EVERY color”. Humph! Doesn’t he know I NEED all the colors??
Hi Maria! A shade of blue and coral! I love brighter oranges and pinks together. Actually, I am thinking this all through as I read your color courses. I also bought myself an SW fandeck. I am not a designer. I am a retired lady with a tired home that needs a major refresh. Bathroom first (not ideal, but it is the most needy room).
We just built a new house and I have an orange/rust velvet sofa on order to go with all of my blue & white. My other sofa is off-white. Big fan of color, and love to add more with pillows in high end fabric – an inexpensive luxury!
I just ordered a teal sofa. It’s so between blue and green I sometimes see blue and sometimes see green. I’ve decided to use a rusty orange for a contrast color. I can hardly wait for my sofa to arrive.
I love a lighter blue, like the Ballard Designs one in the post. I love a yellow too, but have a harder time committing to it than blue.
Two years ago, I chose a navy sofa from Maiden Home (great online furniture company) and I couldn’t be happier! I originally planned to decorate with bright green accents, but a rug from Ballard Designs with orange in it changed my direction. The orange serves the same purpose as the lime green would have, it’s a lively color that keeps the navy from looking too serious. Navy is versatile, and if I get tired of my orange I could switch to camel accents, for example, to have a more sedate look or yellow, green or white. My last sofa was an off-white and while it made a great backdrop for all of my decorations at Christmas, it was a bit boring the rest of the year.
In the past I’ve had sofas in many colors: blue/gray, navy, raspberry, tan tweed. Today I Finally have a white sofa, something I’ve always wanted but could never have with young children. My white sofa with 4 neutral chairs, a navy oriental rug and colorful pillows. I AM IN HEAVEN ❤️
Hi Maria- I am decorating brand new house and will go with green sofa. Love emerald green so am on a hunt for one. Kitchen cabinets (in open concept home) will be either BM phasmina or BM oil cloth (Aura). Walls and trim BM classic gray, so all with green undertones. I think that nice green or emerald sofa will look perfect. Any tips on green sofa pairings?
I’d choose a darker colour because kids etc…LOVE emerald and we’ve had navy before which is also a great base and quite neutral while still being a colour – win win! 🙂
I’d choose gold or orange. I’ve got cream walls and a few great rugs that would go great with a fun color.
Question: did you choose the first photo with the blue sofa because of that fabulous HUGE cream/wood lamp? I scrolled back 3 times looking at that lamp. And we all know how much Maria loves a lamp…
Beautiful choices. For someone on a limited income or strict budget, maybe it wouldn’t be a good purchase, though. For those ones, perhaps a classic neutral sofa with colorful pillows might be a better choice. 🙂 I do happen to like that rusty red and the pale blue colors…
I love my present colour combo of yellow-green and indigo but if I wanted to go in a completely different direction I would try a blush pink and cream.
Orange would be fun too!
I love colorful sofas and have a purple one that’s been perfect for us for years. It’s time to replace it — however, having learned the hard way, I would never order a sofa from a website. Comfort is key, and it’s very personal, meaning the angles need to be right for your height, weight, manner of sitting, etc.
Starting fresh, I’d add dark green — and pink!
YES! We special ordered our first without having a sample to sit on. 21 years later hubby still complains about it. We now purchase everything from Ethan Allen as they have about every piece they sell on the floor that you can actually sit in before ordering . . .let alone beautiful fabrics.
Great post! Thanks to your posts I have an aqua sofa upstairs and a turquoise and green tweed downstairs. Much easier to bring a room together with a coloured sofa. When I get another chance I would do a periwinkle or hydrangea blue velvet with fresh green accents. Can’t wait to see your LR refresh incorporating lavender, sounds lovely.
Love this post! And to answer your question: Navy and Kelly Green
Recently, I inherited a vintage (1968) green velvet Henredon sofa. Paired with white, black and blue pillows/throws & various brass & wood accents, it looks fresh and elegant in my casual LR. Could venture into more colorful
accessories, too, but right now I’m enjoying the warm, neutral effect. (Maria, Would love to see your suggested color pairings with these sofas.) The green sofa has been versatile and worked well through holiday decorating, too.
Blue. I walked into a furniture store and loved a pale blue sectional and almost went with charcoal out of fear. I remembered what would Maria do and got the blue. wwmd. The pale blue has pulled everything together and my neutral SW Shoji white walls have come to life. I have read your blog since the start. Thank you for all of the valuable information.
They always say that you should use colors that you like to dress in and that your clothes should look good in the room. And for what ever reason I wear a lot of the deeper reds, but don’t think about that as being my favorite color, it just looks good with my skin coloring.
But I have to say that I really love these deeper red sofas, especially the velvet and velour ones! I hadn’t thought about putting them against a light blue wall. And I would probably tell you that blue or green are my favorite colors.
Growing up we had a rust orange sofa with little flex of gold and darker rust colors in it. It was a really soft feeling velvet and to this day we still talk about it in our family as our favorite sofa ever.
I am 44 and we had it from the time I was a baby till I was in my 20’s. We did have it recovered but then it was not ever the same. It was that glorious orange fabric that made it ♥️
Oh and I should say that my current sofa is a light teal green! I get so much enjoyment from having a colorful sofa and house. I even made /painted large format art so that the undertones worked together and I could get the colors I wanted 😊
I personally would get very tired of a ‘color’ sofa. Reading this has left me scratching my head 🤷🏻♀️. I much prefer going with a neutral tone on something such as a sofa which is a big and expensive piece and will not be changing for a very long time. Using a neutral sofa, allows me to change my colors as often as I like with pillows and such. I get very bored, and changing my accent color with pillows is a very easy and cost effective way to get a new look. Currently, I have an off white sofa. I am using blues and orange for Easter time in my pillows and will change to Blues and Pink going into my summer look. I enjoy all your articles and have been following you for a very long time. We build spec homes & also renovate. I do all the design and I find your color advise very helpful over the years in our projects and also in my personal home. I find your advise has been very helpful in learning how to pick the correct wall & house colors and also in my color selections in my cabinetry and tile.
Hey Maria. Have you done a post (or will you) with steps to decorating? Like, rug or sofa first? How many times to repeat a color? For those dummies like me out here needing a cheat sheet to pull together a room.
I actually did get to start over on colors with my latest house, due to us being in an apartment before and having hardly any furniture 🙂 I picked cognac/orange and navy blue as the staples, with shots of blue-green and gold/mustard around to keep things interesting. They are all my favorite colors and it’s the most fun I’m having decorating since I don’t have to work around apartment colors I didn’t personally choose. Our sofa is a midcentury style with a nubby patterned navy/cream/gray fabric. I would love a velvet navy blue sofa, but if the velvet pillows are any indication, it tends to hang onto dog hair pretty aggressively.
Let’s not forget the time Obama wore a tan suit and Republicans nearly lost their minds, lol! If I could have my druthers with a brand new sofa, it would be a deep, dark purple. Currently I have an antique sofa that is a deep claret which plays nicely off my dark purple walls. Great post Maria!
Mustard and Navy, really anything yellow and blue. These are the colors I chose twenty years ago when I got married and I still like them. And green, I like the nod to nature. I’d like to buy a blue sofa when my current sofa wears out.
It seems I’m not alone in my love of anything in the blue-green family. That’s my happy place. Add in a pop of orange or coral for contrast. Having said that I think the mustard sofa inspires pics are stunning!
Hi Maria! A shade of blue and coral! I love brighter oranges and pinks together. Actually, I am thinking this all through as I read your color courses. I also bought myself an SW fandeck. I am not a designer. I am a retired lady with a tired home that needs a major refresh. Bathroom first (not ideal, but it is the most needy room).
I love having choice and I love colour. I have never owned grey, black, brown, or beige furniture. When I have ordered new, custom upholstered furniture in the past, my biggest problem was that the colour and texture of the fabric selection was too limited, even when there were hundreds to choose from.
I had my sofa recovered a few years ago because they stopped making the style of my existing sofa which was perfect in every way for our body heights and our space. The upholsterer brought a selection to our home based on my email suggestions and it was great because we could see the large samples in the actual lighting conditions. We picked a simple teal performance velvet and it has been wonderful. Getting the colour right is worth the wait, whether buying new or with reupholstering.
Navy and green switching up with color is dominant in different rooms. When navy is dominant, use a brighter green for accent. I also do love coral with either of these colors.
I have a persimmon red sofa from Ethan Allen purchased about 12 years ago. I love it. It’s a beautiful color that, along with teal green, is used throughout the house. It goes wonderfully with any number of oriental rugs, leather, & artwork. As an Ikebana designer I have some Japanese copper containers that absolutely sing against the red & teal. I would never trade it in for a neutral sofa. Several years ago I consulted you for repainting the LR, kitchen & DR. So pleased with the result. Thank you.
Great post. Do you have a resource for the reddish-rust sofa that you headlined for this post? I love it. Thank you.
If starting over and didn’t have to listen to my spouse’s input, I’d choose various shades of clean, cool shades of green and purple.
I just bought a beautiful teal sofa and I absolutely love it! It makes my heart sing whenever I go into my living room plus it is super comfortable to sit on.
Hi, Maria…I would choose fushia or navy!!! It could be wild and I would love that!!! Love your blog posts! Love ya, Candy ❤
Navy blue and emerald green
Currently have a dark emerald green velvet. If I were starting over, would probably pick it again as well. Would definitely add the mustard or cognac though. Right now based on the rug I’m using teal and navy predominate as accents. Nature colors for sure, but maybe starting over would allow a little color punch. Oddly while I love color and am happiest with it, I’m always attracted to the monochromatic setting on Pinterest and in magazines. Will admit though, that through the years of following this blog my tastes and ideas have made remarkable strides. Thank you, Maria. (Can’t wait for your big reveal, am wondering how you’ll top perfection!)
I love some of these. It’s not that I am not brave or adventurous, it is that I have a tiny budget. Any sofa I get will need to last and not make me tired of it for 15 years, so I try to pick a shape and color that will be timeless. I can less expensively switch out area rugs, pillow, etc. if I want to update the look a bit. My condo is mostly cream, white, and yes, some beige with shots of peach, pink, orange, and soft golden yellow.
Just ordered two chartreuse sofas for my living room. Moved away from the gray walls 3 years ago and went with white walls. All the furniture was some form of gray or white. Decided I needed color so that is the direction I am headed. Also wallpapered the dining room in a navy grasscloth….stunning so navy and green/chartreuse are my colors
Laurie, where are you getting them from? That’s one of my favorite colors too!
definitely navy. But, isn’t it true,..to have a coloured sofa “work”, you need much more design savvy to pull it off beautifully .
A beautiful green, not emerald more earthy.
I have an earthy ledge stone fireplace which is the limiting element in my living area. I just got rid of our two 12 year old goldy sofas and replaced them with two green grey sofas to lighten and refresh the space. If I had a white/cream mantel instead of the ledge stone, I would choose at least one blue sofa. Love blue and the coastal feel! Second choice…green. As several mentioned…bring the outside in!
I like the thought of a sofa in a color and wish I was brave enough to go more bold. But still not convinced color is always timeless. Thinking of the dated colors from the 70’s or 80’s.
Navy or red…always.I rotate between them and I never regret that decision. If I could pick leather, I would choose cognac.
Great post. My daughter just moved back east from CA and moving into a new house. Your timing is perfect! Thanks
At this point I would take almost anything other than my pink beige sofa, however I am drawn to turquoise, blues, and orange. Incidentally, I just read an article on “recommended beiges” on the Spruce; pink beiges were actually being endorsed. Oh boy, I feel for people who haven’t learned from Maria- like myself, who has pink beige carpet and sofa!!
My living room has a gray/blue sofa, a brown leather recliner, a purple/gray/blue recliner, and two blush velvet side chairs. Accents are white, cream, beige, and blue. Furniture is a mix of antique and modern. Walls are griege and rug is cream. I’m not sure why, but it works. I would choose pink again. And probably the gray/blue. It feels pretty timeless due to wall color and cream accents. Have had your ebooks for years. No design business but people ask for my help a lot. I am opinionated about it all. 😍
We are ordering a light teal/blue-green sectional. Happy with the color choice, as it is our favorite for many years now. 5-month wait time! But beige and gray were still a couple months wait time anyway.
Great post, Maria.
I had a sofa from Ethan Allen covered in teal velvet and I love it.
My two colors? Teal and leaf green.
PS–I like red too! And it works amazingly well with teal.
Thanks to you, Maria, I just got my living room sofa reupholstered in a yellow velvet and I absoloutely LOVE it. In fact everyone in the house loves it so much that I hardly get to sit on it!! So now I am worried that it will get dirty really quickly. So I have decided that I am going to move it into my master bedroom and get a new one. i like the light blue velvet but I think I need something darker so I am thinking either a teal color or dark green would be better.
Hi all! If you’re looking for a blue leather sofa with clean modern lines, look at the “Moana” blue sofa at livingspaces.com. It’s a nice medium denim blue and looks lively because of the various reflective highlights on the leather. I have it and love it….and it adds so much life to my minimalist modern decor. Thank you Maria for the inspiration…I probably would never have done this if you hadn’t taken the time to SHOW us how good colored sofas can look!
Why be limited to solid color sofas? I love my sofa, an original midcentury modern Flexsteel from the 1950s or 60s that my mother-in-law bought used decades ago, along with its two side chairs. I inherited it when I got married 32 years ago, then had it reupholstered 20 years ago with a floral pattern. I picked colors from the sofa to bring out in the pillows, artwork and other décor items (peach, burgundy, light blue, forest green, aqua) and the background color from the sofa (light yellow-beige) for reupholstering the side chairs. I still love it after 20 years.
Flexsteel is a great brand. Still solid and comfortable after all these years.
P.S. I was never a fan of the stark midcentury modern look, so when I had it reupholstered, I softened the sofa’s look (and made it more comfortable to sit on) by adding a skirt to the bottom, and making the back cushions taller so they go above the couch’s back.
Cobalt blue & emerald green
Great blog Maria. You always get me thinking in place of accepting what is going on. Never ever will I buy couch and love seat again. 1 person sits in the live seat. I want a couch and 2 comfy chairs. Today I am thinking turquoise with gold chairs. Now will I ever buy another coffee table. Right now all it does is take up space.
Aqua and pale golden yellow. Just received my Completely organic aqua custom sofa!
If only I could find a lovely feminine desk…
I currently have a royal blue velvet tufted chair i found at a garage sale that is begging me to go in the living room. So im thinking ill play off that in my throw pillows and art and add some greenery.
After years and years of cream colored sofas, I am considering purchasing a navy sofa. I feel like it has the potential to live like a neutral, similar to how blue jeans wear like a neutral in the wardrobe.
Blue or Green💙💚
I think for me, I would choose a warmer neutral beige leather sofa, because I love bright printed toss pillows, and always seem to gravitate towards bright golds, latte, and touches of red, sometimes a little pale green – think muted sage, oranges & terracotta. Also, viewed with interest the velvet sofas. It brought me back to the late 1940’s, when my grandfather had a deep red velvet sofa in the living room. What goes around, comes around!!
Enjoy your blogs – thanks Maria!
Does a sofa/couch have to be a solid color?
I like checks, flowers, and stripes. I find the solid color kinda boring.
I build my colors based on my sofa.
But, I also like the traditional, camel back, rolled arm sofas!!
Great post Maria! Today I’d be torn torn between blue (medium or navy) and a lettuce green sofa if I could start over. My current sofa is cream and I change up the pillows a lot but it’s just not enough colour for me. I’m a bit hampered colour wise by an expensive rug in green/golden yellows (the main colours). However, I lived in Australia for 2 years recently and had an opportunity to start from scratch. We didn’t ship our furniture because it was a temporary stint. I decorated our rental apartment in blues, creams and a bit of of yellow or green depending on the room. I loved the blues and received so many compliments on the decor. I used gallons of soft white paint on dark wood furniture I found on Gumtree (Kijiji), FB Marketplace and Salvos (Salvation Army). It was fun and I learned a lot. Now…I’m tired of my cream sofa. I do love your beautiful yellow one and can’t wait to see the spring transformation of your living room!
Pink and green is what would spring to my mind, but I do like your idea of purple and gold.
Blue please, including navy💙
How about celery? I have two this color, facing one another in my living room, and they’re lovely… and unique!
I would choose either a red or a pale gold colour sofa. I love pink, but I think red and gold are more “neutral”. You should look up a famous American quilter named Freddy Moran. She uses plenty of colour, and she always says she considers red a neutral.
After 50 years of reds, oranges, olive and gold, we have lovely new furniture in blues and greens. I’m loving the fresh new look. I liked the old look too, but it was definitely time for a change.
Periwinkle blue and coral, thank you very much! :)) They’ve been my favorites for years and will be for years to come!
If I could do over, I’d search for a dark, inky blue leather sofa. (hard to find). I live in a Montana log cabin and have lots of pets. The blue would add the punch of color and coolness needed to balance out all the warm wood & leather in the room.
What a challenge. When I moved three years ago I had two sofas custom made. The larger is a botanical print with soft taupe background and griege leaves and coral and marigold ‘berries’. the ‘berries’ are not overwhelming to my eye – and it was my preference of the colour-way of a fabric I’d had my eye on for a couple of years. I do naturally gravitate to botanical prints – sparser than busy. The other sofa is coral. I need to be immersed in warmer colours of a medium density. The sofa in my den is an apple green. If I were buying today I’d choose the same. I love them, and visitors compliment them – most are surprised by the bold coral as they mainly have neutral – usually grey in today’s world.
I have decided to go with blue. My eye has always gone to blue. Like a pair of jeans, blue goes with everything.
I fell in love with a beautiful blue leather traditional sofa and bought it on a whim. It was exactly what I wanted and makes me happy every time I see it. It is the best “neutral and everything I put with it looks amazing.
Pale blue couch to set the mood of ocean or sky!
I’m moving into a new home and I’m considering a mustard yellow sofa, funny enough the violet hues and shades have been coming to mind lately too! But, I was also considering neutral or black,🤷🏼♀️
BTW- I really appreciate your newsletters, as a budding designer, your content is very relevant. Thanks for sharing. 😆
Purple velvet, no question! I have a purple chair with blue, rather than red undertones. It’s not a bright purple and I consider it a neutral. My other favorite colors…red, orange, golden yellow…play with it beautifully. But if I wanted to switch directions, shades of green or turquoise, magenta or fuchsia are other options that I would love.
We choose to rent for now, and for us chairs are more versatile for guests and for a rental than a sofa. Three people never want to sit on a sofa and if you move, a sofa may not fit well.
My color taste has changed over the years. The almost 55 year color saga…
-Back in the ‘60s my sofa was a subtle floral in reds and burgundy. An armchair was dark blue velvet.
-In the ‘70s I went with a cream nubby Haitian cotton loveseat and two similar chairs.
-We moved in the the ‘80s and I chose a Flexsteel sofa in a tan, coral, aqua stripe. We kept the loveseat the same Haitian cotton.
-But in the ‘90s I wanted more color so I had the sofa slipcovered in forest green which allowed me to switch up the throw pillows fall-winter and spring-summer. The Haitian cotton loveseat got a green and burgundy water color floral slipcover.
-When we went RVing full time from 2003-2011, I chose another Flexsteel sofa in soft very light teal that wouldn’t overwhelm the small space.
-When we stopped RVing and started totally from scratch, but didn’t want to spend a fortune, I found a beautiful slightly rusty red sofa and armchair on Craigslist that stayed with us for six years.
-When we moved to a smaller place in 2017, the sofa wouldn’t fit, so I went with two purple and two orange chairs and a coordinating floral chair, which we still have after another move.
What’s next? LOL
If I were buying a new sofa for a new space — purple or teal. Recently redid main floor of our home. 15 year old sofa is gold. Had a piece of custom printed fabric I purchased at Penland’s art auction — it was gold and purple — that guided my new color scheme. I love the redo. New pillows, painted a bookshelf purple, and rearranged art.
If I had the budget to change the decorating as often as I want, I would pick a rich blue sofa; however, since I am very practical, I usually prefer a neutral white (leather – I have dogs) sofa so that I can decorate with lots of color around it and change it as often as I like. Having said that, It is hard to find a white with very little undertone in it!
I really like color. I would like a burnt orange sofa but no luck finding one so far. I currently have a white one that I absolutely hate.
I adored my blue sofa until my mother in law said “blue fades the quickest” After that, it always did look faded. Next, a raspberry chenille that is starting to look old/faded. What next? I would love another blue, or even maybe a green! But color seems so limited unless one is going custom. My happy colors are blue and green!!! Really looking forward to a post about buying sofas!!! Maria you are always so spot on with ideas and trends! Hopefully, my new sofa will not be trendy, just perfect for years to come!!
Thank you, Maria!!!
All of my sofas in the last 30+ years have been shades of green. My current sofas are purple. I would never buy a white/neutral couch. My walls are cream, and my curtains, rugs, wall hangings and furniture are all very colorful. I love our little home, and others seem to like it as well.
Cobalt and green for me!
I never get tired of them and I think they are a beautiful backdrop for any other color I want to introduce.
I inherited a cream sofa and loveseat that I have covered in colorful pillows, but I dream of a blue or green velvet sectional for our next purchase.
Love your blog, Maria, but as I age I find it harder to read, with the grey font on white background. This seems to be the trend everywhere. Could you change it to a black font so older readers like me aren’t straining their eyes, even with reading glasses on? My husband had to cancel a magazine subscription as the font colour was ridiculous and so difficult to read.
Thanks for the inspirational colours on the sofas.
My go to color right now is sea glass green.
I would do red and blue! (I’m an Oregon Trail millennial)
Like many others here, I’d pick cobalt blue and emerald green. I have to disagree with those who say a bold color isn’t for those on a budget. I just took my Ikea couch from white to beautiful blue for the cost of a few bottles of Rit dye. Color schemes that change with seasonal throw pillows are just as easy to do if you have a colorful sofa. I guess the thinking is that if you get sick of the color your budget won’t allow you to bail out. But a tight budget doesn’t bail you out of the blah neutral either…Slipcovers and colors you love for the win!
That Zoe Feldman livingroom is a dream!
Yes ×1million to the emerald velvet! That’s what I want. Or teal and or aqua could be the second accent color in the room – maybe on a printed green/blue fabric.
But emerald is a MUST! Maybe even in leather but there is mixed opinions on which is better if you have a cat – leather can show scratches but is durable and easy to clean vs velvet which has a cut pile rather than looped so their claws can’t get stuck in the fabric.
what do you think it’s best?
I feel like I just gobbled up a breath of fresh mountain air! I am a first time reader and I am a lover of color! I have been suffocating in a sea of grey decor saturated blogs, and am so happy to have now found your color infused blog. I love to decorate with blue and red the most, so I would have to choose those two. I fell in love with my first red couch at age 10.
Yesss! Liking PEACH a lot these days, which has been a complete surprise to me! My dining room will soon be painted this color. (Tough to find in stores though)
As well as:
berry
rust
yellow (gold)
periwinkle
greens
Navy would definitely be one of the colors (with a cool white). Of the other choices available, I would pick emerald green.
If buying a sofa today, a muted blue-green like Woodlawn Blue, or one that’s a bit more blue than that. Right now I crave soft yet fresh – greens and muted blue and white (not the wall) and splashes of something to perk them up.
While I could appreciate cognac or mustard yellow in someone else’s space, in mine over time they’d feel a bit too canary poop. Gemstone colors like red? I’ll quickly be tired of them. Give me a non-yellow or non-pinky beige or a light gray and I can play with what goes around it.
Right
I like emerald green and navy but in some rooms I also like red. I never wear red but I like it in my home.
As a quilter, I usually pick a focus fabric that I truly love, then find my other colors from that focus fabric. In our first home in the 80s, I picked a Waverly print with a coral color that was predominant. Soooo I picked a coral silk look fabric and recovered my sofa myself. here it is 40-something years later and I still have it. It goes with my blue and white plates on the wall, my pale green walls, my antique lamp that was my Mama’s, and some bird prints I have inherited from my mother-in-law. We will be moving soon to a new build and I think I will finally sell or donate the sofa but it will be missed.
In the 80’s we chose a darker brick red colored fabric for our then very sleek modern 3 piece custom sectional sofa and thinking back, it was the best sofa we have ever owned, quality & decorating versatility. It came with us on several moves from condo to various homes over about 20 years ..never looked dated or old.. Since then we have had a couple different neutral sofas..beige & khaki mostly.. Now in the planning stages & need new again. For quite awhile I kept looking an ivory or a very pale silvery gray but lately that old brick colored sofa keeps coming into my mind and I feel myself moving more towards a bolder color. Just haven’t quite decided exactly what that will be.