Over the years, having themed colors for your furniture, such as earth tones, pastels, black and white décor, bright or bold colors, was a common practice. These days, there is a new popular color for couches – gray.
Gray couches are incredibly versatile. That being said, there are many design elements that you should factor in when you are planning to paint your walls. Not only are there multiple styles, but there are also multiple shades of gray.
You will need to create the proper atmosphere for your living room. After all, it’s important to create a comfortable ambiance in the room. The color of your walls is equally important as the décor you use in creating the surrounding atmosphere of the room.
You can choose different design styles to incorporate when selecting a wall color to go along with your gray furniture.
Questions You May Consider Asking Yourself
When choosing wall colors, there are a slew of questions that you should ask yourself.
Do you want to have contrasting colors? Do you want them to clash? Do you want to have colors similar to your furniture? Do you want to paint for permanent residence? Are you planning on selling your home in the near future?
Fortunately, there are many interior design principles that you can incorporate into your color choice. If you choose options from this guide, you can create a stylish and creative aura to compliment your furniture.
Consider the Resale Value of Neutral Colors
Using neutral colors in your home’s finishing touches can improve the home’s resale value if you’re choosing to remodel for sale. It is a proven fact that using bold and bright colors can decrease the sale value simply because of the personal choice factor – many people may not want wall colors that you have painted.
Having your walls painted in a neutral tone to surround your gray couch can give people a sense of emotional freedom and peace.
Try Sticking with White or Gray Walls
White compliments gray, black, and almost every other neutral color. If you choose to keep your wall colors white, you can incorporate minimalistic designs – yet add your own finishing touches to improve the room’s feeling of comfort and serenity.
Keeping your walls white or even a light gray color can give you (or a potential buyer) a clean slate for adding individual personality to create a unique vibe. This will allow you to use your décor to create the color scheme of a room.
If you choose to keep your walls white, it’s important to use other things to provide accents to the neutral colors to increase the room’s warmth.
Different Design Elements to Create a Special Theme
Whether or not you decide to hire an interior designer or custom furniture maker, you can always look for different elements that can improve the overall sophistication of the room without being too overpowering.
If you choose the right coffee table, end table, or other furnishings, you can create some very classic accessories to provide a rustic feel.
Incorporating other elements or chrome furniture can accommodate your gray couch and provide a more modern or futuristic theme to your living room.
1. Incorporate the Use of Other Furniture
If you choose to keep your walls neutral colors, such as white, black, off-white, and beige, as mentioned earlier, using other furniture to help theme your room is very important. If you choose your accent furniture correctly, you can help to make your gray couch a focal point.
2. Choose Drapes to Add Flare
Light gray upholstery, curtains, and drapes can add the perfect backdrop to enhance your living room. This is a surefire design practice that utilizes a matching color palette.
Otherwise, depending on the accent colors of the room, you can choose drapes that match that if you are using contrasting colors in comparison to your grey sofa.
If you wish to keep things as neutral as possible and are using darker tones for your walls and ceilings, consider using white curtains to create sheerness and contrast.
3. Bold Colors Make a Statement
Using bolder colors does many things. For starters, it enhanced the emotion of your room. However, when you have a gray couch, using bold colors for your accessories and wall colors can create either a warming or cooling effect.
Cool blues, light blues, and bright colors provide a cooling yet relaxing feeling.
Using bold, colorful tones, such as orange, yellow, and blueish pink, can add warmth to a room but should be done with caution. If you don’t accessorize properly with throw pillows, artwork, or other furnishings, you can end up throwing off the color balance of your gray sofa, and your entire room will look too eccentric – essentially making your gray couch look more like a dark gray cloud in a room of warmth.
4. Using a Carpet or Area Rug Can Add Depth
Carpeting is another thing you should think about. In interior design, you don’t want to make everything blend together so much that your furniture doesn’t stand out. At the same time, you don’t want your furniture to stand out too much. Otherwise, it will take away from the rest of the room.
For carpets that go along with your gray couch, you may want to consider a light gray, beige, or even a darker gray to provide some neutrality to your existing furniture.
5. Using Accessories with Your Couch
You can do many things if you choose to leave your walls white or paint them gray. By incorporating contrasting colors with photos, paintings, colorful throw pillows with neutral tones, you can elevate the mood of your room.
Even using items to accent the walls, such as custom lighting and candle holders, you can add color to your room without adding color to your walls.
6. Match Everything to the Couch
One common design hint that can add some unique tone to your room’s decor is to use matching colors for almost everything. Here’s a recipe for matching gray hues to design a room that still provides a very comfortable feel:
- Use a charcoal sofa or dark gray sofa with velvet material.
- Paint your walls gray, but a lighter shade than the couch.
- Use carpet or area rug that is off-white, cream-colored, or a very light gray color.
- Paint your ceiling the same gray color as the walls (or a lighter gray than the walls).
- Use dark brown for your table accessories and shelving.
- Accent your shelves, end tables, and coffee tables with white or gray colored items (vases, plates, containers, etc.)
- Try using maroon and navy blue throw pillows to contrast with your couch cushions to add warmth and color.
- Make all picture frames chrome for a modern touch.
7. Don’t Forget the Ceiling
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when choosing wall colors for their gray couch is neglecting the color of the ceiling. It’s important that if you’re going to stylize and paint the wall, you also consider the ceiling.
In most cases, you will want your ceiling to be painted the same color (or a slightly similar shade) as the walls. If you’re painting your wall a very light gray or white/off-white color, then you may even consider adding some personalization to your ceiling by painting it a very light sky blue.
This works exceptionally well if you have large windows and want to brighten up your room.
8 Wall Colors to Consider for a Gray Couch
1. You Can’t Go Wrong with White
As mentioned earlier, white is a very common color and still one of the best for flexibility. Using white walls and ceilings provides neutrality and allows the most room for expansion and customization.
2. Using a Blueish Gray for Cooling Comfort
Many different paint colors go in this category, depending on what retailer you go with. If a bold blue (or dark blue) seems to give too much contrast, having a blue-gray shade for your walls can still give your room some added charm.
Consider adding throw pillows of blue, light gray, or dark gray to your couch. You may also want to add light brown tables and mix up white, blue, and gray elements to give more accents to the room.
3. Lighter Brown Earth Tones
Adding light brown to your room colors will provide a woodsy feel to your room. This is great for lovers of the outdoors. You don’t want to make the browns too dark or powerful with your gray sofa because it can create a negative mood.
However, using lighter tones can help you match the rustic feel of the classics you grew up seeing on television and other walks of life. It can also help to create a natural feel which can uplift.
You can even utilize light-colored wood paneling to accent your walls with lighter or natural wood furniture (with black metal or wooden legs) to create an even more natural feel without taking away from the room’s warmth too much.
4. Khaki Colors Provide a Natural Tan
Painting your walls beige complements your furniture but allows enough color difference from your grey couch to maintain the room’s feel. Consider colors such as khaki, beige, or light tan to create a cozy beige room.
Using tan colors has been widely used by many simply because it goes well with any color – including gray, pastel-colored accessories, and so much more.
5. Dark Blue to Create Contrast
If you want more contrast and choose not to go with a blueish gray for your walls, you may want to try using dark or royal blue for your walls. You can create a stunning and serene cool color scheme if you accent this with a slightly lighter ceiling.
6. Consider Dark Greens or Sage
Olive green and sage green are very similar. Using these colors, you can enhance your grey couch or living room set with an earthy feel similar to brown. At the same time, using trim that is colored with light or dark browns can help give a very nice feel.
Have a man cave? This is a perfect color if you want a bit of a masculine tone while still providing a positive mood for your entertainment experiences.
7. Give the Room some Sun with Yellow Tones
Yellow or golden tones can help provide some vintage vibes that were popular in the 1950s to the 1970s. If you want more of a classic feel, consider using pastel colors.
Goldenrod tones can give forth a little bit of a sunny feel to your room and bring out the color of your gray couch more.
8. Shimmering with Artistic Finish
As mentioned earlier, you can use reflective paint with a gray or silver tone to give your full-gray theme a modern feel. By using a silver or slightly reflective paint finish, you can accent the lighting in the room.
Also, don’t be afraid to try using other gray finishes, such as marble, brick, or even concrete. Perhaps you can use different artistic shapes and designs with a reflective finish to create a modern and personable living room scene.
You can also decorate your living gray living room with black metal objects and light wood colors or use chrome or steel plated side furniture to appeal to the eyes but still give emphasis to your couch.
The most important thing you can do is choose colors that can create positivity. This does not have to be a difficult or daunting task. Personal preference can go a long way.
Whether you want to create a forever home or increase your property’s value, creating a proper color balance can make or break a room’s happiness level when you have a gray couch. It may seem excruciating, but it is not impossible to set a good tone with whatever color you choose to paint your walls.
