Don’t do what I did. I saw a two-story great room in need of an accent wall and I had someone come in and paint. What color? My favorite, of course. Purple. And now I regret it, because there’s no way my husband and I can paint over that ourselves. It’ll also take a lot of paint to make that shade disappear.
So what should I have done to incorporate purple into my color scheme without taking such a plunge and committing to I-don’t-know-how-many years of that hideous purple wall?
First, in defense of the purple accent wall, if it was a deeper plum than the shade it is, and if the wall was shorter, it would probably be fine. If the wall was a normal height, it’d look especially good if it had been broken up with wallpaper or a lighter pattern on the top half of the wall. Still, alternatives that are easier to change are much better:
Curtains with throw pillows featuring complementary shades of purple would create harmony in the room. I really like the ones above from BHG.com because the color’s rich but the fabric isn’t too heavy.
The textures on the pillow add visual interest and keep the curtains from looking like an afterthought just tossed up there to add color to the room. The detail on the shade is perfect, too. A lot of thought went into this little corner of the room.
A purple rug would’ve done the trick, as shown at HGTV.com. Yes, that’s a dining room and not a living room, but you can use rugs anywhere. The golden shade could be an accent color—think pillows, art, or throws over the sofa and loveseat. Other accent shades: lime green, sage green, turquoise, bright pink, white, and black.
You can get an idea of how pink looks with purple (it’s one of those colors I wouldn’t have chosen without seeing it first) in a bedroom, thanks to House to Home:
Photo credits: BHG.com, HGTV.com, HouseToHome.co.uk
