First up, the brown:
The sofa is a hand me down from a dear (departed) friend of my mother's and it is in excellent condition. It has a definite pink cast which is bothering me no end. Now, to me, the sofa clashes with both the floor and the feature wall. So be it. I figured we'd remedy the situation with a sofa slip cover. (That's a painter's canvas drop cloth, bleached, draped over the sofa.)
We are agreed that the chair in the foreground will be slip covered no matter what.
Next: the green rug.
Mom disliked it instantly.
On the other hand, her favourite colour is red:
As we're doing this she mentions that she already has an off-white slip cover. She had had it on her old sofa.
"Why did you take it off?"
"It got filthy."
(She's raising my 4 1/2 year old nephew, remember.)
Then, she says to me: "I like the colour of the sofa."
So, when we considered the off-white rug, we lifted the cover to see "what it would look like." She didn't like the cast of the rug, it really did look kind of dirty, so we didn't bother taking the cover all the way off.
I'd hoped that when she saw her living room this way, she'd recognise something close to her inspiration images and agree to putting the off-whiteslip cover back onto the sofa.
I can see it, but then I've been immersed in images almost my entire life. I took off my pink shirt and wrapped it around a pillow and propped it on the couch.
"This is what you can do, now," I said. "You can go in any direction."
She got it. But she wasn't convinced. She likes the current colour of the sofa. It's likely, too, she doesn't want to fuss with cleaning a slip cover, too. Fair enough.
Fortunately, there's Emily Clarke. Her living room is a good example of what to do with a pinky taupish sofa (if indeed I'm reading the colours right).
Ms. Clarke used "Flatland" by Dutchboy paint on her walls. I've done a google search to see which Benjamin Moore colour might be close. Unfortunately, nothing came up. (We don't have Dutchboy paint in Canada).
Any thoughts?
10 comments :
Dare I ask why you picked that paint colour, when the sofa was the colour it is? Or did that sofa have the cover on when you picked the paint?
Either way, I have a feeling you may need to either re-paint, or get a slipcover that your mom likes.....
The room is really looking great, since you've been working on it! And what a good idea to use little rugs to try out the various colours!
If you have Benjamin Moore there, they may be able to do some sort of search and match the Dutch Boy color. And did you try the red rug with the un-slipcovered sofa (if those were the two things she preferred)?
And the only thing I will say about the room with "Flatland" on the walls (other than it being lovely) is that I would definitely consider your floors before assuming that paint will work for you, unless you are already planning on the biggest rug possible. It was an ordeal for me to move into a new place with orangey oak floors and try to choose paint colors, they change everything!
@Carole Anne.
We picked out the paint many years ago to go with an old green and gold tweed couch my Mom had before this. This couch is "new." --It's never been in her house before.
Orangey oak floors are like jeans, Anne. Everything "goes." I don't worry about coordinating too much.
I wish I new what you should do. I find the colour of the sofa quite good in case it's in good shape. I like the brown rug, but it might only be that I like it because it was the first one shown. Don't freak out but I still like the carpet your mom chose, the funky one, the best. The brown dots went so well with the wall.
Could your mom live with the livingroom as it is now and see how she enjoys it?
Have you tried http://www.colorcharts.org/cc/? To see if a company in Canada makes the color you like? Just a thought.
@Lena, Mom wants me to thank you for saying her rug is funky.
@Becca--thanks for the suggestion, I'll give that a try!
@Becca
What a great resource that is! Thank you. Turns out Cotton Duck 6186-63 by Sico paint (Rona) may be a good match. I'm happy I'll be able to see it in person.
I have to say, I also prefer the unslipcovered sofa and the rug your mom chose (though it doesn't go with the curtains). I think it would look great with bright white curtains though. The IKEA rugs are just way too small for the room I think- the scale is wrong for the furniture.
I also share Anne's concern about the paint and the floor- suggest definitely starting with sample pots to paint a big square swatch before committing to painting the entire room.
I have to say that this is such a huge positive transformation from the stating point- congratulations!
I assumed that everything went with orangey oak when I started here too, then I went through a lot of quart pots... this may have been a bigger problem for me since I was trying to find a green that wouldn't fight with them (not too much blue). Glad to hear you've found a match!
Our light is also very different, I think, being so far North...orange isn't quite so orange, here perhaps? It all depends.
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