Pair Dark Green With Gold for a Sumptuous, Satisfying Look
Deep green is a color of the moment, and these rooms show how to combine it with its best friend — glimmering gold
Strawberries and ice cream, wine and cheese, Posh and Becks. Some pairings just belong together. So if you’re thinking of embracing the color du jour of interiors — dark green — you may want to also consider its partner in crime: gold (or brass or bronze). Because there’s just something about the glimmering highlights of rich burnished gold that offset the forest coolness of dark green, making the combination a deeply satisfying one. Here are seven rooms that know the power of green and gold, and the lessons we can learn from them.
Focus on texture. Want to add an extra layer of glamour to this color combination? Enter green velvet.
By teaming a luscious emerald velvet with small high-gloss elements, such as the bronze coffee table legs and the gold tripod floor lamp, the owners of this living room have brought in an elegant dash of 1930s glamour and created a neat, modern homage to the Art Deco period.
Green Velvet Shines in These Enviable Rooms
By teaming a luscious emerald velvet with small high-gloss elements, such as the bronze coffee table legs and the gold tripod floor lamp, the owners of this living room have brought in an elegant dash of 1930s glamour and created a neat, modern homage to the Art Deco period.
Green Velvet Shines in These Enviable Rooms
Bring in a third element. This beautiful dark green kitchen with gold accents shows how a midtoned wood can act as the perfect companion material to this duo.
The slim wooden shelves and raw-oak bar stools shown here are almost the same tone as the gold pendant lights and faucet, but they bring an organic warmth and texture to the space, which tones down the Art Deco influence and lends a modern-country feel instead.
12 Great Kitchen Styles — Which One’s for You?
The slim wooden shelves and raw-oak bar stools shown here are almost the same tone as the gold pendant lights and faucet, but they bring an organic warmth and texture to the space, which tones down the Art Deco influence and lends a modern-country feel instead.
12 Great Kitchen Styles — Which One’s for You?
Go for gloss. This look celebrates the glossy beauty of gold and allows it to shine thanks to the trio of showstopping pendant lights above the island and the striking gold faucets. The glossy green cabinetry takes a supporting role here, but the gently reflective finish still adds to the luxe feel of the room, as does the black marble countertop.
Find gold-toned kitchen fixtures
Find gold-toned kitchen fixtures
Create a cocoon. If you want to design a cozy den or reading nook, dark green (or even a very green teal) is your friend. As shown here, you can create a sumptuous room if you take the same color right across the cabinetry as well as the walls.
Befitting the soft, relaxed vibe of this space, the metallic accents are kept to a minimum but are still apparent if you look for them, gently glimmering away; the cabinet handles, bronze lamp base and slim mirror frame add gentle gloss and polish to this peaceful room.
Befitting the soft, relaxed vibe of this space, the metallic accents are kept to a minimum but are still apparent if you look for them, gently glimmering away; the cabinet handles, bronze lamp base and slim mirror frame add gentle gloss and polish to this peaceful room.
Take it to the dark side. Deep green can really tip over into dramatic territory if teamed with black walls, as shown here, or furniture. In such a color scheme, the addition of gold or brass metallic elements isn’t just a nice detail — it’s an essential element, as it serves to bring glimmers of reflected light into the shady corners and dark recesses of the room, lifting the deep tones.
Metal latticework screens like these ooze Art Deco elegance, but a gold patterned wallpaper would create the same effect.
What Goes With Black Walls?
Metal latticework screens like these ooze Art Deco elegance, but a gold patterned wallpaper would create the same effect.
What Goes With Black Walls?
Tone them down. If high-gloss gold and rich emerald green is too bold a combination for your taste, consider this pairing of warm olive green and burnished bronze instead. The shades complement each other beautifully, bringing to mind dappled golden sunlight and mossy woodland.
Because these colors are quite muted and almost sludgy, care has to be taken not to allow this look to tip over into old-fashioned. Here, the clean lines of the cabinets, the sleek marble countertop and the abstract paintings ensure that the room feels contemporary in style, while the chunky wooden floorboards bring organic texture and warmth.
Your turn: Have you gone with a rich green at home? Added some gold highlights too? Upload a photo in the Comments and tell us about it!
More: Find out how to start a decorating project
Because these colors are quite muted and almost sludgy, care has to be taken not to allow this look to tip over into old-fashioned. Here, the clean lines of the cabinets, the sleek marble countertop and the abstract paintings ensure that the room feels contemporary in style, while the chunky wooden floorboards bring organic texture and warmth.
Your turn: Have you gone with a rich green at home? Added some gold highlights too? Upload a photo in the Comments and tell us about it!
More: Find out how to start a decorating project
The key to re-creating a similar look is to focus on the small, often overlooked details, such as the electrical outlets and shelf brackets, and to introduce glimmers of gold and brass through these, so the details are there if you look for them, but they don’t immediately leap out at you.