Reader request - purple
Thu, 16 Dec 2010Today's reader request comes from Kate: "I'm moving to Florence, Italy in January (so exciting!) and the apartment we are renting is partially furnished. In the living area there are -- gulp -- two purple velvet armchairs and a purple sofa. They are in great shape and high quality pieces, I just never thought I'd be living with so much purple! I've read enough design blogs to know there has got to be a design solution to tame and balance the colors." My 2 cents = embrace the purple! I wouldn't try to tame the purple because why not have fun with it (plus I think it could easily look like you're trying to hard to make the purple disappear). If you're allowed to paint I'd either paint the walls (or at least the main wall) the same purple as the furniture or a lighter, lavendar shade. (If you can't paint then I'd get a huge canvas and a couple cans of purple paint and do some funky simple art). Dark charcoal walls, purple velvet drapes would be hot. Accessorize with purple, and black and white geometric patterns. Below are some photos I found of living rooms with purpley sofas/chairs, and then a few photos where bold coloured furniture matches wall colour. (If you have ideas for Kate please drop a comment!)
Home & Decor
Sköna hem
Alex Papachristidis
Steven Gambrel
Shoot Factory
Côté Maison
Designers Guild
heyhome
Andrea Garuti
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| vtwonen | Pelle Bergström |
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| David Kaplan | Tracey Garet |
Living Etc.
Living Etc.
design*sponge
Folio
Greg Natale
Lagerlings
Andrew Suvalsky
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| Bo Bedre | David Netto |
Reader Comments (17)
deep purple :-) wonderful selection
I have an Eggplant purple sofa and my idea was to treat it as a neutral and do whatever else I wanted in the room as far as colors. I like that you showed options as a neutral as well as really playing the sofa color up and making the rest of the room bold and big.
huh. i would not paint the walls purple (or lavender), but the charcoals looked gorgeous and, oddly enough, so did the chartreuse. still, florence! who cares about the purple - you're in florence!
Thanks so much Kim! Believe it or not, the purple velvet in the second photo looks almost exactly like the ones we'll have! This is so helpful!
As a student currently residing in Firenze myself, I can assure you that purple will seep into your life whether you like it or not! Embrace the color and support the Fiorentina Violas! :)
Congratulations on your upcoming move! You will love it here!
I had a very formal Regency double drawing room which looked fantastic in lavender - once I included all the bookcases, shutters, architraves and doors. The ceiling was white, the fireplaces white marble, and the curtains for the French doors to the balcony were delustred lavender taffeta.
It looked really tacky while the trim was white - embracing the lavender made all the difference.
Kim, what beautiful pictures! What a lucky girl. I've actually been wanting a low-scale purple velvet sofa for a long time! I was going to say put a pop of yellow (something I've been writing about on my blog) with a pillow and paint the walls gray. Then I saw the picture from vtwonen. This is what I was thinking! Such a gorgeous room. Oh - and don't forget the pop of hot pink. I hope you will post pictures of her place.
I didn't know that so much purple looked so good!!
purple can look so great...just combine it right!
If it works stylistically, I'd use Indian / Moroccan prints to class up the purple.
Lime green will pop the purple, and give it energy, charcoal will tone it down and make it more sophiscated. Lavender behind the sofa may make them look smaller, if that is what you feel is needed. Hopefully, the scale/color is balanced for the room. But hey, when in Rome (or Florence rather)...go with it!
I know people say that X makes them sick with desire, and I always privately accuse them of gross exaggeration, but actually the picture from Skona Helm had precisely that effect on me.
I wouldn't paint the walls purple. I'd paint them grey.
I'm loving the grays and charcoal with the purple. Very pretty.
Great theme!
wonderful wonderful
love the colors so much
I used to hate purple. HAAAATE purple. And now- I am realizing that it is the color that makes me the happiest. Whenever I see it in my home, I can't help but to smile. I like the ones that lean more towards the pink range.
Ever notice how purple is almost always also velvet? Things that make you go hmmmm...