Today’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

vtwonen	Pelle Bergström
David Kaplan	Tracey Garet

Living Etc.
Living Etc.
design*sponge
Folio
Greg Natale
Lagerlings
Andrew Suvalsky

Bo Bedre	David Netto