Natwerk Designs

Interior Design Help!! Red Couch Nightmare!!!?

I just moved into a new apartment and bought all new furniture. My girlfriend insisted on getting red colored couches. In my own opinion, red is a very difficult color to match anything with. I gave in and got the red couches. All I can do all day is stare at them with this disgusted look on my face because I have no idea how to decorate the rest of the living room. I do have a couple of ideas, but I'm not enthralled with them. If anyone out there has experience with interior design, or has any ideas about matching red couches with curtains, area rugs, furniture etc, please feel free to comment. The only thing I can think of is going with cherry colored furniture (No Black) and different colors of creams, and beige's. I thought of going with an Asian look because Asians use a lot of red. There you go. There's all of my ideas. Please help!!!!! Thanks

Public Comments

1. first of all i would have paint my wall 4 sides red (red colour goes well in a living room) and the roof white,would put beige parquet and beautiful biege with red design carpet(tapi/moquet) just in the middle of the living room zen u put the red couches around,in the middle of the carpet u put a glass made table, in the corner of the living room u put 2 beautiful block vase with acrylic column with glass fill with beautiful flowers matches with ur living room, on the wall u put 3 medium pictures frames zats all a simple living room nw u see if u can put more things
2. Cherry might make the red even more noticable. Try something in a teak or walnut color. Cherry has a red undertone and since you're not a real fan of red, that might not be pleasing to you. I think part of the reason the red is getting you is that the rest of the room might be pretty neutral and they're popping out at ya. Start with finding an area rug that you like with red in it; doens't have to be an exact match. Use the area rug to "ground" or designate the main seating area. Take your color cues from the rug. Select one of the dominant colors from the rug and paint 1 wall in the room that will be your feature wall. It it's where the TV is or a fireplace, whatever you want as a main focus. Just be sure when picking your feature wall color that it is a color with some weight to it. Meaning it will hold it's own against the red. Here's a rug for an example. http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID=57989&CatID=57989&Grptyp=ENS&ItemId=1578957&cmRef=http://www.jcpenney.com/products/C57989.jsp If you were to go with a rug like this you could easily paint your feature wall the green if you like or the nice rich carmel brown. Then do the rest of the room in the light cream color. Curtains could be solid color in one of the main colors or a graphic print with the same colors in. Add a variety of throw pillows in the green, black, cream and caramel. But sure to use some of the red elsewhere in the room such as in the curtains. That way you will be spreading the most eye catching color around the room, not leaving it in one big glob. You could even use something like these. http://www2.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?ItemID=14f31b7&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=STY&ShowMenu=T&ShopBy=0&SearchString=drapes%2c+curtains&RefPage=SearchDepartment.aspx&s4PageSize=99&CmCatId=searchresults&Search1Prod=True&S4Filter=N%7c4294967240%7cNtt%7cdrapes%2c+curtains%7cNtk%7csearch_all%7cNao%7c0%7cNty%7c1%7csid%7c11F25D89EE07%7cNtx%7cmode%2bmatchallpartial%7cNtpr%7c1%7cNtpc%7c1%7cFN4294967240%7cmultiple+colors Red lends itself well to nearly any decorating style but it can be a bit hard to work with. But by using strong color through the entire room you will get rid of that big red blob feeling you've got now. Hang in there!
3. Try something different, like the modern design style which can focus on red, black and white...modernise it, i mean you can get these very classy black shiny stools or something, don't just give up on the idea of black coz believe me it will look really modern and nice. And i dont know what happened to white. Say, you can paint the walls red and white, using white as the main colour, and use red for furniture and black for accessories.
4. Okay, calm down. Here's the first idea. Find the perfect muted brick reds in your area rugs to bring down the red, with browns and yellows or turquoise. Bring in nubby milk chocolate brown throws. If you can't find solid brown, find flecks in chocolate with no reds. In summer, use light cotton crocheted throws. Don't bother with throw pillows. They'll only slide flat. Throws must be nubby in both seasons to stay put better. Furniture, no. Don't use creams or beiges, they won't draw the eye away. Not cherry furniture, a warm mahogany. Drapes, a tweed of browns and mustards. Lamps in brass. When you buy fruit for a bowl on a table, don't buy apples. Buy mangoes and kiwi and nuts. Put nothing else red in the room ever.
5. Gold or yellow look nice with red: http://terryfrank.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/red-living-room-couch-1.jpg http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc16/mrballbox/Martyn/arsl05_martynus.jpg Browns and sand shades? http://www.housetohome.co.uk/imageBank/cache/b/BH0508-40_e_9c53654d7f7c9c72667efde1daba6b35.jpg http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mrenee.biz/ebay/images/current/feng_brownredsun_080906_completer.ext.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mrenee.biz/&usg=__2DmPTo4otmYy4vmq8udwDONpIZs=&h=589&w=735&sz=458&hl=en&start=45&um=1&tbnid=AGfl_86oMWEbUM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpics%2Bof%2BAsian%2Bstyled%2Bliving%2Brooms%26start%3D36%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Hand-painted-Red-Leather-Oriental-Accent-Table/3260496/product.html?cid=128277&fp=F&srccode=cii_9324560&cpncode=18-26940205-2 http://www.bellacor.com/productdetail/329159.htm http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Bamboo-I-Posters_i1386292_.htm http://www.allposters.com/-sp/This-Moment-to-Eternity-I-Posters_i3397659_.htm http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Joy_I_Area_Rug/210/ Hope something here inspired you!