Colour Me Tolerable

[undyingking]

I have no sense at all for colours that go together (as a few of you have kindly reminded me in the past...), so I'm hoping some of the less taste-challenged among you may be able to help me with a colour choice.

We're been redecorating our library room, a small squarish attic room with a dormer window facing NNW. The walls are Pugin Red, the glosswork and ceiling are white. The curtain material is a red, gold and beige vertical stripe thing. The idea was to achieve a costy womb-like atmosphere -- of course, the walls will mostly be covered with books so they're of all sorts of colours.

My question is, what sort of carpet should I go for? My immediate thought of a supporting colour(s) which will help brighten up the room a bit was gold -- but that sounds a bit nightmarish for a carpet. T suggested oatmeal, which I guess is the universal-recipient of carpet colours, but I'd like something more interesting than that if poss.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[zandev.livejournal.com]

This doesn't directly help you, but on the subject of colours I was quite impressed by:

Kuler

Which is a flash colour combination picker.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

I'd go for the dark indigo on that colour pallet. Goes beautifully with red and will really enhance the richness of the walls and curtains.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

My twopennorth: gold is a difficult colour for a very textured thing like a a carpet. It would probably feel mustardy or ochrey instead. Even though that red isn't a very saturated red, I reckon it would feel like too many strong colours in one room. I'd go for something to tone with the beige - beige, oatmeal, or similar - because it will make the room feel a lot bigger and lighter, and won't draw the eye in the way that a yellow would. I know beige is dull, but red is a strong statement for a room already, so better to have one strong statement than two statements shouting over each other.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I think T might be right about the oatmeal. Something in the beige range would disappear against your other colours. Anything more exciting might scream at them.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

The idea was to achieve a costy womb-like atmosphere

I can point you to quite a number of home furnishing retailers you specialise in costy merchandise !

As far as colours go it depends on how adventurous you're trying to be. If you simply want to avoid a disaster, a mid charcoal grey is probably the way to go.

The oatmeal colour various people have suggested is similarly quite a safe choice (although I'd tend more towards the orange part of the spectrum - likely to be called something like 'biscuit').

However, it's possible you could get away with a much more striking effect if you were prepared to risk potential awfulness. Are your bookcases light or dark wood ? If the former, some kind of rich maroon colour might work for the carpet, aiming for a sort of "East India Company smoking room" effect. If the latter, possibly something like chocolate brown.

If you can get some digital photos of the room I'm happy to produce mockups in Photoshop.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

There's clearly only one colour choice.