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What Color Walls Go With Brown Furniture? 

What Color Walls Go With Brown Furniture? 

If you’re wondering what color walls go with brown furniture, you’ve come to the right place.

Below, we’ll cover each of your options to help you create a warm and cozy space. Read on to learn all you need to know.

What Color Walls Go With Brown Furniture?

Brown is a versatile neutral color, meaning it goes with almost everything. So whether you like blues, greens, greys, or yellow tones, there are ways to make them work with your brown furniture. The real question is, what colors reflect your personal style best?

Once you determine that, picking wall colors that go with brown furniture is a cinch. That said, choosing wall colors that reflect the style of your home can be difficult. It’s not just a matter of picking a color that goes with brown; there’s the shade to consider as well.

For example, let’s say you decide you love brown and blue together. If you have dark brown furniture and go with a medium blue wall, you’ll end up with a look that’s cozy and warm.

If you go with a cornflower blue wall, though, you’ll have a room that looks stately and formal. While the design of your furniture and other accent pieces helps refine your style, your wall color is crucial for setting the right atmosphere.

So, below, we break down a few color palettes that work well with brown furniture based on personal style rather than hue. That way, you can pick the style that you love most. Then find colors that help you show it off.

Warm and Cozy 

Dark brown couch with light grey walls for a piece on what color goes with brown furniture

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If you fantasize about cups of hot tea beside a roaring fire or dream of curling up on the couch with a good book, a warm and cozy atmosphere is probably what you should shoot for. Luckily, warm and inviting hues play well with browns of all types.

If you have dark brown or mahogany furniture, go for greyish greens or tan on the wall. Golden yellows and medium blues also work to bring out dark brown’s more inviting tones.

If you have light or medium-brown furniture, consider deeper colors to create a cozy look. Tans and light colors next to medium browns often look washed out, but a deep grey or deeper blue provides contrast without getting too cool.

Inspired by Nature 

To help answer what color walls go with brown furniture, a nature-inspired living room with green wall, light grey flooring, and a plain white picture above the couch

Visualstock/Shutterstock

Whether you hike, garden, love to travel, or all three, using the natural world as inspiration for your style is never passé. There are seemingly endless ways to bring the great outdoors inside, and brown furniture works well with all of them.

If you want a jungle-inspired look that’s bold and adventurous, consider shades of green on your wall, anything from emerald to moss.

In your accent pieces, you can complement the look with bright pops of jewel tones, golds, or even black. The results will be as exciting as a trip down the Amazon River!

You could also go southwestern and paint your walls in terracotta tones. Use mustard, warm peach, or tan to reflect the desert landscape. Medium brown furniture works best here, but darker browns also do well, especially when you add pops of red and orange to your accent pieces.

Alternatively, if you hope to bring in a more mountainous feel, try grays, ivory, or even sky blue as a backdrop for your brown furniture. Together, the colors mimic the hues of pebbles in a rushing alpine river.

Polished Elegance 

Dark brown couch with cream accents and off-white walls that go together very well

Alexander_Safonov/Shutterstock

Some of us prefer a look that’s classic and refined.

If you like donning collared shirts even on your day off, prefer formal dinner parties to casual engagements, and hope to display your grandmother’s china next to your best crystal, a sophisticated and elegant look might be more your style.

Brown furniture, regardless of shade, can look dignified and tasteful against creamy ivory. Add a few contrasting accent colors in soft shades, like cornflower blue or pale green, for a stately look. Or, consider complementary sand, caramel, and toffee tones.

They’ll keep the space warm without losing elegance. There are two colors in this category that are tempting but often turn out lackluster, at least as far as a wall color. Many think a bright white wall will look clean and sophisticated.

But bright white walls and brown furniture aren’t a great combination. Your furniture will look washed out.

You should avoid red shades on the walls as well. Red can look fantastic with brown furniture when you use it for accent pieces like pillows or throws, but it tends to look mucky and dull on the wall.

Throwback Glitz

Modern interior living room for a piece on what color walls go with brown furniture

Vadym Andrushchenko/Shutterstock

Lately, 70’s style is back in vogue, especially when it comes to your home. Brown furniture was trendy throughout that particular decade. So, if you want a glamorous vintage look, this is the style to go with.

This style works best with mid-brown to dark brown furniture with reddish or orange undertones; think maple and mahogany rather than oak.

On the walls, you’ll want to use ivory, olive, or, if you’re brave enough, burnt orange. Then, add in a few brass accent pieces to complete your retro stylings.

Things to Consider When Picking Wall Colors 

Before you buy paint or wallpaper to work with your brown furniture, there are a few essential things to consider. 

  • Consider your home’s architecture. If you have a traditional Tudor home, it’s probably pretty dark. You’ll want to use lighter wall colors to keep it from feeling too cavernous. Alternatively, if you have a more modern home, it probably lets in plenty of light, in which case you can get away with bold and dark-colored walls.
  • Consider the wall colors in the rest of your home. Wall colors don’t have to match throughout your house, but they should flow. You don’t want bold, bright colors in one room and pastels in the next unless you’re creating a kid’s room or something like that.
  • Avoid trends. When it comes to brown furniture, you might be tempted to use fuchsia or pale pink on the walls. The pink and brown trend comes and goes every few years, though, and it will quickly look dated as a wall color. You’re better off aiming for timeless colors that you love unless you plan on redecorating every few years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Classic retro style brown furniture in a room with teal walls and light grey hardwood flooring

Mobz/Shutterstock

Before we go, we want to address a few common brown furniture questions:

Is Brown Furniture Making a Comeback?

Yes, brown furniture is making a comeback. In truth, for many, it never went out of style. Brown can give a room richness, depth, and warmth like no other color can. Plus, brown is always neutral, which means you can pair it with just about anything!

Which Colors Brighten Up Brown Furniture?

Depending on your style, creams, ivories, or light grays will brighten up brown furniture best.

What Colors Stand Out Next to Brown?

According to color theory, blue tones are best for making brown stand out, though greens are great as well. Purples can make brown pop too, but we’d probably avoid them as a wall color unless you’re going for an extra-bold look.

So, What Color Walls Go Best With Brown Furniture? 

So, what color walls go with brown furniture? In truth, brown furniture will go with almost any wall color.

So, it’s best to consider the style you hope to create and then choose a wall color that works with it.