Orange is warm up home decor this fall

10/7/2012

Orange can look good anywhere in your home, but these designers say it’s especially beautiful for bedrooms.

“Orange is my favorite choice for kids’ rooms, because it’s totally gender-neutral,” Mr. Flynn says. “My favorite combo for a kids’ space is tangerine and white. It’s clean and classic.”

Mr. Schuneman agrees: “I love a warm shade of orange for a bedroom.My last bedroom was a burnt brick. It felt so warm and cozy,” he says. “It really works well with dim lighting at night, but also can invigorate you to wake up in the morning.”

Ms. Burnham is using orange and white gingham print draperies, along with navy blue and dark denim upholstery, to decorate the bedroom of a pre-teen boy. “It’s boyish, but sophisticated,” she says. “Not over-the-top country or anything. Sort of preppy.”

What goes with it?

“I love pairing gray with orange,” Mr. Schuneman says. “It immediately amps up the hip factor and brings it into a contemporary setting. It works well because gray has a cool base, where orange is warm. So the balance really creates harmony in a room.”

Along with pale grays and deep charcoals, orange also goes well with dark and light blues and also browns, taupe, cream, or white.

Ms. Burnham cautions against pairing orange with other tropical colors or other harvest colors, like red and yellow. The room can easily begin to feel as though you’ve taken those themes too far.

Rather than piling on all the fall colors at once, Mr. Schuneman suggests pairing orange only with brown: “I think you can create a really beautiful monotone room of creams, off whites, and browns,” he says, “and pop it with orange to create a cozy feel. Use different textures in these similar color tones ... jutes, velvets and linens for that cozy fall feel.”

What to avoid?

“I find yellow-orange the hardest to work with,” Mr. Flynn says, “because it’s very limited in accent color choices.” Ms. Burnham agrees, saying it’s best to avoid “that school-bus orange.”

If you’re going with a bright orange, just be sure you’ll enjoy it long-term.

Edgy, bright shades are “really going to pop and give your room some personality,” Ms. Burnham says. But “a little goes a long way,” and what’s hot today may quickly go out of style.

“Like any trend,” she says, “use it sparingly.”