Purple Is Back

October 07, 2017

Purple Is Back

GET PASSIONATE ABOUT PURPLE

Purple Is A Great Accent Color

What did I and the late Super Rock Star 'Prince' have in common? We both love the color purple. It's cool. It's romantic. It's bold. It's passionate. This is also why many brides tend to choose purple as their wedding theme color.

Although some seem to shy away from this color, it is one of my favorite accent colors. To tone it down, I will sometimes mix purple with other hues in the same color family, such as plum and berry. It is the perfect 'punch' color in a neutral or monochromatic color scheme. It looks great when combined with any of the neutrals: ivory, taupe, brown, black, gray, or white. It can be the main color in a room, or it can just be an accent color. I prefer purple as an accent color when I am using colors that are greens, golds, teal blues, or corals. I used purple as the third accent color in my own home where the main colors are sable, tobacco brown and a deep leafy green. I just sprinkled in a touch of the purple in several of the spaces by adding a purple vase, a purple orchid arrangement, and purple in my artwork. When I want to incorporate purple into a client's design, I usually have to slowly introduce it in small doses. Although, I have had a few clients for whom I have made it more of a secondary color, and did purple drapes, or purple chair, purple bedding, a purple shower curtain, or a couple of purple ottomans in the space.

Years ago, I had a client that had a red leather sofa in the living room, and purple paint on the walls in the adjoining dining area. When I first saw the home, I thought, 'No Way!' How am I going to make these two colors flow? I love a design challenge; so I got inspiration from a drapery fabric with a black background and red and purple flowers on it. I used this fabric for the custom window treatments in the dining room and living room; and added a couple of throw pillows on the red sofa in the same fabric. Now, finally the colors in each space flowed and to my surprise, looked beautiful! I think it was the color black that pulled it all together. Black looks great with purple and it looks great with red. As I continued to decorate other spaces in the home like the breakfast area, I used the black, green, and gold colors more.

Whenever you are painting the walls with the color purple, just remember this color can be a little 'fussy'. It may take a little trial and error, before you land your perfect shade. It is best to get small samples of the paint color first and see what it looks like on the actually walls before you commit. If you go too light with this color, you can get a lilac or something more suited for a little girl's room. The shade can also have too much plum or burgundy. I like to use the shades that have more grape color in them to get a true purple tone. Thanks also to technology, some paint manufacturers now have Apps that let you see what the color will look like on your walls before you purchase.

To add an accent of purple to my design, I used this picture of a purple orchid in my Great Room. It works well with the other colors of browns and greens in the room.

A deep bold purple paint color was used in this Art Deco style bathroom as the main color, keeping everything else in the neutrals.

This large Hollywood Regency style armchair will add the perfect purple punch color in a contemporary living room.

I have used a simple solid purple window treatment in rooms where purple was one of the main colors. Purple things tend to look better and are more contemporary when solid colors are used.

To add some color to a client's coffee table, I used these plum colored calla lilies that I arranged in a bright gold vase.

I was so happy when I found this painting from Stylecraft to pull all the colors together in the living room shown below. The painting had the purple, plum, gold and green colors I used in the room.