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I am thinking about painting my den apple green on the top and glossy white on the bottom, with chair rail and molding (like boxes). do you think this would be a mistake?

Thanks for your input,
dori

The most you can expect out of any color is 5 years for a distinct color and 10 years for a neutral(brown is the new black! taupe is the new beige! or my personal fav, black is the new black!). After that the textile companies have moved on and it becomes hard to freshen up or add new things in your scheme. I think wall paint is the perfect place for a popular color since most rooms can use a new coat of paint in five years anyway.Add a couple of disposable pillows and call it a day.

do you think it would go with the olive sofa? I would love to add some blue. How would I work the blue in? One more question, is blue a neutral?

thanks,

I'm sure everyone has their own opinion,but it has been my experience that blue is one of the hardest colors to work with.There are so many different kinds of blue and many of them look awful together, so that's not my idea of a neutral. Also a bright fresh green may make the olive sofa look 'tired'. I do really like olive green and robin's egg blue together as a combo. It is very pretty and enough textile companies are using that combo, so finding pillows, lamp shades, ect. to pull your look together won't be difficult.

Could you suggest a robins egg blue paint? I think I know what you are talking about, but I would like to make sure

Thanks,
Dori

Both Kravet Fabrics and Duralee have lovely fabric selections using colors very similar to B.M. colors HC-15 and HC-142. Henderson Buff # HC-15 has a little more yellow than the average olive, so it is a bit more fresh and modern. The Stratton Blue # HC-142 is reaaly like a robin's egg. These two colors as a combination are available together in upholstery fabrics, sheets, throw pillows etc. so it should be easy to complete the look without going custom.

I don't know about walls but I have two cans of this apple green paint (oil) which I got somewhere for next to nothing. I love and adore this color and the paint itself.

I would not use the olive sofa with the green walls. My decorator friends used to always tell me that "all greens go together" when my kelly green glass shade did not go with my olive velvet love seat and I did not need a rule to tell me differently!

However as to the rest of what Charles says . . . yes he is quite right. . . but just keep all the fabrics that did go with what ever color it was and let everything get elegantly shabby! You know actual (rather than contrived) shabby chic!

I would only use apple green in a kitchen.I would not use it in any other room besides that and I would definitely keep it away from olive.

What Charles D said!