Green with envy

Create a room that’s sophisticated and grown-up without being stuffy or precious with deep emerald green, pops of brass and mustard and a fun striped pink cabinet.

Dark and moody jewel tones are a favoured choice for luxe, sophisticated spaces, especially those with a slightly more maximalist touch. Maximalism adores colour, texture and pattern, and celebrates pushing the boundaries beyond what’s expected. It’s a style that’s slowly having a renaissance, and luckily the rules are there are no rules.

Emerald green has long ruled as the go-to colour for a rich, luxurious vibe, and its reign isn’t over. When combined with the richest of textiles, velvet, it’s a pairing made in elegant, maximalist heaven. In this moody lounge the traditional, deep mossy hue of Resene Palm Green on the walls is perfectly paired with the green velvet chair and ottoman.

This room highlights exactly how to use a tonal colour scheme without being too monochromatic. The floor, painted in Resene Greige, the small plant pot in the Caledonian blue green of Resene Cutty Shark, the lamp in the ethereal grey of Resene Midwinter Mist and books painted in Resene Rivergum and Resene Deep Teal all create a rich, classically elegant green-blue colour palette.

For colour contrast pair emerald green with mustard, another rich hue considered as a cousin in the jewel tone family. Bring it in through soft accessories, such as the throw in this room. Brass accents, like the lamp and vase, pick up on the tones of this warm colour and add their own elegant, polished presence to the space.

Green and pink have traditionally been a colour pairing reserved for tweens, but this room demonstrates how the combination can be used in a sophisticated, grown-up fashion. The key is to use darker variations of these two hues to prevent them from looking too youthful. The deep emerald of Resene Palm Green is paired with Resene Vintage, a blended red oxide and pastel pink similar to that of a brown genteel Victorian Rose. This dusty, darker pink, which has been used on the striped cabinet, picks up on the moody, sophisticated attitude of the room, serving to enhance this feeling of cosy intimacy, rather than detract from it. Repeat this colour a couple more times in the room to cement it as a feature hue. In this room it’s picked up in the protea print and in a small round vase.

The striped cabinet is an interesting element in itself and speaks to the maximalist lean of the lounge. While most would gravitate towards horizontal stripes for their furniture, this cabinet is bold and unique with vertical stripes in Resene Double Spanish White and Resene Vintage. You can recreate this look at home with your own furniture. Each stripe is 5cm wide, start from the outside edge of your cabinet and make your way into the middle where the doors meet. Make sure you use painter’s masking tape and a ruler to get your lines straight and even.

Project by Annick Larkin. Images by Bryce Carleton. 2021