When it comes to your living room, you don’t want something dull and flat. You want the room to pop! And one of the best ways to do that’s to choose opposite colors like orange and blue. How do you design a living room with those colors, though? What shades and hues are best? See if these Blue and Orange Living Room Ideas help.
1) Turquoise and Tangerine
Tangerine is a lovely, lighter shade of orange that goes well with many other colors. Turquoise and tangerine make an excellent combination, whether it’s for the entire room or just small pieces. You can get large turquoise and tangerine furniture or get things like these curtains that have both tangerine and turquoise in them. Try putting these against white or beige walls since these colors can be overwhelming if you use them for large areas.
2) Navy
What shade of blue goes best with the orange you’ve chosen? Do you want a lighter look, or do you want to make the most of the contrast created by blue and orange? For a room with a lot of contrast, try navy and any shade of orange. Even a darker shade can look good with navy, though it’ll tone down the contrast between the two colors. Try creating a navy room with some orange like the ones in this article for an unusual and bold design.
3) Dark Orange Wall With Light Blue Couch
Since blue and orange already contrast, you can enhance that by choosing one very light color and one very dark one. For example, you can paint your walls dark orange and get light blue furniture like the coupe in this Life with Marfarlane video did. The dark walls and light couch contrast and the unusual setup with large areas of dark color and small areas of light colors make it seem bolder and more unique.
4) Teal Glazed
Teal and orange go well together and are ideal for a lighter, more upbeat room. If you’re trying to create a more cheerful space that’s still dramatic, this will be the perfect combo. You can also look at different textures since they’ll each have a different effect. For example, a glazed piece like this one from Amazon with the two colors running together blends well and looks neat in a teal and orange room. The burnt orange shade of this lamp is also an excellent orange to combine with teal.
5) Light and Airy
Blue and orange can be a dark and bold look, or it can create a light and airy feeling, depending on what type of room you want your living room to be. For a lighter room, you can start with white and get pieces like this navy and white patterned pouf. The white pattern doesn’t interfere with the deep blue color, but it feels lighter and less constricting. This type of tasteful design and color combination is ideal for a room where you entertain guests.
6) Grayish Neutrals
In many cases, you’ll want to use neutrals as a base when your main colors are as vibrant as blue and orange typically are. You can start by exploring neutral choices like the ones here, and for a blue and orange room, you’ll ideally want to start with grayish neutrals that’ll go well with the blue. Since blue is a cool color and orange is warm, you can also look for something in-between like beige.
7) Modern Abstract
If you’re trying to create a cheerful room using a unique and colorful combination like this, abstract furnishings are an excellent way to go. You can get abstract pieces like this rug from Amazon with a splattering of blue and orange in different non-geometric patterns. Since they’re not geometric, furnishings like these will go well in an eclectic room with various mix and match decorations. Just make sure to stick to similar tones when you pick each piece.
8) Sheer Bright Orange
Another way to make sure the room looks cheerful is to let in plenty of sunlight, which you can do by getting sheer curtains. For sheer curtains, you can choose a light color like teal or pick bright orange ones like these. Sheer curtains often look better in brighter colors because of the way the sun filters through them and because lighter colors block less sunlight. This shade should go well with a bright, pure blue.
9) Patterns
If you like the combination of bold blue and teal but want to create a more subtle look, patterned pieces would be a perfect choice. You can get some pieces with dark orange and white patterns and others with dark orange and blue patterns so that all the pieces are colorful without being too bright or too dark. You can see in this picture how you can create a lovely sitting area with this design, so all you’ll have to do is expand it to the rest of the room.
10) Distressed Boho
Bohemian designs are popular nowadays, and orange and blue would make a neat color combination for a bohemian living room. For this style, you’ll want to get things with bohemian patterns like this distressed rug from Amazon. Also, look for burnt orange textured or macrame tapestries to hang up, or even get natural colored hangings and put them against an orange or blue wall. Make sure to include plenty of white in each patterned decoration or in the background to offset the intensity of the orange and blue.
11) Blue and White Chevron
Chevron is the perfect pattern for a semi-formal living room since it doesn’t have the bold modern look of a geometric pattern or the cozy, informal look of organic designs. Since you’re using two bold colors, you’ll want to find some way to offset that intensity, and white and blue chevron will do that beautifully. You can get chevron decorations like this throw blanket, either in blue and white like this one or in orange and white.
12) Teal Leather Accent
Teal is one of the lightest and brightest blue tones, so if you’re trying to create a cheerful room, it’s an excellent choice. It’s also one of the warmest blue colors, so it goes well with a warm color like orange. One of the neatest ways to use teal is in leather pieces or in a leather-textured accent wall like the one in this video. You can see in the video how much it brightens the room and how well range goes with it.
13) Cream, Blue, and Orange
Blue and orange is an intense color combination, and sometimes it can be too intense, so your best choice is to have some neutral colors mixed in. Generally, you’ll want to use off-whites since blue is cool and orange is warm, so you can’t use a warm or cool neutral with them. Cream is a good choice because you can find creamy oranges and blues like the ones in this cream, orange, and blue rug from Amazon.
14) Bold Blues
Sometimes you want to go all out. Bright sapphire blues like this blue oversized bean bag go well with medium oranges, and they’re an excellent way to create a bold and cheerful room without overwhelming the senses. While a bean bag like this would be amazing for seating in an informal family room or as a decoration, you can also get a couch of the same color for a living room where you entertain guests.
15) Even Mix of Blue, Orange, and Grey
Two-color schemes are rare. Generally, you’ll want a third color or some neutrals to make the room seem less flat, and an orange and blue color scheme is no exception. Grey can be a wonderful neutral choice since it goes well with blue, but does it go with orange? After all, greys are typically cool, and orange is a warm color. If you like this idea, we found this picture to show you how the right orange can go well with a grey and blue room.
16) Orange and Blue Patterned
Complementary colors look good together even when you’re not using them to create contrast. If you’re not really looking to tone down your vibrant color choices but instead looking to integrate the two colors together well, you can get pieces that include both blue and orange. Choosing decorations and furnishings with blue and orange patterns will make the two colors blend together so that you can take advantage of this lovely color combo without creating an intense contrast.
17) Rustic Vases
One way to combine blue and orange without creating a blindingly intense room is to get toned-down decorations like these rustic vases. You can see how the set of vases is colorful but isn’t gaudy or too bright. Instead, it looks tasteful and pretty. You could use pieces like these to create a farmhouse-style orange and blue room by starting with neutrals and adding blue and orange rustic pieces like these. Try finding lamps and throw pillows that match these.
18) Classic Blue and Burnt Orange
Burnt orange is one of the best oranges for a tasteful room, particularly if you’re going to combine it with another color. It goes well with most colors and looks particularly good with a classic blue. You can see in this Pantone article how well the two colors go together, and the nice thing about it is that both colors are equally intense so that you can use either color as a base or accent. Try getting a couch in one color and throw pillows in another.
19) Poppies
Poppies are one of the most beautiful orange flowers, and since flowers are one of the oldest and most natural decorations, it only makes sense to have some in your orange and blue living room. You can get decorations like this canvas with a picture of a poppy on a blue background. Something like this will match your color scheme, and the flowers will look lovely. You can even get faux or real poppies to put in a vase as an orange accent against sky blue walls or furniture.
20) Bold Blue and Gold Velvet
Velvet almost always creates a luxurious look, so if you want a regal look for your blue and orange living room, you can use velvet. Try getting something in a bold blue like the couch in this Apartment Therapy image. You can see how well the bold blue couch and gold velvet throw pillows go together. While normally gold isn’t quite the same as orange, this gold velvet is a light, unique shade of orange that goes well with a bright blue like this couch.
21) Blue and Brown
When you’re looking for accents for an orange room, you don’t want to use just one color, though you can certainly make it look like that color is the only one. If all of your decorations have a little bit of blue with another color, people will see the blue, and the second color will add dimension to the room more than anything else. For example, you can get a brown and blue decoration like this to go into an orange room.
Are you looking to create a lighter living room, or do you want something bold? Did any of these ideas help spark your imagination or help you find what you were looking for? Please let us know in the comments below.