Living room colors: How to match brown with something else?

Hello all,

Here is my problem. We just got a brand new house, and would like to create a more colorful look for the living room. The living room hasn't been finished yet by the constructors, so I can't show the pics. However, we know that the base color is going to be brown due to a number of reasons. First, the ceiling is colored with very light brown (almost beige) color. Next, we are planning on installing wooden floors, which will be either Brazilian cherry or maple both of which are dark brown dark brown. Finally, our "centerpiece" furniture will be a large brown leather sofa.

Having said that, my initial intention was to add green as the second color (green rug on the floor, green pillows on the sofa, green armchair to counterbalance the sofa itself, and green wall art pieces).

However--Houston we have a problem--my wife hates green Crying or Very sad

So, I'm torn with the dilemma of what color to choose as the second one. I know that I wouldn't put it red for sure--we need to paint the walls with something light, since we don't have the direct light and would like to brighten the room. Right now my two choices are: orange or blue.

Any suggestions, please on which color should be complementary with brown for the living room? Maybe, some of you know the links to some inspirational living room designs that have brown-blue or brown-orange color schemes? Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Dmitry (sorry for the long post).

Dear All,

Thanks so much for your replies. Definitely got a lot of nice ideas as well as reinforced some of mine!

The more I think about, the more of new variables come into play. For instance, our dining room is going to be colored burgundy (a subject to change though) and our living is basically next to it, so I don't think it will go nicely with the brown-blue color schemes.

We would definitely color walls with a different color (we have only three, pretty much two walls, since the windows occupied a large chunk of the third wall). The ceilings are very high, so increasing their height may not be a critical issue. I spent pretty much the entire last night playing around with the color schemes (downloaded Color Style Studio, so at least now can see whether a scheme would "click" or not). I figure out that I wouldn't go with white for the wall colors. My idea is to create a good balance of two main colors with multiple shades of them. The walls should be of a very light color, so when I tried light blue, it felt very cold, especially with the Brazilian cherry floor, which itself has different shades of brown. Maybe a shade of aqua (which would be Baby blue) can work, I should try. As of now, I more inclined towards the peach colored walls and a brown-orange scheme. That would also convert our dining room into Mahogany. What do you think about that?

My overall idea is to start with the lightest shades on the walls/floors getting darker/more vibrant colors towards the center of the room where the furniture is. With the dark brown sofa I would definitely throw very bright pillows of the second color as well as put an armchair/loveseat of the same color. And of course, dark brown coffee table on a bright rug with the second color theme.

I have ordered an interior design software package, so soon I should be able to update on my story with some pics.

Thanks again! A lot of great ideas!