Decorating with Green

I always think green is such an interesting colour.  It seems to evoke different moods and feelings depending on the shade and tone used.  I don't get that reaction from other colours.  I love how fresh a spring green looks, and how calm a soft pastel green looks, and how racy an acid green looks.  Some shades I love, and some shades I find repulsive.  Am I the only one that reacts that way to green?


Greens can range from light pastel shades,

Phoebe Howard via decor*pad

to dark intense forest greens,

Martha Stewart

House to Home

to muted gray-brown greens.

My Endless Inspiration

Since green is between blue and yellow on the colour spectrum, you can find greens that range from blue-green to mid-tone green to yellow-green depending on the amount of yellow or blue present. Let's have a look at some examples of the range of greens.


You can find very pale blue-greens like sea glass green,

House Beautiful

to mid-range blue-greens like teal,

Design Crisis

Annsley Interiors via decor*pad

Drew Barrymore's office kitchen via Kitchenisms

and darker greens with hints of blue like emerald green,

Houzz via Design Chat with Kim Lemmon

to intense yellow-greens like kelly green,

and lighter greens with even more yellow like chartreuse,

Domino via Apartment Therapy

House and Home via Color Sizzle

Material Girls

Color Sizzle

and very pale yellow-greens like celadon green.

decor8

I think most people have strong opinions about whether they are blue-green lovers or yellow-green lovers.  Personally I adore blue-greens and am very picky about which yellow-greens I like.  What about you?

Have you ever noticed how many greens are named after foods.  For your viewing pleasure - and to make you hungry - I pulled together inspiration pictures for different food-based greens.


There is apple green,

House Beautiful via George Interior Design

and celery green, 

DIY Chatroom

and pear green,

decor*pad

and sage green,

Martha Stewart

and mint green,

House Beautiful

and lime green,

Home Design at Martha Stewart

and olive green,

the Lennoxx

and pea green,

House Beautiful

and yes even avocado green.

The Kitchen Vote

The flip-side of all these lovely shades of green are the repulsive and downright disgusting green associations, like hospital green and snot green and puke green.  It is interesting that there are such negative greens.  I don't think the same applies to most other colours.  Can you think of a disgusting blue?

Did you know that many early languages did not have a word that distinguished green from blue.  We seem to have made up for it with about a zillion names for the different shades of green.  

Is green a colour you like?  Do you have green in your home?  We have a very pale green on the walls in our dining room and family room (BM Tea Light mixed half strength).  It is a very easy-to-live with shade.

And if you want to see some inspiration photos for other colours, check these posts out.  You can see what colours go with red in this post here.
And check here for aqua/seafoam room inspiration photos.
And here for sunny yellow rooms.
And here for orange rooms.