How to Use Green in Interior Design for a Calm Home

dark teal green in the living room with walnut dresser, TV, fireplace, white fire surround and autumnal wreath — My old green living room. We loved this color so much, I will probably use it again in our new house.

You cannot go wrong with using green in your home and I will challenge anyone to a duel who says otherwise! If you take a look around your home, you will probably see green already there.

That spider plant sitting all lonely on a shelf? Green. The glimpse of your garden through your bifold windows? Green. You probably already know how to use green in interior design!

Any blog post I have ever written that includes green in them, whether that be green paint color, sage green bedrooms, or garden posts, people have always gone crazy for them!

Green has always been my favorite color. It is extremely versatile, goes with pretty much every color on the spectrum, and most importantly, it helps to connect you with nature and bring the outside in.

Depending on the shade you use, it can have an extremely calming effect in a room, it can act as a fabulous neutral or it can be dramatic and provide a vibrant background in your home.

dark green walls in a small bathroom with plants, white tiles and an abstract print — Our downstairs bathroom in our old house was plain white. This Harley Green paint by Little Greene certainly provided a dramatic backdrop!

It is the perfect color to represent nature and the natural world and is often associated with tranquillity, good luck, optimism, health, and money. But it can also represent envy and jealousy – hence the phrase “turning green with envy”.

gallery wall in the living room with green velvet sofa and pink peonies — I think the only thing the green sofa has to be envious of here is the pink peonies!

How to Use Green in Interior Design

If you want to bring more color into your home, but don’t know where to start, I think green is the perfect color. You don’t have to go over the top with it and paint a whole room, you can start with soft furnishing, plants, and ornaments which can easily be changed.

Plants – the Perfect Place to Start

pink bath, monochrome patterened tiles, grey walls, metro tiles and plenty of plats in the bathroom — My bathroom is always filled with plants. I find it very calming

You can start by bringing in small and easy-to-look-after plants to bring a pop of color into a room. Start with a Mother-In-Laws tongue or spider plant which are more or less impossible to kill.

gallery wall, mid century style bookcase, green velvet sofa and plenty of plants in the living room — Just a “few” plants in my living room

If looking after plants is a step too far, try faux plants. There are plenty of homeware stores and shops that now sell them and we have definitely moved on from the plastic-looking faux plant looking sorry for itself in an office corner.

faux pink peonies and a wood burner in the living room — Faux plants can look like the real thing. Image credit: Little Buds

Green Soft Furnishings

It doesn’t really matter what color your living room is already, or what shade your sofa is, green will effortlessly fit into your décor. Soft furnishings are the easiest way to add color to a room without moving away from an overall neutral palette.

Introduce cushions that have a splash of green in them, or try out throws, curtains, lampshades, and rugs.

moodboard of green soft furnishings — A few of my favorite green things

Ornaments and Artwork

Not ready to commit to changing your soft furnishings? What about bringing ornaments or art pieces into a room to give you a pop of green?

I think my love of green in the home always started with plants, but it wasn’t until I bought a large abstract print for the living room that my obsession with the color grew.

Wallpaper

As you all probably know, I absolutely love wallpaper! Wallpaper designs and choices have really evolved over the last couple of years and there is something for everyone.

Wallpaper is the perfect way to introduce a bold print into your home and keeping the base color green, will help create a wonderful natural theme. A brilliant way how to use green in interior design.

boys bedroom with botanical wallpaper, wooden house shaped bed, fluffy carpet and industrial style furniture — My Sons bedroom had jungle wallpaper from Rebel Walls

I love jungle, woodland, and floral wallpapers. They can be extremely dramatic and effective and it is easy to keep the rest of the room quite neutral so they can take centre stage.

Sage green bedrooms are calming and work for boys, girls, and adults!

sage green wallpaper with oversized pink flowers in the bedroom with parquet flooring — Blissful by Komar

dark green floral wallpaper with dark green panelling and purple velvet sofa in the living room — The perfect example of how green goes with everything! Glasshouse Flora Emerald wallpaper by Graham & Brown

Green Paint Color

After I bought the below abstract print, I started entertaining the idea of using a green paint color. I think this has been one of the most difficult color choices I’ve had to make when decorating a room and it took me almost 6 months to settle on a color.

There are so many green paint colors to choose from, it can be slightly overwhelming, and not to mention the choice of eggshell vs satin sheen.

teal green wall with gold mirror, fireplace, pink and green velvet sofa and industrial style furniture in the living room — We loved this green paint color so much, we will use it again in the new house

The beauty of green, however, is that there are so many different shades to choose from, each shade can create a completely different ambiance in a room. Lighter shades like Sage and Olive are perfect for larger rooms like kitchens and living rooms.

Creating a sage green bedroom can have a positive impact. It is a beautiful earth tone that can bring tranquillity and peace to a room and make you feel relaxed.

It is also the perfect colour if you don’t want to stray too far away from neutral shades. Sage green kitchens are currently having a moment and I can see why!

selection of sage green paint samples — 1. Botany Paint Graham & Brown | 2. Little Greene Aquamarine | 3. Santorini Martini Graham & Brown | 4. Sage Green Dulux Heritage | 5. Soft Fern Benjamin Moore | 6. Green 01 Lick | 7. Sage Neptune.

sage green panelled walls and oversized bed in the bedroom — Sage Green Bedroom – Dulux Heritage

sage green wall and burnt orange velvet sofa in the living room — Santorini Martini Graham & Brown

Mid tones like Aquamarine and Grass Green are still wonderfully relaxing tones that can be used in the bedroom, living room, or office space. These colors are closely connected to nature in the form of the sea or sky and can provide a Spa-like environment to your home.

mid green paint samples — 1. Green 07 Lick | 2. Calke Green Farrow & Ball | 3. Thyme Fenwick & Tilbrook | 4. Hopper Little Greene | 5. Aquamarine Deep Little Greene | 6. Dalloway Rockett St George | 7. Grass Green Dulux Heritage | 8. Webster Green Benjamin Moore

dark green walls in an office with industrial style furniture — Calke Green Farrow & Ball

mid green walls with green velvet sofa in the living room — Grass Green Dulux Heritage

Dark shades are extremely dramatic and by far my favorite shades of green.

Emerald, Jade, Dark Teal, and Forest are fabulous backdrops in any room and one of the best paint colors for a bedroom. These green paint colors also work well in bathrooms and offices, especially when they are mixed with dark mahogany or walnut wood

dark green paint samples — My favorite dark green paint colors 1. Emerald Dunelm | 2. Harley Green Little Greene | 3. Teal Ripple Dulux | 4. The Perfect Storm Fenwick & Tilbrook | 5. Tasmania Graham & Brown | 6. Lisa Basically Fenwick & Tilbrook | 7. Amalfi Coast Valspar

dark green front door with monochrome tiles — Tasmania Door Graham & Brown

These dark green paint colours tend to represent ambition and wealth so can be inspiring and motivating, but I also think they have the ability to be calming and encompassing too!

We had dark green paint colour in our living room and it was such a rich, velvety colour it enveloped you during the day and became extremely cosy and inviting at night.

dark teal wall with gold bar cart, plants and art in the living room — It was such a dramatic backdrop

Furniture

Finally, if you don’t fancy painting or wallpapering a room, but want to take a step further than introducing green in the form of art and ornaments, how about bringing in some green furniture?

You can still keep your décor relatively neutral, the green will provide a pop of color and become a real statement piece in any room.

dark blush pink walls, gallery wall, mid century bookcase and green velvet sofa in the living room — My Olive Bluebell sofa bed from sofa.com always gets a lot of love.

Green velvet sofas are immensely popular and definitely provide a wow factor, but there are plenty of other wonderful pieces of furniture that you can add to your home.

You can try a green statement chair, or a large velvet headboard, or maybe try and upcycle a wooden piece of furniture by painting it a rich teal color.

dark green velvet bed with pink walls and floral throw in the bedroom — Our gorgeous new Green bed from sofa.com

pink panelled wardrobes with wallpaper and a green velvet chair in the bedroom — Our velvet chair in the bedroom

Paint Your Furniture!

This leads me to painting your furniture! Sage green kitchens have seen an insurgence over the last couple of years and you don’t have to go out and buy a new kitchen!

There are a huge number of products to choose from when it comes to painting your kitchen cabinets and it can completely transform your kitchen and give it a new lease of life. Any green paint color will work.

kitchen before renovating in dark wood and colourful tiles — Nat went from this…

sage green kitchen with panelled island, grey flooring and white walls — To this beautiful sage green kitchen! Image credit: @homeatvictoriaroad

sage green kitchen with red and blue floor tiles — Mel used a green paint color to paint her kitchen cabinets in Rustoleum Leaplish. Image credit: @melanielissackinteriors

You can also paint your hardware green instead of painting your walls. Leave the walls neutral and give your skirting boards and doors a fresh look by painting them in a contrasting shade.

sage green island with matching skirting boards, grey kitchen cabinets and monochrome tiles in the kitchen — Caro cleverly painted her skirting boards to match her sage green kitchen and island! Image credit: thetwinklediaries.co.uk

Well, I’m all greened out! Haha, only kidding. I can never get enough of the color green. I think it is such a calming, natural, and happy color it will easily fit into any home décor style.

Where will you use it in your home?

8 Comments

Sara Phillips says:
28/09/2021 at 4:33 pm
Great blog just what I was looking for as, thinking of doing our me living room a teal colour. It’s quite a big room for a new build and has easy facing window and west facing French Doors. Not sure whether to do the whole room teal or certain walls, your advice would be appreciated. Also what cokour was the green in your old living room please? It is gorgeous
1. Melanie Boyden says:
  04/10/2021 at 12:15 pm
  I think when you are using a bold colour, you either have to paint a feature wall or go for the whole room! I painted a feature wall first to see if I liked it and decided that I didn’t want to paint the whole room as I thought it would make it too dark. The green I used is Blue Jade by Valspar
tamsin says:
26/12/2021 at 5:12 pm
Hello, I’m not sure if you can help me. I love your work!
I wanted to paint my bed frame (velvet) with annie sloan chalk paint. Is this possible and do you have a favourite of the greens?
Thank you!
1. Melanie Boyden says:
  05/01/2022 at 3:25 pm
  Hello
  Is your bed frame velvet? Anything is possible… :)
Ann says:
20/02/2022 at 11:39 am
Melanie, I love this fabulous green post. I’m going to share it on my blog in a green spring inspiration post this week.
1. Melanie Boyden says:
  21/02/2022 at 4:28 pm
  Thank you :)
KATHLEEN WILLIAMS says:
06/01/2024 at 3:48 pm
Hi, Melanie-
Your living room and the green you used are absolutely to die for! I don’t seem to be able to find Valspar Blue Jade paint? Did I get the color name correct?
1. Melanie Boyden says:
  30/01/2024 at 12:37 pm
  Hi Kathleen
  The Valspar Blue Jade paint is from the UK, which I find really strange that Valspar does not use the same colors worldwide. I think the best thing to do is to go to your local Valspar paint supplier and get them to color match.