How to Match Curtains With Sofas

It's important to coordinate the curtains or drapes with the sofa to anchor any living room; both are large blocks of color in the space, even when the colors are neutral. When they match ⁠— and that doesn't mean "exact match" ⁠— your decor looks balanced and intentional. And you can get away with a streak of exoticism or circus-like exuberance while safeguarding your excellent rep for impeccable style.

Any dominant color or pattern will have its undertones, even red. Make sure the walls are painted ivory and not stark white and hunt for solid red velvet drapery fabric in the exact color and tone of your red loveseat or sofa. A more yellow orange-red won't cut it. Neither will a softer, pinker tint of cherry.

Hold out for muted red that flows with the sofa color, and then line those floor-length drapes in ivory. Now you've nailed it, and you can get on with decorating the rest of the room.

Your serene living room is so Zen it's practically a monastery. You don't have to match the sofa and curtains in this no-color space. Just keep it neutral and let the textures add interest to the whites, off-whites, taupes, and smokes.

If your sofa is beige linen with toast cushions, allow the drapes pool on the floor in a fall of natural canvas. They both look fabulous against ebony wood planks, textured plush, or Berber carpets in neutral colors.

A pale gray suede or linen-covered sofa is softly echoed in faded smoky gray velvet curtains with a faint aura of lilac glimmering in the weave. Shake things up with a lilac raw silk decorative pillow or two on the couch. Or throw a lilac or lavender silk shawl, figured delicately in a silver-gray pattern, over the back of the sofa. Still serene, but intriguing now ⁠— and you can add that faux zebra carpet or just leave the waxed floor bare without a qualm.

The dark tobacco or rich cocoa sofa is a stand-out in the parlor, but the room is small and matching drapes will asphyxiate you and your guests. Give yourself some breathing room by mixing and matching hues to link the sofa and curtains without going all matchy-matchy ⁠— nobody gets compliments for living-room-in-a-box.

Hang black velvet drapes with that rusty tobacco-brown sofa, but edge them in vertical borders the same color as the sofa. Then decorate the rest of the room in lighter shades with accents to pick up the black ⁠— in picture frames, lampshades, or a black-and-cream print on an upholstered club or wing chair.

Chocolate is tempting on a dessert table or as upholstery on the new sofa, but a chocolate-on-chocolate room will make you feel as if you've fallen into a vat of mousse. Lighten up with a lower-calorie approach. Hang floor-length drapes in vertical stripes of cream, caramel, and cocoa against cream-painted walls, to mirror the tempting brown velvet of the sofa. Serve champagne in this confectionery space, the same sunny golden tone as the curtains.

Play with color like a painter in a living room, with a boxy lagoon-blue sofa against a bougainvillea-flame accent wall, flanked by brass lamps with navy-blue shades. Curtain the windows in Greek key-patterned teal-and-white fabric and toss a paisley rug in white, teal, lagoon, and navy on the floor.

Have a paisley sofa? You're in luck. Pick your favorite color from the pattern and whip up a pair of solid color curtains to coordinate with the couch. Problem solved, and you get extra punch from more of the color that drew you to the sofa in the first place.

While complementary and/or contrasting color families are options for decor matches, solids can save the day. Solid color curtains are a simple strategy for taming any patterned sofa that otherwise might look too busy in the room.