5 Glorious Green Interior Colour Ideas

Green is well documented to be a happy hue, it symbolises nature and the natural world and is believed to represent luck, health, positivity and tranquility. Most of our greens are inspired by bringing the freshness of outside greenery inside. Green is Edward’s favourite colour so it’s not surprising we have more green’s than any other colour in our range, which is really quite appropriate for a truly  environmentally friendly paint brand! 

As much as we love greens we know they are not always everyone’s go-to colour, so we have chosen some glorious green interior inspiration to give you colour confidence and to learn the nuances of the hue, making it a statement colour or a subtle addition in your home, from soft earthy greens to bold statement shades.

Read on to learn how to decorate with green and for some green interior inspiration.

We feel the appeal of green is clear – it is bold, versatile, and promotes a feeling of rejuvenation through its connection to nature. Using a bold green for a whole room is not for the faint hearted but has the most amazing effect, bringing playfulness and tranquility simultaneously.

Here are our go-to green decorating ideas if you want to go all out colour! First up is our ‘Olympian Green’ which is a lime green without being a slime green. This colour works so well as we use ultramarine and yellows rather than green pigment to create a good clear colour. It has warmth and vitality and is a great backdrop for monotone furnishings as well as reds and purples. 

If you want to use a bold green but fear it may be too much to paint all the walls, then try using a vibrant green on woodwork, whether kitchen cabinets or window frames, this pop of colour can bring a scheme together whilst complementing a more subtle neutral or off-white on the walls. This green interior colour is guaranteed to make a fresh impact against more subtle shades, try pairing ‘Olympian Green’ with ‘Silver White’ or ‘Fawn‘.

We couldn’t talk about bold greens without featuring our best selling and much loved ‘Invisible Green’. Of course, such a strong colour is hardly invisible but we have taken the 19th century idea of painting ironwork in the landscape to ‘vanish’ it and mixed a beautiful grass green. This is a really striking colour firmly planting the outside in and is a firm favourite of much-loved designers Rita Konig, Susan Deliss, Elizabeth Hay and of course in Edward’s own home (as seen below!).

‘Invisible Green’ looks particularly incredible in a conservatory or garden room, bringing the outside in, it adds gravitas to a hallway or sitting room as well as being a wonderful feature colour on kitchen cabinets or woodwork. This bold green shade pairs tonally with ‘Pea Green’ and ‘Jonquil’ and softer yellow tones in fabrics and flooring or for a richer contrast try using deeper colours like ‘Pompadour’ and ‘Azurite’ in your accents, textiles or artworks.

‘Invisible Green’ also works well as an accent colour on woodwork, like kitchen cabinets or window frames. Even this bold green shade sits wonderfully alongside softer hues and off-whites, try pairing it with ‘Milk White‘ or ‘Dove‘.

Also if you love the shade of our ‘Invisible Green’ but wanted a slightly lighter version try ‘Evie’ from our nursery range, whilst vibrant like a spring meadow, it still has a softness that creates a sense of calm and peace.

‘Pippin‘ is the newest addition to our range of greens and has been inspired by apples which, like greens, come in many hues, from yellow through green to red and brown. Even within the greens they can veer toward emerald or garnet!

Our ‘Pippin’ green relies on the mineral strength of chromium oxide but it is strongly tempered with yellow ochre and a little black. It is a healthily robust colour without tending to too much umber and makes a useful colour for rooms with good bones that don’t want to be assertively of any one style or period.

Deep, velvety, delicious dark green paints can be effective in small or large rooms alike. A common misconception is that richer wall colours will make the whole space feel darker but sometimes adding a darker tone to a naturally dark space enhances it rather than contributing to the darkness. Edward always says that it’s often hard to lighten a dark space so lean into it rather than opt for a white or neutral.

When working with darker green paint colours always look to pair these shades with yellow and red undertones that will balance them nicely in any scheme.

‘Drab Green’ is a wonderful deep green hue which we have seen used by clients to create a really grown up rooms with depth and self-assurance and also great as an all-over colour for wooden panelling. 

Drab referred to an un-dyed cloth (the French drap) and its use in colour terminology came to mean a lightish brown. C18th accounts refer to drab green and we have taken this idea to mix a beautiful brown green in defiance of its name. Never drab, always green, in every way. This shade pairs beautifully with softer shades with yellow undertones like ‘Fawn‘ and ‘Stone White‘ or if you are feeling bold look at red tones like ‘Nicaragua‘ and ‘Sang de Boeuf’.

There’s something so dreamy about deep, lush verdant shades enveloping you in your living space, especially with a shade like our ‘Light Olive Green’. Early recipes for olive green seem to have been a browny hue but by the C19th the addition of Prussian blue meant that it was a full green close to the colour of a plump Mediterranean olive. Too dark and the colour tends to black when in the shade, so we have kept it a strong mid tone which has the most velvety and grounding effect.

This deep green paint colour can be a great woodwork colour and is also robust enough for exterior use. In line with its rich olive green inspiration stick with meditation tones like earthy terracotta colours similar to ‘Sang de Boeuf‘ and ‘Etruscan Brown‘ or add some sunshine with ‘Trumpington‘. Equally a subtler contrast colour like ‘Lute‘ or ‘Quaker‘ will bring this deep green to life.

These dark green hues also work well as woodwork accent colours, pairing them with soft neutrals like ‘Lilac Pink‘ or ‘Clove’ for a really earthy and chic look. A two-tone look can be effortlessly achieved with our paints as they are all made using the same earth and mineral pigments, so all the colours go together in tonal harmony.

Our final dark green paint is exactly that! ‘Brunswick Deep Green’ is not for the faint hearted! It gives a dramatic look when used today as a wall colour. If you want a moody study, country boot room or loo – this will definitely add some drama. 

We have a wonderful palette of softer green paints that really lend themselves to working in most spaces, nicely balanced with a soft depth. ‘Pomona’, ‘Pea Green’ and ‘Tea Green’ make up this soft collection and definitly inspire their use in a space in your home.

‘Pea Green’ strikes the perfect balance of freshness and softness. Though clearly a must have green in the 18th century the many suppliers who listed it did not always agree on the recipe. Most used green verditer rendering quite a blue green but others added varying yellows bringing it closer to the colour we associate with the vegetable. We have adopted this fresher hue – the type that brings the joy of the garden indoors. Nature is what we are constantly inspired by, our plant-based recipe is centered around protecting the planets’ finite resources.

‘Pea Green’ is a great background for all sorts of different artworks, textiles and furnishings. When thinking about tonal pairings look at hues like ‘Granite Green‘ and ‘Fawn‘ which hold a little more brown and contrast with shades like ‘Laylock’ and ‘Nicaragua’.

Another soft green paint in our range is ‘Pomona‘, one of Edward’s favourite shades and used in his drawing room in his Herefordshire home (see below). Again this colour has been influenced by apples, in our modern world where you can apparently define colour with an Old English sheepdog it is fine to call a colour apple green. In the marketing of two centuries ago the Latin lexicon was the thing and so this clear, innocent green was known as Pomona! It is a rich mix of pigments, relying not just on blue and yellow for its tone but a dash of viridian as well. It is an incredibly equal success which pairs beautifully with pinks like ‘Mason Pink‘, ‘Cuisse de Nymph Emue’ or ‘Nicaragua’.

‘Tea Green’ is a lovely grey green shade of tea leaves is what gives the colour its name. Subtle though it is we need 5 pigments to nuance this beautiful shade. It is a confident wall colour but still deferential enough to compliment architectural features and make a sophisticated setting for other furnishings – for period work it works equally well in Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian houses.

As we use a variety of pigments in this shade it pairs well with lots of different colours, form pinks and reds to yellows and beiges.

Cool, calm and perfectly curated our earthier green paints are versatile and atmospheric and can be used throughout the house.

‘Gladstone’ Edward describes as a ‘sad colour’ which were well understood and well used back in the C17th. They were actually rather beautiful nuanced tones of a range of shades; to quieten them down and settle them into interiors created with polished materials and dyed fabrics. It was a sophisticated response to decorating hierarchy and as such is as useful today – but could we call this subtle grey green Sad Stone?  Of course not these days, so we have called it Gladstone! This earthy green works effortlessly with rooms of proportion but also adds warmth to more farmhouse style rooms.

When using green for your interiors, having a space with natural materials can really help to bring balance and create tonal consistency. ‘Granite Green‘ is a really anchoring colour which works with lots of materials such as stone and wood to create a harmonious space. 

Edward talks about what inspired this colour: “Carlton House had the most extravagant interiors in all of Regency London. Happily it was recorded in a beautiful series of watercolours, published as aquatints, by William Henry Pyne before its destruction by George IV. He shows three interiors painted in Granite Green and remarks in his text how admirably the colour sets off the exotic marbles used for the columns.”

This green shade still works fantastically in this regard – the Prussian blue and yellow ochre in its make up anchoring it beautifully to all sorts of natural materials from marble and stone through to wood and terra cotta. We also offer our ‘Granite Green’ in a selection of lighter shades. 60%, 40% and 20% lighter shades, to cover the use of this beautiful colour throughout the home.

As see already our colours are inspired by nature and this can be said for ‘Eau de Nile’, what colours the waters of the Nile these days may not conjure up the romance of the name this colour was given all those years ago when the Nile was in the news as the scene of Nelson’s great victory! Edward says: “This is one of the best colours I have ever mixed for its versatility and timeless elegance.” Some greens don’t require any blue or green pigments and this is one of them. This is basically yellow ochre under the influence of black with a touch of chrome yellow.

‘Eau de Nile’ also comes in our shades if you wanted this colour but slightly lighter and this shade pairs wonderfully with ‘Quaker’, ‘French Grey‘ and ‘Cuisse de Nymph Emue’.

Blue-green paint colours have become a popular hue, mixing these two colours together to create a cool, minty shade.

Who can resist the luminous glaze of the Chinese porcelain known as Celadon? Not us! So we have recreated this shade in paint form for our colour ‘Celadon’. It is such a soft and subtle grey green shade and can really elevate a wall. It makes gilt frames dance and light woods breathe. It is a surprisingly simple recipe of yellow ochre, Prussian blue and a touch of black.  Sustainable paint made from plants not plastic gives a much softer finish and response to light which synthetic paints cannot recreate.  ‘Celadon’ is a great inspiration for bedrooms, livings rooms and kitchens alike.

Another minty blue green paint colour that is a wonderful burst of freshness is ‘Verdigris’. The name is literally descriptive of the colour of the oxidised surface of copper and bronze. A beautiful Prussian blue based green with an underlying earthy tone but a wonderful radiance. It was an expensive and sought after colour in the early C19th and recurs in many colourman’s catalogues. When creating colours we are inspired by these natural weathering processes, but also inspired by the richness and uniqueness of natural and plant-based ingredients – we will never use anything else!

If you love ‘Verdigris’ but want it slightly lighter, then try ‘Roger’ which is slightly softer but still crisp and inviting.

Green and pink is a timeless combination

Green and red – a marriage of rusty, earthy tones like deep greens and terracotta reds is total harmony.

For more colour ideas visit our Inspiration page and find out How to Decorate with Pinks and see our latest news. You can also browse our image Gallery. If you are still not sure you are confident with colour then take a look at the colour consultancy services we offer, from a quick virtual confidence booster to a whole home refresh we are here to help!

For any more colour queries of technical advice call us on 01544388535 or email info@edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk