Sage Green Complementary Colors, Taken from Real Paintings

How do you choose between these two sage greens?

Start with how much light you want the room to keep. The soft sage, #8F9785, has an LRV of 30. It is a mid-tone that still reflects some light. The deep sage, #747D68, has an LRV of 19, so it absorbs more light and reads darker and moodier. Both have a green undertone, so they sit together without clashing.

Use the soft sage where you want color without heaviness: a textile, curtains, or a bedroom wall with good daylight. Use the deep sage on a larger piece such as a sofa, a cabinet or a lower wall, where the darker value gives the room an anchor.

If you can only pick one for the walls, choose by room size. A small, dim room will feel smaller in the deeper shade. A large room with big windows can carry it. In the suggested scheme, the deep sage goes on the main furniture, the soft sage on the textile and the warm cream on the walls.

What color combinations go with sage green?

The pairings here come from the same canvases as the greens, so they are all warm. The cream, #E9D8B3, has an LRV of 70 and a warm yellow undertone. It works on walls, and it also works as trim and ceiling if you want a soft, low-contrast look. The closest matches measured are Sherwin-Williams SW 6393 Convivial Yellow, Behr S310-2 Journal White and Farrow & Ball No. 67 Farrow's Cream.

For wood and flooring, the muted gold-brown, #8E764F (LRV 19), suits warm wood tones such as table legs, a frame or a floor stain with a yellow cast. The red-orange brown, #6E4A38 (LRV 9), is the bold piece: a leather chair, a door or a rug border. Red-orange sits opposite green on the color wheel, so it gives the strongest contrast.

Keep the near-black, #3E352F (LRV 4), for small details like hardware or a lamp base. In small amounts it sharpens the whole scheme.

How does sage green change in the light of a room?

LRV tells you how much light a color bounces back. The cream at 70 reads light and lifts a room. The soft sage at 30 sits in the middle. The deep sage and the gold-brown, both at 19, read dark. The red-orange brown at 9 and the near-black at 4 read very dark.

In a room with strong daylight, the greens keep their green undertone and look fresh. In a dim room, expect the mid-tones to look deeper than the chip, and the green may look grayer. Warm bulbs push the cream and gold-brown toward yellow and make the red-orange brown richer. Cool bulbs pull the greens toward gray.

Think about when you use the room. A living room used in the evening mostly sees lamplight, so judge the colors under your lamps. A kitchen used in the morning should be checked in morning sun. Look at each color on the darkest wall and on the brightest one.

How do you test a sage green color palette?

Paint large samples, not small dabs. Use boards about two feet square, or paint sheets of poster board, and move them around the room. Tape a sample next to the trim color, the floor and the biggest piece of furniture it will sit near.

Check each sample three times: in morning light, in afternoon light and under your evening lamps. Colors close in value, like the two sages, can be hard to tell apart on a small chip, so put them side by side.

Remember that the paint matches on this page are the closest measured, not exact copies. Some are near-identical, some very close and some only close, such as Valspar 2011-6 Cowboy Suede for the red-orange brown and Farrow & Ball No. 256 Pitch Black for the near-black. Buy a sample pot of the specific match you like. Treat the hex values on a screen as a rough guide only, since screens vary.

Leave the samples up for a couple of days before you decide.