Shades of brown can be luscious, warm additions to your home’s color palette. And luscious and warm is REALLY appealing these cold, gray days this time of year

If the furry rodent is right, we will blessedly have an early spring. Fingers crossed! But any time of year, brown can be a welcome addition and, while I don’t particularly advocate following trends for the sake of being “in”, brown is definitely a color we are seeing more of in home decor.

From caramel to dark chocolate, there are so many delightful choices! Hmmmm all the best descriptive words for brown are delicious foods, coincidence? (okay, not all are delicious – see THIS post for one of the worst brown paint names on record – still a food, just not at all an appealing one!)

Which reminds me of the BEST brownies you will ever eat… easy and fabulous and a rich shade of luscious brown for inspiration! (You can find the recipe HERE)

Brown walls mixed with white and light neutral textiles, faux fur textures, and touches of gold, make for a cozy, inviting space like this AI assisted image of a bedroom.

chocolate brown cozy traditional bedroom

Shades of brown appear on room surfaces - walls, floors, even ceilings. The iconic American decorator, Billy Baldwin, is famous for many things, but perhaps most of all for his own apartment with lacquered chocolate walls fronted by his signature brass etageres.

Chocolate brown LOVES warm toned metals like brass and gilded iron. And this looks just as current now as it did in the early ‘70’s when it was designed!

Billy Baldwin’s own apartment in rich, glossy, chocolate walls balanced with light upholstery and an abundance of texture and brass. Image via Gary McBournie from his Design Hero post May 2018 — Billy Baldwin’s own apartment in rich, glossy, chocolate walls balanced with light upholstery and an abundance of texture and brass. Image via **Gary McBournie** from his Design Hero post May 2018

Brown Paint

Painting this office in our farmhouse project chocolate brown was transformative. The room started life as this lackluster white and we selected a chocolate from the area rug to paint the walls and millwork all a rich brown.

window wall before

sofa wall before

office window wall and millwork painted chocolate brown

office sofa wall painted in rich chocolate brown

And deep brown cabinetry with light marble gives this AI generated kitchen a charming elegant bistro feel.

chocolate brown and marble bistro style kitchen

Of course there are questionable uses of brown paint as well…like this bathroom painted the color of….well let’s just say the contents of the commode…and in a gloss finish too – for realism, I guess.

Between the “get naked” directive on the shower door (because EVERYONE needs a reminder to not jump in the shower fully clothed), and the coordinating puce wall…

and oh, please note they also outlined the fixtures in the opposing wall colors to highlight them, you’ve got to admire their commitment!

Image, appropriately, via Please Hate These Things (which is a hilarious IG account you definitely should be following!) — Image, appropriately, via **Please Hate These Things** (which is a hilarious IG account you definitely should be following!)

Brown Wood

Another obvious use of brown is in wood cabinetry, millwork, or furnishings. Beautiful wood is always a timeless classic.

Wood furnishings are often stained SOME shade of brown – from newly crafted pieces to heirlooms and antiques.

If you are going to use brown stained wood furniture, PLEASE make sure it is actually wood and not some paper thin layer over particle board that will look like @#$% the minute you bang into it, or worse even, the plastic looking stuff that is fooling no one.

And while roomfuls of stained ‘suites’ of furniture are unimaginative at best, discrete pieces of classic ‘brown’ stained furniture are definitely seeing a resurgence in popularity, as it adds warmth and patina to a room.

a vintage mahogany dresser adds warmth to a garden inspired bedroom — A vintage crotch veneer mahogany dresser adds warmth to this garden inspired bedroom. More pictures from this project HERE

Stained woodwork in grand old Victorian or Craftsman houses is often a gorgeous patinated wood in some semblance of brown tones…often gumwood, oak, chestnut, walnut, or mahogany.

Brown stained 2 1/2” pine ‘colonial casing’ that builders slapped into every tract home in the 60’s and 70’s is decidedly not gorgeous and IMO should be painted if it is staying. We talked about when to paint and when to leave stained wood in THIS post.

Stained floors are everywhere in shades from golden honey to dark espresso, and even brown stained wood on the ceiling can be fabulous in the right space.

Brown Textiles

With yummy textures from burlap to velvet and everything in between – there are so many gorgeous rugs and fabrics and wallcoverings featuring shades of brown.

This showroom from the fall Highpoint market features a floral wall-covering and matching fabric in shades of blue and green with brown accents.

A classic brown and white checked upholstery on a chair is the perfect accompaniment - fresh and timeless, it lends a casual, inviting air to the space..

Thibaut showroom at Highpoint Market, image via Thibaut

Here we accented warm neutral walls and furnishings in this small keeping room with brick, coral, and brown tones in the ottomans, rug and accessories

Beige with brick, coral and brown accents in this sitting room — Brown accents along with coral and brick colors warm up this neutral sitting room

Wallcovering in dramatic dark shades can be a wonderful addition to a room. This floral from Thibaut in charcoal with camel and blue is also available in a luscious chocolate color way.