Dark Green Paint Brings a Vintage-Filled Living Room to Life

Dark Green Paint is the Perfect Complement to a Vintage-Filled Space

Renovating a historic home is not an easy process. But somehow, blogger and creator Kate Pearce of @katepearcevintage manages to make it feel seamless—and wildly chic. A native of Long Island, New York, Kate and her family recently moved into a 1899 Queen Anne-style home in Chicago. Filled with expertly curated antiques, tons of color, and eclectic accents, it’s the vintage-lover’s dream. Her curved living room is the latest to receive a makeover, and our dark green paint Current Mood provided the perfect dramatic swipe of color to complete the space.

We caught up with Kate and asked her to spill how she landed on the perfect dark green paint color, how she pulled the room together, her design philosophy, and tips for creating the perfect vintage-filled space.

The vintage-eclectic-moody vision

For Kate, her vintage-loving vision was honed from an early age. “I've loved home design and vintage for pretty much my entire life,” she says. “I spent my childhood going to estate sales with my mother and studied art history in college and graduate school. I've just always had a love for aesthetics and history, and I love making those two things the focus of the spaces I design.”

The living room gets its gorgeous curves from the home’s rounded turret—a common feature in Queen Anne-style houses—and Kate wanted to play up this unique architectural feature with cozy-meets-modern-meets-eclectic sensibilities. That meant lightening up the dark wood floors, bringing in a mix of thrifted and new furnishings, and giving the space a few coats of Current Mood.

Kate mused over several shades of green, including a few that were a bit warmer than Current Mood, but ultimately decided the dark green paint was the right choice for pulling the historic bones and modern furnishings in the space together.

The case for floor-to-ceiling dark green paint

Kate didn’t just use Current Mood to paint the walls. Because the room lacks crown moulding, she opted to paint the ceiling and trim in the dark green paint, too. “It wouldn't have been impossible to add crown moulding to this space—and we still might—but by painting the ceiling and the walls the same color, it makes the lack of crown feel much less noticeable,” Kate says. “I also love how this warm blueish-green color creates a really cozy vibe. And by painting the ceiling the same color as the walls, the cozy-moody factor is amplified tenfold. This room gets great natural light, too, so I was able to get away with using so much of this darker shade in this space.”

And while Current Mood was her color of choice, Kate did mix it up a bit with the finish. For the walls and ceiling, she used our eggshell finish—the classic choice for walls, and one that will help mask the imperfections of the 123-year-old home—and our semi-gloss finish on the trim for a hint of shine and to create an ever-so-subtle contrast.

3 Ideas to steal

Because we can’t get enough of Kate’s swoon-worthy style, we had to see what other nuggets of wisdom she has when it comes to design. Here are her top tips!

1. Have fun with your color palette.

“Color makes me happy. It really is as simple as that. But color can feel complicated, and I think for that reason it intimidates a lot of people. I think color is used best when you limit your palette to 2-3 complementary colors. These can be tone-on-tone (meaning, for example, all greens but three different shades of green). You can choose colors from opposite ends of the color wheel, which are considered to be "naturally" complementary.

But I also think we should just have fun with color. The key is balancing it with negative space and neutrals, and not using too many different colors in the same space. Also, if you're using a warm color as your base, complement it with other warm colors. Conversely, if you use cool colors, use all cool colors. Contrary to popular belief, there are warm blues and greens. Reds, yellows, and oranges aren't the only colors that are warm!”

2. Utilize negative space.

“My favorite part of the room is the big chunk of negative space to the left of both windows. Many people have commented, ‘what are you going to hang there?’ But that negative space is exactly what makes this room work. I loaded the walls, ceiling and trim with a bold green. I have a large, eye-catching white curved sofa, and so many other fun vintage details in the room. That green wall is unadorned is what keeps this room feeling interesting rather than cluttered.”

3. When it comes to cohesion throughout your home, don’t overthink it.

“I don't overthink how each room will work with the rest of my rooms, yet they always feel cohesive. I think, truly, my trick is to buy what I love, and somehow what I love always seems to work together. When your style is eclectic, it almost always just somehow flows together. That said, I do use a lot of white paint or white furniture in most of my spaces to keep them all flowing.”