What Colors Go With Brown

What colors go with brown?

Cream, sage green, terracotta and navy are the four reliable partners. Brown is orange with the light taken out, so it pairs with warm, muted colors and with the muted blue that sits opposite orange on the color wheel. Cool gray, stark white and bright saturated colors are the pairings that make it look dull.

The sections below take each partner in turn and name the brown wall art that sits with it, with the sizes and layouts to look for.

What kinds of brown wall art can you hang?

Brown wall art comes in four kinds: autumn woods, canyon and desert rock, weathered wood, and sepia photography. A fifth, the dark still life such as a coffee cup on burlap, suits kitchens and dining rooms. Each kind has its own undertone, and the undertone decides which wall it suits.

Browse them together in Brown Wall Art. Our brown wall art guide explains why brown shifts with the light in a room, which this guide leaves aside.

Which brown art goes on a cream or warm white wall?

Sepia photography and pale, wood-toned pieces sit best on cream, because the two share a warm undertone. A cream wall gives brown art a quiet frame, and the picture reads as a deeper version of the wall instead of a contrast to it. Sepia Lake with Frosted Pines shows a dark brown lake under pale pines, and as a single panoramic canvas it runs 36 x 12, 48 x 16 or 60 x 20 inches.

Choose the wide format when the wall is long. Two thirds of a 90 inch sofa is 60 inches, so the 60 x 20 canvas fits that sofa exactly. For a paler neighbor, Beige Wall Art holds tan and oatmeal pieces. Sepia toning runs from pale tan to deep amber, so sepia pieces also turn up in Burnt Orange Wall Art.

Pro tip: Hold the picture's lightest area against the wall before you order. If the cream has yellow in it, the brown looks rich. If it has a gray cast, the brown goes flat beside it.

Which brown art suits a terracotta or burnt orange room?

Choose canyon, mesa and desert pieces whose rock is clearly darker or clearly different from the wall. Terracotta and brown are neighbors, so a picture that matches the wall exactly disappears into it. Dirt Road Through Sandstone Mesas has rust-brown ground, green scrub and a blue sky, and the blue gives the eye somewhere to go.

On a long wall, four equal panels in a row carry the road across the gaps. That layout runs 34 x 24, 43 x 30 or 50 x 36 inches overall on this piece. Sunset Over Drought-cracked Desert is the moodier choice: cracked brown earth and one bare tree against a low sun. Both sit in Desert Wall Art, and the warmer end of the range is in Burnt Orange Wall Art.

Watch out: A picture and a wall in the same orange-brown merge into one mass. Pick art with a different value, such as darker rock, a paler sky or a band of blue.

Which brown art suits a sage green wall?

Forest paths and timber scenes suit sage, because the brown and the green both come from the same trees. Sequoia Forest Path in Sequoia National Park has red-brown trunks, green moss and pale light through the canopy. As a three panel horizontal set it runs 25 x 16, 37 x 24 or 49 x 32 inches overall, and the forest carries on across the gaps.

Sage is a mid-value green, so the trunks stay the darkest thing on the wall and the picture holds its own. Sage Green Wall Art covers the green end of the pairing, and our sage green pairing guide names brown from the other side.

Which brown art works on a navy wall?

Pick brown art that carries some blue, so the wall and the picture share a color and the brown supplies the warmth. Blue sits opposite orange on the color wheel and brown is darkened orange, so the pairing contrasts without clashing. Night in Serene Desert Dunes puts tan sand under a deep blue sky with a pale moon.

Navy is a dark wall, so go large. As a five panel star set the piece spans 42 x 21, 62 x 32 or 82 x 42 inches overall, which is wide enough to hold a navy wall without looking lost. Navy Wall Art holds the blue-led pieces that echo the wall from the other side.

Should brown wall art be one canvas or a multi-panel set?

Use one canvas for a single object and a multi-panel set for a scene that continues, such as a forest, a canyon or a road. A boat, a barn or a coffee cup looks wrong with a gap through it. A path or a rock face loses nothing, because the gaps fall between trunks or ledges. The table shows the sizes on the pieces named in this guide.

Sizes vary by piece, so read the options on the product page before you choose. Brown has less contrast than blue or red, so a small brown piece tends to read as a smudge from across the room. Go one size up. Our multi panel versus single canvas guide covers how the gaps read.

Where should brown wall art hang, and how high?

Over a sofa, hang it at about two thirds of the sofa's width with 6 to 8 inches of clear wall above the sofa back. On a bare wall, put the center 57 to 60 inches from the floor. Those two rules come from our sofa wall art size guide and our 57 and 60 inch hanging guide.

1. Measure the sofa, console or headboard in inches and write it down.
2. Multiply by two thirds to find the art width.
3. Choose the layout that lands closest to that width.
4. Mark the bottom edge 6 to 8 inches above the furniture, or the center at 57 to 60 inches on a bare wall.
5. Check the bulb. Brown glows under a warm bulb and goes gray under cool white light.

The center lands below the 57 to 60 inch bare wall rule, and that is correct. Over furniture the gap wins, because the picture has to belong to the sofa.

A narrow entry wall takes a vertical piece. Wooden Boat on Riverbank in Sepia runs from 12 x 24 up to 30 x 60 inches as a single canvas, and three stacked panels reach 24 x 49 inches overall. Dining rooms and kitchens suit the dark still lifes, such as the coffee cup piece, because the subject belongs there.

Is a framed canvas worth it for brown art?

Framed Canvas suits dark, dense brown pieces such as still lifes, because the frame gives a dark picture a clear edge against the wall. It is the same gallery wrapped canvas with a frame added around the outside edge. It is offered on single horizontal pieces at 24 x 16, 36 x 24 and 48 x 32 inches, and not on panoramic pieces.

Steaming Coffee Cup with Roasted Beans is deep brown and near black at the edges, which is why an edge helps it. Framed Print is a separate finish with a white mat around the artwork, offered at 24 x 16, 30 x 20 and 36 x 24 inches. Our canvas print versus framed print guide sets the three finishes side by side.

What should you check before you order brown wall art?

• The wall color, named as cream, sage, terracotta or navy, and whether it leans warm or cool.
• The undertone of the picture: gold-brown, red-brown, tan or near black.
• The width of the furniture below, then two thirds of it for the art.
• Whether the scene can be split across panels, or is a single object that should stay whole.
• The finish: Canvas Print, Framed Canvas or Framed Print, and the sizes that finish offers.
• The bulb in the room, warm or cool.