A caramel-colored sofa is a confection, a plateful of rich, lush, honeyed cream or toasty orange-brown in the room. Caramel can be nearly a neutral — so it adapts to a wide assortment of surrounding shades — however it’s too much heat to ignore. Factor the sofa to the palette choices for the space, whether you’re designing an open-plan loft, light-filled vacation home or romantic urban living room at a compact flat.
Elephant in the Room
Caramel’s warmth, tempered by hues of gray, results in a sophisticated color scheme in a living room. Attempt a charcoal wall supporting the caramel leather sofa, dove-gray on the other 3 walls, natural hardwood flooring, a wheat-colored Berber carpeting, and also teak-and-glass tables. A wander of gray smoke on the walls, gunmetal-gray rugs, a caramel leather sectional, a mix of faux-palomino hide and jade-colored fabric upholstery, and elm bookcases is diverse and timeless. Ragged elephant-gray walls, antique white trim and a caramel leather couch can handle a giant sepia-toned map on one wall and touches of vivid African fabrics and art throughout the room.
Mixed Spices
The sofa is caramel-colored upholstery — fabric or leather — and a mishmash of antiques and modern pieces includes a melange of textures. A set of reproduction Louis XV gilt chairs is upholstered in striped mint-and-white brocade; the identical fabric can be used for the ceiling-to-floor drapes that pool on the cork-tiled ground. Walls are decorated palest mint-green, with trim, doors and ceiling at medium-gloss, creamy white. Gnarled burl end tables flank the sofa; a contemporary Murano-glass chandelier gleams with pendants and pieces of jade, emerald, red and butterscotch-colored glass. The low, square coffee table fully covered at cherry-red glove leather, sits on a Tabriz carpet patterned in reds, creams and greens.
Soft Touch
A velvet-upholstered down sofa in soothing caramel gleams against colorwashed blush-pink walls and deep rose taffeta drapes. You do not need bold colors when you have beautiful old furnishings and age-distressed decor at a formal sitting area. A classic chandelier could be at home in this space, as would a pier glass over the mantel, a marble fireplace surround and oil paintings on the walls. Pick patterns in pink complement — spring hues of wood — to cover a pouf or a wing chair and matching hassock, and keep wood furniture frames lighting, in natural wood tones near caramel. A faded antique oriental carpet underfoot weaves the tints and textures of the elegant room together.
Ship to Shore
The caramel linen sofa is crisp and contemporary, exactly like the sea-colored medium-blue within an ikat pattern on fitting chairs and the blue-and-white curtains that frame a seaside view. This living room needs plenty of chrome and shiny silver touches — in the ground lamp, the frames of white photos displayed on a single chalk-white wall, the collection of mercury globes on a shelf. A contemporary, abstract-design, blue-and white low-shag carpet specifies that the conversation space. The pecan-wood wall system, in front of a deeper ocean-blue accent wall, does combined duty as a networking center, library and library for a few antique pond yachts at a comfortable vacation home.