Brown is a color that has been embraced in recent years as the proverbial "new black." With shades ranging from rich chocolate brown to the lightest of beige, brown has much decorative potential to offer. Brown has been mixed with an array of colors with a great degree of success. The key to creating a beautiful brown decorating scheme is by playing up the best the color has to offer while mixing it with shades that make it pop.
1
Create a focal wall or decide on a focal point. This feature in a room prevents the room from looking thrown together, because it gives the eye a place to start when it takes in the room. You can do this by painting one of the walls a rich, deep brown and painting the walls around it a contrasting color. Some colors that make interesting combinations with brown are pink and blue. These make nice contrast colors, but a shade of lighter brown would work as well.
2
Draw attention to the focal wall by hanging a gallery of sepia-tone photographs on the wall. For dramatic effect, have one photo blown up to a size such as 4 feet by 6 feet. Look for frames that are painted the color of your contrasting walls. For example, if you've painted your contrasting walls pink select some pink ceramic frames for the gallery on your brown wall.
3
Reflect the light in the room by hanging mirrors around the room. Although brown is quite beautiful, it can also be quite dark. Mirrors reflect the light that already exists in the room. You can play this up even more by hanging mirror/sconce combinations on the walls. The focal wall offers a logical place for this setup, but you can also hang decorative mirrors around the room.
4
Add pizazz by mixing patterns. Use the common colors in the room. For example, brown will be the tie-in color for patterns as varied as paisley, stripes, checkers or even leopard spots. The same goes for the accent colors. You can mix colors on items like throw pillows, furniture upholstery or curtains.
5
Choose some unconventional items as decorative accessories. Musical instruments offer good choices; not only are their forms really beautiful, but many of them already come in shades of brown. Some additional accessories include items like ceramic birds in shades of blue or red, pink and brown lacquer boxes, colored pottery or wooden sculptures.
6
Flank a brown leather couch or brown leather chairs around a chocolate brown area rug. These pieces give you large spots of brown. If you're decorating your bedroom, look for a bed with a deep brown headboard or a set of brown suede chairs for a coffee corner.
