Sunny, Lime-Greenish Colors, Soft or Muted, or Pale Apple Green or Tinted Olive Green Colors
These are colors I love to use, or to see used in rooms. They range from softened green-apple greens, to pale celery greens, to muted or pale, hint-of-lime and chartreuse greens. Or light celadon and pale olive greens. It’s hard to put a name on them, although paint companies do come up with some of their own; some a bit mysterious, or at least a bit curious. (But, hey, what’s a paint manufacturer to do for names. Whatever the name applied, it’s easier to talk about a paint color using a name, as opposed to a number; we can remember names more easily. But, never pick a paint color based on the name.)
Whatever we want to call these colors, they can be great for interiors that want to move away from off-white as the backdrop wall color. These are colorful neutrals. You’ll see how they work well in contemporary, eclectic, and traditional settings.
This first group of colors are great for adding a bit of sunshine to rooms that get little natural sunlight but that still want a subdued neutral wall color.
Take a look:
(As a caveat, we can’t know for sure what the wall colors are in photographic images. The photographic process will not pick up the exact color and tends to use lighting that washes out color. In addition, the digital process will affect the color as well. So, I’m viewing the colors in these rooms as they appear to us as a result.)
Sunny dining room designed by Martyn Lawrence-Bullard
Kitchen area designed by Amy Lau.
Country-style bedroom. Image source: Country Home Magazine online.
Living room designer: Barry Dixon.
These first four images appear to use the colors that tend to the yellow side of muted lime-type greens. Some paint colors that fall into this range are:
- Benjamin Moore 2146-50, Rainforest Dew
- Dunn Edwards DE5484, Limesickle
- Ralph Lauren VM101, Climbing Lily
- Pratt & Lambert 16-30 Catawba Grape
- Pratt & Lambert 16-31 Fern Whisper (more subdued)
You can go a tad darker in value, and a tad greener, with:
- Sherwin Williams SW6414, Rice Paddy
- Dunn Edwards DE5519, Perfect Pear
- Benjamin Moore 2147-50, Pale Sea Mist
This room looks like it could be painted in one of those colors:
Designer: Laurel Feldman. Image source: Luxe Magazine online.
Or, go a bit brighter with a stronger yellow cast with Dunn Edwards DE5471, Shaded Sun. I’ve seen this color used in a dimly-lit room and experienced a situation where a person who often visited the space didn’t realize the walls were not just off-white. The wall color seemed so natural in the room, a room by-the-way for the elderly, that it was not even noticed by others as well. A similar color is Benjamin Moore 389, Sweet Pear.
Greener Still
Another range of colors leans more to the brighter and greener side. Some are still moderately neutralized, probably by gray. Some are clearer in hue, being the brighter colors of the lot. Some have their hue muted with white (tints of the colors).
In the range of brighter, clearer colors that could be called “celery”, interior designer Celerie Kemble has this to say at SouthernAccents.com: “Celery is very much a neutral. Green is omnipresent in the natural world, and our eyes are comfortable accepting a lot of it.”
Look at these rooms:
Celery bedroom designed by Celerie Kemble.
Designer of this living room: Albert Hadley
Dining room designed by Thad Hayes
Seating area designer:Jay Jeffers.
Loft area designer: Laura Bohn.
The walls in this airy room, by John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross, appear to have a very faint tint of wispy apple green. If that’s the case, I can imagine how a light touch of that color on the walls would feel in the room, can’t you? As shown in Elle Decor. Photographer: Simon Upton.
Dining room designed by John Saladino
Designer of this bedroom: William Hodgins as shown in House Beautiful. At HouseBeautiful.com Hodgins says this “In this house I used pale colors that are easy to live with, never jarring…” Photographer: Frederic Vasseur.
Entryway in pale celadon by John Saladino.
Shown in Luxe Magazine, this bedroom by Jonathan and Bethany Hearter has an accent wall in a pale limeish-green.
Designer: Laura Bohn.
Room design by Susan Schwab. Photographer: Ron Ruscio. Luxe online.
A variety of paint colors that fall into the range of colors in the group above:
- Sherwin Williams SW6708, Springtime
- Benjamin Moore 2029-60, Pale Vista
- Sherwin Williams SW 6721, Enlightened Lime
- Benjamin Moore 2028-60, Celadon Green
- Dunn Edwards 5554, Apple Martini
- Pratt & Lambert 16-7, Tree Whimsey
- Dunn Edwards 5548, Fresh Grown
- Sherwin Williams SW6715, Lime Granita
- Benjamin Moore 401, Sour Apple
- Pratt & Lambert 17-28, Laurel Mist
- Dunn Edwards 5555, Kiwi Kiss
In the olive range, and moving away from paler or clearer backdrop colors:
- Pratt & Lambert 16-28, Split Pea
- Dunn Edwards DE5478, Breath of Spring
- Benjamin Moore 2146-40, Pale Avocado
A room with an olive or avocado accent wall:
Guest room designed by Eddy Doumas of Worth Interiors as shown at Luxe online. Benjamin Moore 2146-30, Split Pea, might get you this accent wall color.
On the Brighter Side
If you want to go even brighter these colors could fit the bill:
- Benjamin Moore 2025-50, Lemon Freeze
- Dunn Edwards 5514, Leaf Bud
- Sherwin Williams 6702, Lively Lemon
- Pratt & Lambert 16-6, Sea Fairy
- Benjamin Moore 2027-50, Hibiscus
- Sherwin Williams 6916, Impetuous
- Pratt & Lambert 16-8, Glimmer of Lime
- Benjamin Moore 395, Apples and Pears
These colors are, again and obviously, moving away from subdued backdrop paint colors for walls. They might be just the right thing for that small room with very little natural light that needs serious cheering up. Or, for an accent wall.
Some brighter colors shown here:
Designer: Frank Roop.
A splash of lime in this kitchen designed by Jay Jeffers.
Getting Downright Bold
Pull out all the lime and olive stops:
Designer: Nisi Berryman. Photographer: Ken Hayden. Shown in Metropolitan Home magazine at Elle Decor.
These colors might get the look:
- Pratt & Lambert 17-10, Wild Lime
- Sherwin Williams SW6920, Center Stage
- Benjamin Moore 2028-30, Tequila Lime
The edginess of this room is in part due to the almost acid olive green wall. Designer: Joseph Abbati. Image sourse: Elle Decor.
For a shot of hyper-olive or lime try:
- Benjamin Moore 2027-30, Eccentric Lime
- Sherwin Williams SW6917, Nervy Hue
- Pratt & Lambert 16-15, Far from Shy
Lime Accents
Lime greens, olive greens, apple greens, and all the variations in this range, are great for accents.
Fabrics on upholstered furniture add accent color in these rooms:
Living room with pale lime upholstered daybed. Designer: Larry Laslo. Photographer: Grey Crawford. As shown in Metropolitan Home at Elle Decor.
Chartreuse upholstery and bedding accents in a bedroom by Landry Design Group, Richard Landry, AIA. Luxe Magazine.
Photo of celadon green daybed by photographer Oberto Gili.
Pinkish walls create a warm and charming feel to this expansive room by designer Lynn Mizono. Wouldn’t you agree that the IKEA ottoman slipcovered in chartreuse is just the right color accent?
Tell Me What You Think
What do you think of these colors and the rooms shown? Do you have a favorite?
I’d love to hear from you.
The paint companies: Benjamin Moore. Sherwin Williams. Pratt & Lambert. Dunn Edwards, on the West Coast. In Eastern states: California Paints. (Dunn Edwards and California Paints both use the Perfect Palette® Color System with color numbers beginning in DE.)
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