Home Office: Color Dilemma

The exterior colour of Victoria Hagan's New England home inspires my office colour palette

(Photo:  Country Living)

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Remember my office?  It needs your help.  I finally replaced the rug with an ivory wool, neutral rug (which I love) from Ikea.  The rug is called Havbro.  But now I want to paint the bookcase and the small dresser to match each other.  I just can't decide what colour to use!

The walls will remain this pretty medium blue, a colour called Scribe from General Paint.

The ugly mouldings (trim work - now brown) will eventually be replaced with more substantial white trim when we re-do the whole house.  In the meantime, I plan to sand it and then paint it white because I really hate it and want it to disappear.

The desk will remain as-is for now (since David won't let me paint it), but may be replaced with my old table (which I can paint).  New curtains will be hung (white cotton on a white wooden rod).  The armchair will be re-upholstered and the desk chair will be replaced (eventually).

So, my dilemma is in choosing a good colour for the bookcase and the small dresser.  I am torn between three choices:

1. WHITE

White furniture will make the blue-and-white theme very literal.  The white curtains and ivory rug will work perfectly, and I will likely use brown linen colours as accent colours for upholstery and storage containers.  I can also use blue accent colours, including some of my blue pottery.

White cabinet from Biskopsgarden shop

2.  PALE BLUE

Pale blue furniture will make a nice transition from the darker blue walls.  Then I can use white as my accent colour in the curtains, ivory rug, and for all my storage bins and baskets.  I am leaning in this direction because all my accessories can be white, which is very practical.

Blue  cabinet from Biskopsgarden shop (Photo Mari Eriksson)

Here is the exact blue I would use (below).  It is the complementary colour from the General Paint swatch and it's called Sea Fog.  I love the name as it evokes, naturally, the seaside!  I've shown it here against the new rug, which has a lovely weave and is quite soft.

3. GREY-BEIGE or LIGHT BROWN

My third option is to keep the bookcase in the existing grey-beige family.  I would give it a new coat of paint to freshen it up and then paint the dresser to match.  This idea isn't so obvious, but having linen-coloured upholstery would bring it all together.  There are so many beautiful grey-beiges and light browns, and it would create a weathered-driftwood-beach effect in the room.  White accessories would also look gorgeous against a light brown bookcase. 

Some of my colour choices are:

(a) Slipper Satin by Farrow & Ball (shown below on large cardboard):  I think this cream is too light (it's a beautiful pearl cream), but it's the same colour used in the hallway outside the room, so it would relate (and it looks so pretty on my hall walls!)

(b)  Skimming Stone by Farrow & Ball (see below).  I love this gorgeous milky beige and I am hungry to use it somewhere!  It is a perfect beach sand shade.

(c) Baby Fawn by Benjamin Moore.  This is a beautiful pale taupe (and was a Pottery Barn feature colour last year).  It would probably look best with the tone of the blue walls, as it has a similar saturation.  I'm leaning towards this colour if I do something in the brown family.

Now it's your turn - what do YOU suggest?

  

I really need some advice here!