Red sofas and curtains - what colours should we paint the walls please?

[BalloonSlayer]

They are currently a very pale yellow, so we want to change that. Laminate floor (sorry).

DH is proposing various colours I have reacted to thus:

He suggested I ask Mumsnet.

So here I be . . .

I vote pale grey. Depends a bit what shade of red your sofa/curtains are - scarlet? ruby? coral?

if a warm red, perhaps a warm cream (not very different to yellow though!)

I also think a lovely cream colour. I know it sounds boring but you can get some lovely twists on cream now like malt chocolate etc.
My parents have very deep red sofas and they have cream walls and a red/purple ish fireplace it looks amazing.

I was going to say cream too. A warm brownish one, not a cold acidy lemony one.

Something like the old faithful, Barley White.

What "colour" is your laminate floor? Light oak? Dark mahogany? Do you want cosy, or fresh, or funky? I would suggest the dreaded feature wall, in either dark charcoal grey, sky blue, or a bright turquoise. With grey wall I would go for pale cream on other walls, and with blue or turquoise I would use white. It also depends on the style of your sofas, and the other furniture you have in the room.

Wow thanks what a nice lot of replies!

Laminate floor is light oak. Sofas are material, neither one thing or another really, ruby red I'd say. The other furniture in the room is mainly pine/light wood.

Funky we're never going to get!

I'd normally just go for cream or white. I might consider a feature wall but there is no chimney breast so it's not too apparent which wall to pick. But I will probably get the chap we used before in, and he'd be able to say which one it should be.

DH has suggested - gold which I think will look like 70s mustard

and pale blue. This is for the whole room, not just one wall.

Hmm still thinking . . .

This is really helpful.

We have ruby red curtains in our bedroom and after looking at various colour swatches opted for a creamy ivory. Works well IMO.

In our bedroom we've got a warm ruby red soft furnishings, with cream walls and gold accents - ornaments and bits. Works well.

We had a red sofa and curtains and had a very pale grey walls was nice.

I think cream, grey would feel strange to me though it would suit red too.

I have red feature wall and red curtains and have craig and rose william morris blue on the other 3 walls. It works well and have had lots of compliments.

How dark is William Morris Blue, sexbombbikerchick ?

I just looked up the craig and rose website and they don't seem to have it on there.

Am not usually keen on blue as it is a cold colour but the room itself is very warm so I think it could take it.

I'd say either white or cream. We have white sofas with red cushions and red chairs with pale cream cushions. I love the contrast.

www.craigandrose.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=william+morris+blue
It looks quite dark and almost green on the web, but deffo get a tester and try it. They do big glass tester pots with screw top lids, try it on all the walls as different lights will give different tones. Don't just settle for cream there are lots of lovely colours in their website, praps try and get a chart?

I would say cream, but your DH's ideas are not so crazy really - a soft goldy/yellow could look lovely. It's been redecorated now, but a few years ago our kitchen had red tiles (inc worktops) with pine units and pale blue walls and whilst it was a bit 'marmite' - I think the red and blue did work quite well. It was certainly quite a striking combination.

we have a deep gold toned cream on our walls and it works very well with our deep red sofas.

a very, very subtle sage-y greyish green could also work very well.

We had red sofa and curtains with a very very pale pink, looked much better than it sounds!

We have a red sofa, and our walls are Natural Calico by dulux. I like it.............!

I've just painted a room in Natural Calico and it's a really lovely colour.