6 Colors That Go With Gold and How to Pair Them

Gold is certainly in vogue right now. It's all over the place in the form of gilded mirrors, vintage frames, overhead lighting, and kitchen hardware. But it can be a challenge to decorate with it and not have your home look like a Gilded Era mansion or like you're decorating for New Year's Eve.

To decorate with gold, keep in mind that the metallic falls somewhere between yellow and orange on the color wheel. Here are six colors that go with gold to consider pairing as you decorate.

Colors That Are Complementary With Gold

Complementary colors are ones that sit right across from each other on the color wheel. So looking at the yellow and orange tones in gold, that would mean purple and blue are complementary colors for yellow and orange. Working with these cool tones can add balance to the warm tones in gold.

Shades of Purple

While many classic shades of purple lean cool, plum purple has warm undertones in it that plays well with the warm hues in gold. This lovely mudroom by Whittney Parkinson Design evokes a sense of timeless tradition with its plum and gold accents. However, a sleek violet-blue with gold can also work well in a more modern room.

Shades of Blue

Blue lies across from orange on the color wheel, which makes it a complementary color to the orange tones in gold. Take Marie Antoinette's favorite place to escape on the grounds of Versailles, for example. Named Le Petit Trianon, the rooms in this small estate feature powder blue walls with gold accents, which results in a soft and delicate color scheme. However, you can also really play up the contrast of blue and gold through a dark navy.

Green also works well with gold, so variations of blues with a hint of green in them, like turquoise or aqua blue, do the same.

Colors That Are Analogous With Gold

Analogous colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. Since gold contains mostly yellow and some orange tones, red and green are the analogous colors for gold.

Shades of Red

When pairing red and gold together, there are ways to pull off the look without things looking too primary. Choosing a deep earth-toned red against gold accents will create a very sophisticated look. This kitchen by Ashley Montgomery Design uses muted red with a bit of burnt orange in it as a backdrop for brassy gold pulls. The matching chandelier and kitchen faucet further tie the look together.

Shades of Green

Green is a pretty foolproof and classic color to pair with gold (e.g., St. Patrick's Day). Whether forest green, emerald green, olive green, or sea foam green strikes your fancy, you really can't go wrong with any version. Green also lends itself well to decorating styles that play off the past, like grandmillennial and cottagecore. It's easy to find gold accents at flea markets that go along with these looks.

Neutrals That Work With Gold

Black Anchors Gold

If you notice that your room is starting to feature a bit too much gold, adding a dark neutral like black can ground everything. If you're also weary of mixing metals like gold and silver together, black cast iron is a great alternative.

White Makes a Clean Canvas for Gold

If you really want to make your gold accents illuminate, choosing white paint with a high light reflectance value (LRV) will do the trick. LRV refers to how much light a color reflects, with pure white paint reflecting the most. Paint manufacturers tend to list the LRV on their paint chip cards. For example, Benjamin Moore's White Dove is off-white with an LRV of 85, while Chantilly Lace is a brighter white with an LRV of about 90. So if you really want the gold to pop, you should go with Chantilly Lace.

Tips for Adding Gold Accessories to a Room

Gold is a very versatile metal, meaning you can take it in any direction you want, no matter your interior design style. Some gold accessories like antique frames, candelabras, and mirrors tend to have ornate details. If your design is becoming a bit too frou-frou for your taste, consider adding more simple pieces with geometric shapes or sleek lines for balance.

Also, brass and gold finishes are very similar. Polished brass is sometimes nearly indistinguishable from something that's plated gold. However, plated gold tends to have more shine than even polished brass. Don't get lost in the semantics because something that you think looks brass may look more like antique gold to someone else. But these two finishes often look great with one another, so we say the difference doesn't really matter.