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What Color Pillows For a Green Couch – 14 Ideas

By: Elena Johnson

The centerpiece of almost any living room is the couch. It’s one of the first things you notice in the space and it’s often the most desirable place to sit. Especially if your sofa is an eye-catching shade of green, the highlight of the room should be carefully set off with the right throw pillows.

Unlike typical couch colors, green can be tricky to match. Still, there are a variety of hues to pick from when it comes to throw pillows for a green couch. You will just want to carefully consider colors by shade, saturation, and light reflectivity. Here are 14 throw pillow ideas to point you in the right direction.

Opt For a Light Neutral

Beige and other light, muted neutrals make great colors for throw pillows for your green sofa. Especially if your couch is on the darker side, like forest or emerald, a light neutral will add a bit of contrast, while also toning down the blunt energy of your dark couch. Plus, if you have light colors in your living room, beige pillows will help your sofa blend harmoniously into the space.

Soften the Look With Blush

Blush is a romantic color that softens a look. If you want to cultivate your living area as a space for relaxation and rejuvenation, blush, dusty rose, and other muted pinks (light or dark) are a great way to go. Maybe it’s because pink and green coexist so often in nature, but somehow pink throw pillows are easier to match to a green sofa anyway.

Go For Bright White

White pillows for a dark green couch may sound boring, but it can actually be a stunning combination. Dark green sofas are usually bold and richly saturated, which makes a bright white pillow the perfect accent. Both colors will draw the eye while also contrasting with each other. 

Plus, if your walls are white or you have any other white décor, white pillows will tie your dark green couch to the room. That’s a great way to make unpainted walls look intentional.

Pair Emerald With Emerald

Although you probably don’t want your entire living room to be monochromatic, there’s no reason your throw pillows can’t match your couch. Particularly if your couch is a soothing, rich shade of dark green like emerald, decorative pillows in the same shade will just add to the “ahh” factor.

While it’s nice to provide contrast, sometimes it’s best to not to “interrupt” the look. So if that emerald sofa is acting like a pop of color in a lightly colored room, don’t mess with the look by adding a different color. Matching emerald pillows will keep that rich green going.

Repeat the Couch Color – Partly

If you want something a little more interesting than monochrome, look for throw pillows that contain the same color as your couch, as well as at least one other color. 

By sharing your couch’s base color, those accent pillows will almost certainly match, but any patterns and other colors will add another dimension to the overall look. It’s a subtle way to add energy and visual interest to your sofa corner.

Make it Dazzle With Gold

Gold and dark green are a timeless combination. These rich colors infuse a sense of luxury into your space, making you feel like royalty every day. A shiny, metallic gold especially will pop against the dark green of the sofa.

Gold is also a warm color, which will draw guests in even while elevating the tone of your room. It will also be easy to match your decorative gold pillows to lamps, tables, and other décor items to tie the whole room together.

Emphasize Your Green Couch With Grey

You may think that grey pillows for a green couch will take away from the beautiful color of your sofa, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Grey is a grounding color and as a neutral it can be a great way to actually highlight your accent colors and draw more attention to that deliciously rich green seat. Medium grey pillows especially will fade into the background, keeping the spotlight on your new couch.

Match the Undertone

Although you may be weary of introducing another color to your already colorful couch, there are a few ways to do it. One of the simplest is to look for the undertone – or the color that seems to have been blended into your main color to get the precise shade of your piece.

If you can identify the undertone, your throw pillow will match your couch, often in a striking way. So take the grey, yellow, or blue undertone that is most likely “hiding” in your green sofa and make that your accent pillow color. You may be surprised at how well it rounds out your décor.

Black and White For an Olive Couch

When choosing throw pillows for an olive couch, consider a black and white color scheme. Olive has a slightly yellow undertone, which means it’s a more energetic color.  Take advantage of that energy by pairing your sofa with a lively black and white geometric print.

Your olive sofa will already infuse your living space with color, so pairing it with neutrals is logical. Besides, it can be challenging to match colors to olive and other light greens, which makes black and white a safer, and forever stylish, addition instead.

Use Other Earth Tones

What better choice for throw pillows for a green sofa than earth tones? Lighter, faded, and “earthier” green couches won’t always pair as well with the brighter accent pillow colors on this list, but they will look right at home with browns, yellows, mineral greys, and even rusty reds. 

Choose colors you would find in the world around you to ground your living space and set off your green couch.

Try Shimmery, but Subtle

Muted or light colors on a medium to dark green seat are often a successful look, as you have probably noticed in this list. But to make subtle throw pillows for a green couch really pop, try adding just a hint of shine to that understated throw pillow color.

A slightly shimmery or metallic look to a light colored accent will add depth to the look while helping to tie your deep dark couch to any lighter wall or décor colors in your space.

Keep it Colorful

If your sofa has a cheerful vibe that just screams “color,” take the hint and consider colorful cushions to go with it. This is especially a good idea for throw pillows for an olive couch, as these tend to light up the room already. 

Look for joyful patterns that mix soothing blues and purples with warm yellows, salmon, or olive, as these colors will match the vivacious feeling your couch imparts to your living room.

Match the Room

If you can’t decide how best to decorate your green couch, match your throw pillows to the rest of the room instead. Especially if you have strong neutrals or earth tones – like brown wood, black, white, or grey – your throw pillows will help tie the couch to the rest of the room. 

Choose carefully when other bold colors, like dark red or purple, dominate the room. This is easiest when the décor is neutral or light.

Match the Color’s Attribute

Matching colors is about more than the color itself. It’s also about matching, or purposefully contrasting, colors’ attributes – such as lightness/darkness, saturation, or how well it reflects light. This is especially important when choosing throw pillows for a hard-to-match color.

A dusty olive couch might be best paired with throw pillows in equally “dusty” hues – in flat matte colors which don’t reflect much light and are somewhat saturated. This creates unusual, eye-catching results if your throw pillows with matching attributes come in unexpected colors.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to match throw pillows to a green sofa. In addition to choosing flattering colors like earth tones, neutrals, and carefully chosen hues like pink and gold, there are also the attributes of any hue to consider.

As always, it’s a good idea to strike the balance when choosing your throw pillows. You want to add some visual interest through contrast, a new color, or a new aspect with your accent pillows, but you also want to think about maintaining a sense of harmony between your couch and the rest of your décor. That’s the key to the perfectly decorated green couch!