Orange Living Room

Designer Courtney Coleman painted this library Pumpkin by California Paints. "A red dining room is perfectly acceptable, so why not a deep persimmon sitting room?" she said. "The color is so warm and cozy that it makes you feel as if there's a fire in the fireplace, even when there is none. It reminds me of those Regency period interiors, with all those vivid colors inspired by the excavations at Pompeii. They say people who choose orange are very self-confident and extroverted. For this library, we borrowed the unusual finish from the parlor of the Thomas Everard House in Colonial Williamsburg, where varnish is applied over your base paint.