Winning Color Combos for Fall

By Leah Hennen, special to HGTV.com

Orange and Blue

Why it works: "Opposites on the color wheel, these are classic complements," Eckstut explains. "Plus, there's so much variety in the orange and blue families that you get all sorts of different effects." Bright tangerine paired with turquoise, for instance, has a citrusy freshness. Lush persimmon or terracotta teamed with deep azure or inky indigo evoke an exotic Moroccan bazaar or a blazing Mediterranean sunset. And salmon with ice blue is rich yet restrained and sophisticated.

Variations: Orange with gray is another hot-meets-cool modern match, while orange with brown or green lends a warm, retro vibe.

Easy idea: Perform magic with paint. "Paint is the thing that people are most scared of, but it's one of the cheapest and easiest things to do, and it's easy to change," says Get Color's Jane Lockhart. No need to paint all four walls, either—opt instead for a dramatic orange accent wall hung with artwork in various shades of blue (or vice-versa), sassy stripes of color across a neutral wall (vertical stripes give a traditional wallpaper look, while a wide horizontal orange-and-blue band creates a fun, modern effect), "or even overlapping squares of color painted directly on a blank wall, which works almost like art," Lockhart says.

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