Winning Color Combos for Fall

Click here for a larger image
Black and White
Previous: Brown and Green
Why it works: Who could forget the classic ying and yang of ebony and ivory, on the rise again thanks to the current craze for postmodern silhouettes and graphic damasks. "Black and white has that great juxtaposition of light and dark," says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and author of The Color Answer Book. Today's black and white patterns, Eiseman notes, are often updated (and warmed) with a jolt of red, orange, or yellow.

Variation: Espresso brown with cream, a warmer alternative to black and white that maintains the pairing's striking contrast.

Easy idea: Go Baroque by using one of the myriad new graphic black and white wallpapers as an accent. Create a faux headboard by papering a rectangle behind your bed, and then tacking molding around it. Or paper a small nook or the inside of a hutch before filling it with, say, red books and other eye-catching crimson accessories.

Products we love>

The power of black>



Writer Leah Hennen has written for Real Simple, The New York Times and Parenting magazine, among others.