Giving a family kitchen a look that suited the wife’s penchant for cottage charm and the husband’s preference for colorful contemporary spaces posed an enjoyable challenge for designer Mark Williams. To delight both clients, he kept the look in the space clean and simple, painting cabinets, shelves, and wall in a soft blue-based green and incorporating a mix of refined-rustic elements—like the French country dining chairs—and furnishings and accessories with simple lines and neutral colors, like the armless sofa. The result is a modern mix that’s just right for the entire family.

If you love the trendy look of gray cabinets but don’t want your kitchen to look like everyone else’s, consider choosing a muted shade of green, instead. Like gray, sage works with a wide variety of decorating styles, mixes beautifully with wood tones, stainless steel, and stone, and won’t look dated anytime soon. In this kitchen, black and white tiles in a Moroccan-inspired pattern add a graphic edge to the country-style cabinets.

In this eclectic bath, designer Mary Jo Fiorella used sage green on an accent wall to create a colorful counterpoint to the composition of neutrals in the rest of the space. Reclaimed wood panels behind the vanity mirrors, a pebbled bath wall, and a stone vanity countertop work beautiful with the leafy green to give the space an all-natural look.

In this sophisticated living room, a largely neutral color palette gains interest and energy from layers of rich texture, from the woven poufs to the velvet upholstery, and pops of leafy green. The shades of green used in this space are more intense than the soft shades of the Urban Oasis living room, but the effect of pairing green with taupe, black, and white is similar: A look that’s grounded, but undeniably cool.