Unexpected Pops of Color

• You can create pops of an accent color in your living room by using the color in unexpected places. Instead of framing your art with black or white mats, use red or another vibrant color. Pick up that color in other accessories around the room, like throw pillows and lamp bases. You can also use red picture frames. It might be overkill to use both a brightly colored frame and mat: choose one and see how it looks before committing to both.
  
  

Wallpaper

• Wallpaper has been out of vogue for the past few years, but it's making a comeback with well-designed new patterns and muted colors, rather than the loud, brown-yellow-orange palette of the 1970s or the toiles and damasks of the 1980s. It's a way to make a big color statement on one or all of your living room walls. You can let your wallpaper guide the color choices in the rest of the living room: with a grey and ivory floral print, keep your furniture and carpet within this muted palette, then add an accent color such as lime green for decor.
  
  

Art-Based Palettes

• Take your color palette from a piece of art you're going to hang in your living room. Let's take this picture of the Aristotle bike from Urban Outfitters as an example. The colors in this photograph are pale grey, pale blue, white, bright orange, and bright yellow, with outlines of black. You can go two ways with this palette. The usual way is to keep your walls, floors and furniture in the grey-blue-white category, and use the orange and yellow for pops of color around the room, such as a vase, a clock, or items on small wall shelves. If you're a bit bolder with color, go the other way: make your walls, floors and furniture bright orange and yellow, and use the grey, blue and white as accent colors. You'll probably want to keep the furniture solid colors, rather than using a pattern. The same goes for walls--paint them solid colors--and rugs, which shouldn't be too busy-looking.
  
  You can also use a piece of art purely as inspiration for a color palette without hanging that piece on your wall at all.