Color Palettes: How to Incorporate Brown

Lampworking Glass Color Reference

Brown has not been a trendy color in glass for quite some time ... except with those beadmakers who make adorable critter beads or decadent sweet treats.

It has been difficult to find brown clothing as well. It seems when grey became the new 'it' color for literally everything from fashion to home decor, brown ceased to exist. Trying to find a nice pair of dark brown slacks has been next to impossible. I've all but given up and banished my blouses that need brown slacks to the back of the closet.

For those of us whose natural skin and hair coloring pairs better with warm palettes over cool palettes, the struggle is real. I actually prefer grey and cool tones myself, but my person looks better in warm colors.

So for the other warm palette people out there like me, I'm single-handedly bringing brown back in style.

And if the rest of the world chooses not to hop on board that is okay. At least folks looking for warm colors know they can come to my shop and feel seen.

But how does one go about incorporating brown into their color palettes? Whether it is beads or home decor or fashion, these are my favorite color pairings to go with browns of all shades.

Brown and Red

This is a lovely earthy combination that can take pretty much any shade of either. Use both light tans and darker browns with any shade of red from rich garnet reds to bright cherry reds. They all work harmoniously together.

Brown and Pink

I mean pink is really just red that is lightened with white, so clearly it is another great choice to pair with brown. My daughter's nursery was all brown and pink back in the day. I was sad when grey took over the world and I couldn't find fun decor to transition from nursery into big kid room without completely redecorating.

Brown and Blue

Again, you can take any shade of either for a gorgeous combination. Lighter browns with teal blues give beachy vibes, while darker browns are richly paired with lapis and cobalt. Aqua goes good with pretty much any color you can pair it with so naturally it looks good with brown too.

All of the Above

And if you are looking for the ultimate colorful set with brown as a base, use them all together like I did in this set of beads:

red pink blue brown color palette and lampwork glass beads

These beads were made with the following base glass colors:

  • Effetre Light Pink Alabaster
  • Effetre 036 Dark Aqua
  • Effetre 076 Transparent Red
  • Effetre 224 Light Sky Blue
  • Effetre 436 Dark Red
  • Reichenbach R51 Brown
  • Reichenbach R234 Dark Amber

Follow my blog for more glass color combinations and layering recipes.  

Find more soft glass color references in these posts:

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