Colors that go with Khaki for a living room
Khaki · #B3A171
Khaki (#B3A171) — a muted tan-olive — pairs best with muted red, terracotta & clay, ochre & gold, and green. In a living room, ground it with muted red, drawn from 8 historically-grounded combinations below.
A living room can take a stronger pairing — one grounding partner plus a warm accent keeps a shared space inviting without going flat.
About khaki
Khaki is a muted tan-olive — a gently muted, warm colour that reads as mid-toned. As a warm tone it looks most resolved next to cool and neutral partners that temper its warmth, and it needs both lighter and deeper shades nearby for the value contrast the eye reads as finished. That balance is what makes it feel warm in a living room.
- HEX
- #B3A171
- RGB
- 179, 161, 113
- HSL
- 44°, 30%, 57%
- CMYK
- 0, 10, 37, 30
Accessibility: put light text on khaki for below AA (decorative use) legibility (contrast 2.4:1 against off-white).
Why khaki pairs with muted red, terracotta & clay, ochre & gold, and green
Across the 8 historical combinations below, khaki sits most often beside muted red, terracotta & clay, ochre & gold, and green. That tracks with colour theory: a warm, mid-toned tone like this one wants cool and neutral partners that temper its warmth so the scheme feels intentional rather than flat, and both lighter and deeper partners supply the light-to-dark range the eye needs. A living room can take a stronger pairing — one grounding partner plus a warm accent keeps a shared space inviting without going flat.
- muted red
- terracotta & clay
- ochre & gold
- green
Using khaki in a living room
In a living room, ground it with muted red and terracotta & clay. Because khaki is mid-toned, it can cover larger surfaces, with green added for depth.
8 combinations with khaki, from the 1933 Dictionary
Red Orange & Pale Lemon Yellow +2
Plate 241 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Red Orange, Pale Lemon Yellow, Isabella Color, Dark Medici Blue.
#c5a56e #dd4027 #ffefae #547076
Eugenia Red | B & Maple +2
Plate 282 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Eugenia Red | B, Maple, Cobalt Green, Lilac.
#c59f6b #da525d #96d1aa #b984af
Pale Burnt Lake & Yellow Ocher +1
Plate 124 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Pale Burnt Lake, Yellow Ocher, Olive Yellow.
#a6a159 #802626 #e2b540
Apricot Orange & Olive Yellow +1
Plate 211 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Apricot Orange, Olive Yellow, Deep Indigo.
#a6a159 #f68c50 #051230
Old Rose & Apricot Yellow +2
Plate 265 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Old Rose, Apricot Yellow, Olive Yellow, Dull Violet Black.
#a6a159 #d46d7a #ffdd00 #1e0e3f
Light Brown Drab & Etruscan Red +1
Plate 185 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Light Brown Drab, Etruscan Red, Pale Lemon Yellow.
#b59392 #c55347 #ffefae
Light Brown Drab & Yellow Ocher +1
Plate 191 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Light Brown Drab, Yellow Ocher, Blue.
#b59392 #e2b540 #006eb8
Light Brown Drab & Ochraceous Salmon +1
Plate 223 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Light Brown Drab, Ochraceous Salmon, Turquoise Green.
#b59392 #d8a37b #b5decc
Khaki in other settings
Other colors
From the archive
Support the archive The full catalog, on your disk, as a thank-you.
- All 378 palettes (348 Wada + 30 editorial) in five formats
- Figma design tokens (W3C-spec JSON, drag into any file)
- Tailwind v4 + v3 configs — drop into any project
- CSS custom properties — every plate, one stylesheet
- 378 museum SVG plates — print-ready at any size
- Full JSON — colors, names, eras, moods, dominant hues
Launching soon. The free archive stays free, always.
Library
Go deeper on colour
The colour-theory books behind pairings like Khaki — history, reference and the science of what works together.
Book links are Amazon Associates affiliate links. Your price is unchanged; a small commission supports the archive. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.