Colors that go with Maroon for a nursery
Maroon · #800000
Maroon (#800000) — a dark, brownish red — is best for a nursery with teal, slate & blue, muted red, and green. In a nursery, soften it with teal, drawn from 4 historically-grounded combinations below.
A nursery wants soft, low-contrast partners — gentle colors that soothe rather than stimulate, and grow with the room past the first year.
About maroon
Maroon is a dark, brownish red — a saturated, warm colour that reads as deep and grounding. As a warm tone it looks most resolved next to cool and neutral partners that temper its warmth, and it needs lighter shades nearby for the value contrast the eye reads as finished. That balance is what makes it feel serene in a nursery.
- HEX
- #800000
- RGB
- 128, 0, 0
- HSL
- 0°, 100%, 25%
- CMYK
- 0, 100, 100, 50
Accessibility: put light text on maroon for AAA legibility (contrast 10.5:1 against off-white).
Why maroon pairs with teal, slate & blue, muted red, and green
Across the 4 historical combinations below, maroon sits most often beside teal, slate & blue, muted red, and green. That tracks with colour theory: a warm, deep tone like this one wants cool and neutral partners that temper its warmth so the scheme feels intentional rather than flat, and lighter partners supply the light-to-dark range the eye needs. A nursery wants soft, low-contrast partners — gentle colors that soothe rather than stimulate, and grow with the room past the first year.
- teal
- slate & blue
- muted red
- green
Using maroon in a nursery
In a nursery, soften it with teal and slate & blue. Because maroon is deep and grounding, keep it to anchor pieces or a single feature area and let teal carry the larger surfaces.
4 combinations with maroon, from the 1933 Dictionary
Spinel Red & Vandyke Red +1
Plate 147 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Spinel Red, Vandyke Red, Turquoise Green.
#82241f #f27291 #b5decc
Vandyke Red & Citrine +1
Plate 133 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Vandyke Red, Citrine, Sea Green.
#82241f #b09f36 #00b49b
Vandyke Red & Yellow Orange +2
Plate 335 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Vandyke Red, Yellow Orange, Violet, Slate Color.
#82241f #f99d1b #4f4086 #34454c
Vandyke Red & Dull Viridian Green +2
Plate 316 from Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations — Vandyke Red, Dull Viridian Green, Violet, Red Violet.
#82241f #009465 #4f4086 #59256a
Questions about Maroon for a nursery
What colors go with maroon for a nursery?
Maroon (#800000) — a dark, brownish red — is best for a nursery with teal, slate & blue, muted red, and green. In a nursery, soften it with teal, drawn from 4 historically-grounded combinations below.
What is the hex code for maroon?
Maroon is #800000 — a dark, brownish red.
Does maroon go with white?
Yes. Maroon reads clean against soft white and cream; for contrast, add one of: teal, slate & blue, muted red, green.
Maroon in other settings
Other colors
Studio
Work with this pairing
You have the hex codes for Maroon for a nursery. These are the materials a colour study like this actually gets made with.
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Calibrite
ColorChecker Passport Photo 2
A pocket target for fixing white balance and exposure at the moment of capture — the step before any colour correction, if your palette starts from a photograph rather than a screen.
Listed on Amazon as Calibrite ColorChecker Passport Photo 2 Portable Color Calibration Kit for Photo and Video, 4 Target Set for White Balance, Exposure and Creative Look
View on Amazon -
Kuretake
Gansai Tambi 24 — Art Nouveau
Gansai are traditional Japanese watercolour pans — dense, matte and easy to mix, the closest everyday medium to the flat printed colour Wada's plates were made in. This is the Art Nouveau-themed 'II' edition, a different 24 to the standard set.
Listed on Amazon as Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI Watercolor Paint Set 24 Colors II - Art Nouveau
View on Amazon
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Library
Go deeper on colour
The colour-theory books behind pairings like Maroon — history, reference and the science of what works together.
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Torn between the two Wada dictionaries? Vol 1 vs Vol 2, compared plate by plate →
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