What colors make chartreuse


What color is chartreuse? Everything you need to know |

(Image credit: Future)

Named chartreuse after its resemblance to the French herbal liqueur, the color chartreuse embodies a distinctive and energetic character that can beautifully uplift and brighten a room. A color that many may not have heard of, chartreuse has been ever-present in the world of design but has not always been at the forefront. Recent color trends for 2022 show that bold, bright colors are having a moment, so we address the question, what color is chartreuse? 

(Image credit: Future)

What color is chartreuse?

In the color wheel, chartreuse is made from a mix of yellow and green, sitting halfway between the two colors. As yellow is a primary color and green a secondary color, chartreuse is known as a tertiary color (an equal mix of primary and secondary colors). Due to chartreuse being a mix, there are many different shades available, with some closer to green and some closer to yellow.

If you’re looking for inspiration for room color ideas and decorating with color, chartreuse is guaranteed to make an impact. Using bright shades when decorating with yellow and decorating with green in interior design is renowned to create an upbeat atmosphere full of excitement and fun. 

Natasha Bradley, Color Psychologist at Lick Paint states, ‘yellow affects our emotions and is a great choice for kitchens, particularly if there is a lack of natural light. It’s bright and cheerful and brings positivity to the heart of the home’. The citrus, neon-like tones of chartreuse make it a truly unique color, whether you choose to use the color subtly through accessories and soft furnishings or make more of a statement with a painted wall or door. We now address some of the most popular questions asked when researching, what color is chartreuse? 

(Image credit: Future)

Is chartreuse more yellow or green?  

As discussed, on the color wheel chartreuse is made up of an equal amount of yellow and green, and as the color is mixed there are many shades available. There are two types of chartreuse liqueur, chartreuse yellow and chartreuse green, so that can sometimes cause confusion as to what shade chartreuse is meant to be, but technically the color is formed from an equal amount of yellow and green.

What color looks good with chartreuse? 

Chartreuse can elevate both traditional and modern interior spaces, whether paired with other bold, bright shades or more neutral, calmer colors. In the color wheel, complementary colors sit opposite each other. Chartreuse sits in the yellow-green section, the opposite, complementary colors would be red-violet for a shade closer to green and blue-violet for a shade closer to yellow.

(Image credit: Future)

Is chartreuse a warm or cool color? 

Depending on how you use your specific chartreuse shade and what other colors you are working with in your scheme, shades closer to green tend to be cooler and shades closer to yellow warmer. Tobie Lewis, Senior Brand Manager at Valspar Paint says ‘fresher, cleaner tones, such as Vintage Chartreuse, encourage maximum light into a space, boosting serotonin and enhancing positive moods, great for kitchens and lively spaces’, ideal for creating a warming, inviting atmosphere in the home.  

How can I decorate with chartreuse?

The key to making a chartreuse room look good is choosing exactly the right shade. This is determined by how much natural daylight the room gets and whether that light is cool or warm. Small windows and a north- or east-facing orientation will generally mean the room will be darker, so you need to go for either warm-toned pale chartreuse to make them feel bigger and brighter, or warm-toned mustard yellows for an inviting appeal. 

Zara joined Homes & Gardens in February 2022 as a Content Editor. After studying English Literature at University, she worked as an Ecommerce Website Editor, Content Writer and Buying Intern at multiple independent businesses within the luxury retail and lifestyle sectors. Her role at Homes & Gardens unites her love, experience and passion for the world of design and desire to create inspiring written content. She enjoys nothing more than discovering new trends, brands and products, whether that be in fashion, interior design or lifestyle.

The Chartreuse Color: 20 Inspiring Ideas

By Stefan Gheorghe | Published on Reviewed by Lance Crayon

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If you’ve ever wondered what the chartreuse color is all about, keep reading and you’ll find the answers. Here, we’ll look at 20 inspiring ideas that come from chartreuse, a home decor color that is making a comeback.

Today is all about chartreuse as it holds a special place on the color wheel. We’ll shed some light on this bold and vivacious hue. But what color is chartreuse?

As a bright mix of yellow and green, chartreuse takes the place of lime and mustard with more powerful personality and appeal. The French liqueur called “chartreuse” and enjoyed by Carthusian monks has since become an official color. It even has a hex code, so you know it’s for real. 

It might seem new, but the color has deep historical roots and a long cycle of coming and going with the trends.

History of Chartreuse

Chartreuse gets its name from the French liqueur first by Carthusian monks. Originally, the secret blend of 130 herbs was a medicinal potion. However, the taste became a popular beverage.

By the late 18th century, the hue had colored everything from fashion to home décor, bringing death with it. Eventually, early chartreuse dyes had arsenic, ending the color’s trendy period.

Roughly a century later, safer versions emerged, leading to another round of chartreuse fashions in the 20s. Over the next few decades, its popularity waxed and waned, hitting peaks with midcentury modern décor and 80s trends.

Recently, it has worked its way through fashion and home interiors, especially for those creative enough to find ways of adapting its use for contemporary décor.

Shades of Chartreuse

The color chartreuse is a mixture of yellow and green. Chartreuse can be a warm color or a cool color, depending if yellow or green dominates a particular shade. Options span from lively spring-like green shades to more yellowish hues.

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Chartreuse Moods

Chartreuse is found in nature. From the delicate yellowish greens of new plant shoots to the vibrant color green of an apple or lettuce and the muted tone of an avocado. According to Color Psychology, chartreuse has specific connotations:

The Color Chartreuse In Home Decor

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As with most bold colors, it can lend a bright pop or be the dominant color in a space. It depends on your comfort level and how vibrant you want to be. Also, remember that you can go for a big splash of chartreuse, but use a shade that’s more muted in tone. Here are a few tips on using chartreuse in your décor:

 

What Goes With The Color Chartreuse?

You might be surprised at what colors you can mix with chartreuse because there are plenty of options. Once again, your choices will be swayed by the shade of chartreuse you want to use

How To Use The Color Chartreuse 

We’ve compiled a list of 20 rooms that use chartreuse. Learn how to accent chartreuse with the following colors to it pair with by taking a peek at the ideas below:

1. Chartreuse With White

If you’ve decided on chartreuse in a larger area or larger bouts, make sure you balance out this strong tone with a light and comfortable neutral. Whether that be a beige or creamy white, you’ll want to compliment the color but not have it overpower your living rooms or kitchens.

2. Chartreuse Flair

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This color is also perfect for dressing standout pieces of the house. Whether that be the sofa or office accent chair, chartreuse makes for a great option of creating focal points in any room. Like this sofa, for example, it transforms this charcoal-dipped space into something even more stylish.

3. Chartreuse Dining Room

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Don’t be scared of going bold. Your dining room could be the highlight of your home if you dress the walls in chartreuse. This example feels like a renewed apple green, but it’s an entitled chartreuse hue. The room pops even more by adding violet and cobalt blue around the space for complimenting and accessorizing.

4. Chartreuse Walls

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Give your chartreuse walls a lighter look by placing them in an area with a lot of natural lighting and creamy textures and wooden accents. It gives a softer look to this lively, green shade and a more touchable finish. But it never takes away from its unique look! {found on pillmaharam}.

5. Chartreuse Retro 

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This color dresses retro pieces well. There’s something about the funkiness of the color that makes retro pieces look contemporary and hip. It’s a great way to mesh that vintage flair with fashion-forward energy without committing to a blander, more traditional look. {found on dijeaupoage}.

6. Chartreuse Wallpaper

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For a surprising and outside-the-box space, decorate it with a printed piece of chartreuse. This guest bathroom has texture, tone, depth, and interest with just the addition of these patterned wallpaper. It may seem busy but we see it as a fun addition to the house.

7. Trendy

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This blue-hued room was taken to an entirely different level with the addition of these trendy and fun chartreuse chairs. It adds a youthful presence to the space and makes a personal touch that much more evident. The pairing of these two shades is magical.

8. Outdoors

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Chartreuse can even brighten up and add style to your outdoor areas. From the front porch to the back, paired with whites, blacks, or charcoals, this color will make your outside pop with a bout of design-worthy envy. You’ll have the best curbside on the block. {found on fabarchitecture}.

9.

Small Spots

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This chartreuse door makes this simple and sleek space so much more interesting and fun. This is a great example of how an easy addition and idea can transform even the smallest of spaces around the house – and anyone can make this happen without breaking the bank. {found on feldmanarchitecture}.

10. Chic

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Chartreuse is one of the best colors to dress your home in funky styles with. Because it has such a unique tone and texture it makes for such a fun way of decorating with prints and personality-filled nick-knacks and tidbits. {found on amylaudesign}.

11. Yellow Green Color Surprise

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The bright chartreuse accents give this dining room a really vibrant and exciting look and create a sunny atmosphere without being too bold. Also, it’s beautiful how the chairs and the curtains fill the whole room with color. This gorgeous space was designed by Martha O’Hara Interiors.

12.

Apple Green 

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Chartreuse is a powerful and vibrant color in small doses. It’s also a nuance that goes well with neutrals and grays. This combination is beautifully exemplified in this beach-inspired bedroom created by Musso Design Group.

13. Shade Of Chartreuse

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This living room designed by Giulietti / Schouten Architects makes use of chartreuse as an accent color in a very interesting way. The color accents are unexpected, in the form of an accent wall that’s small and almost completely hidden behind the furniture as well as a simple border around the painting hanging above the fireplace.

14. Chartreuse Accents

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A white ceiling and gray walls with a white border at the top and the bottom create a minimalistic and neutral décor which is balanced out by the wooden floor.

However, it’s the chartreuse sofa that completely changes the ambiance in this bedroom, infusing it with energy and adding a sophisticated vibe to its design. This beautiful space is the work of studio Wake + Loom Design.

15. Hue Angle

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Introducing two strong accent colors into a room is not easy and yet Melhem Construction Group managed to make it work here. These colors are concentrated around the staircase area which features a dark turquoise wall complemented by a chartreuse bench and balanced out by the dark wooden floor.

16. Nature Color System

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A little bit of color can add more character to a small structure like a garden shed for example. This one by Atmoscaper Design has a simple wooden exterior and it’s decorated with all these bits like window planters and trellises and that creates a nice feeling of immersion and a strong connection with nature.

17. Yellow Green Color Kitchen

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It’s easy to get carried away when designing or decorating a kitchen and wanting everything to match. When you get the color palette just right the whole room suddenly comes together and everything looks perfect. Check out this beautiful mixture of dark wood, bright chartreuse, and black countertops. 

18. Lime Green

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One of the easiest ways to add color to a room is by giving it an accent wall. That strategy was used in this playroom designed by Durham Builders but it took a unique turn. You see, it’s not just the wall that has this vibrant and beautiful shade of chartreuse on it but a section of the ceiling, the door and the shelves on it too.

19. Apple Green Patio

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Chartreuse is a nuance that fits beautifully into the color scheme used for outdoor areas such as patios, decks and backyard seating areas. It’s a color inspired by nature that belongs in nature and there are many interesting and creative ways to integrate it into various types of designs. Here, for example, it was used to create a backdrop for the patio in the form of a minimalist fireplace surround.

20. Chartreuse Yellow

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The cities are lacking in color, with most of the building’s concrete and have a neutral feel to them. That’s why it’s exciting and satisfying to bring color into our designs and decor, especially outdoors. This magnificent rooftop deck by Chicago Green Design Inc. is bursting with energy and we love that about it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)FAQ

What Hue Angle Looks Good With Chartreuse?

Varying from yellow green to green-yellow, chartreuse pops when paired with black and white. The color shines alone, but it also can be muted with gray and tan.

What Does Chartreuse Symbolize?

Chartreuse represents enthusiasm, happiness, nature, growth, and youth. Like standard green, chartreuse is associated with the liveliness and blossoming of spring

What Is The Closest Color To Chartreuse?

Bright green is on the color wheel one third of the way between chartreuse green and harlequin #3FFF00). Bright green represents a visual stimulus of 556 nanometers on the visual spectrum as measured on the CIE chromaticity diagram.

Is Chartreuse A Warm Or Cool Color?

Chartreuse is often called by one of its shades including colors green like apple green, lime green, light grass green, light green with a tinge of yellow and mellow yellow. The greener shades of chartreuse have a fresh, springtime feel, and are ’60s retro.

When Was The Color Chartreuse Popular?

Chartreuse had several other moments in the limelight. It was big in 1937, and again in the sixties. It was a favorite of midcentury-modern trendsetters, including the Finnish furniture designer Eero Saarinen, who created his womb chair in 1948.

Chartreuse Conclusion

The color chartreuse holds a special place on the color wheel. You’ll find the color in a living room, mixed with the color green. It’s also a good fit for a dining room. The human eye is sensitive, so chartreuse is confusing.

Chartreuse accents like yellow-green, pale green, and apple green offer pizazz in a room. One thing that stands out is green chartreuse. Whether you’re working with a new color or accent color, your room will radiate with chartreuse. As the color was a popular French liqueur enjoyed by Carthusian monks, the color name evolved when chartreuse became an official color and domestic monthly fad.

One thing you shouldn’t forget is how the color green and lime green make excellent feather fans as both are backdrops for chartreuse. The color indicates that one makes friends easily. The color works best used in children’s rooms and dining rooms as the color offers a friendly vibe. 

As a primary color for bedrooms, apple green with a yellow tinge would create a bold shade. If you want to decorate your room with chartreuse, you will create an atmosphere that is friendly and pleasant. The color is unique in so many ways. 

Trendy color chartreuse

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Unusual, bright and life-affirming color chartreuse is an advantageous mixture of yellow and green shades in one bottle, it is called the color of green apple, lime or even bright mustard.

Chartreuse (from the French "chartreuse") - comes from the name of the liqueur of the same name, the famous "Elixir of Life". It is called the color of youth, beauty and spring, fresh greenery, the first dandelions and foliage, clothes decorated with this color are literally saturated with attractive energy, it is able to fill the image of a woman, make her noticeable.

By the way, this unique effect is often used by advertisers in their work, because it acts like a bait on a person, attracting the eye and attention, and, therefore, you won’t be able to not cast a glance and even, perhaps, not be interested in such advertising . By the way, the fashionable color of chartreuse is considered a very insidious shade.

Experts say that the perception of human eyes is built in such a way that they are able to "distinguish" only three primary colors: red, blue and green. But the brain is not able to “distinguish” colors, in fact, it only receives information like: “darker” or “lighter”.

The Chartreuse color is unique because its brain receptors are able to see and even “distinguish” from others much faster and better. Perhaps this is where its special attraction lies.

Contents

Color history

Not every color has such an interesting story, but Chartreuse stood out here too. It is believed that for its existence it is necessary to say "thank you" to the Carthusian monks. According to legend, at the beginning of the 17th century, Marshal Francois D’Etré delivered a certain manuscript to the monastery, which contained a recipe for a real elixir of youth.

For a long time it fell into oblivion, and only a century later, thanks to the capable and inquisitive pharmacist Jerome Maubek, the tincture was born, and later began to be constantly made by Carthusian monks and sold for big money, like an elixir that saves from many ailments.

The elixir was called "Chartreuse" and had the same greenish color, its recipe was kept secret for a long time and passed from one generation of monks to another. In 1834, a yellowish Chartreuse was born, it was somewhat weaker and sweeter than green, however, this did not lose its properties.

As a result, the liquor became so popular and loved that they began to talk about it all over the world, and another fashionable color name, Chartreuse, gradually began to enter the use of the most famous fashion houses. Like liquor, the color assumes two main shades - green and yellow, already, starting from them, it can vary, be more saturated or muted, bright and even "electric".

Fashion trend of the season

Did you know that trendy Chartreuse is another highlight of the season, because, according to designers, it is he who, like no other, is able to charge you with spring energy and good mood.

As a confirmation, it was used in the spring-summer collections of many famous designers: somewhere as a dominant shade, and somewhere as a soft reminder in the form of accessories or a cheerful print. In the coming season, skirts, blouses and chartreuse dresses will be especially relevant, and for very young fashionistas, designers even offered yellow-green tights.

How to combine clothes of this color?

Chartreuse is a complex and multifaceted color, as you probably could see in the photo, it's not easy to figure out what to combine it with, because by its nature it is very rich and eye-catching. For those who do not dare to wear a Chartreuse dress or skirt, designers offer to choose models in which a fashionable shade is present in the form of details or a pattern.

Keep in mind that different shades will go with your look in different ways, for example, the more subdued Chartreuse options are great for creating a base, and are also ideal for ladies with red and golden hair. Brighter tones favorably emphasize the beauty of brown-haired women and women with light brown hair.

As for the color range, here, again, everything depends on the base shade. For example, a muted calm chartreuse, which is closer to shades of green, goes well with brown and natural green tones, its combination with beige shades will look soft and gentle. If you prefer a more vibrant color scheme, then you can try bold combinations of chartreuse with shades of blue, cyan, coral and yellow.

More yellow and bright shades of this color are cold, and therefore go well with the same cold colors: dark blue, white, lilac, purple, khaki. In general, given that it is Chartreuse that is one of the most fashionable colors of clothing for the coming season, in fact, it will look harmoniously with any current palette.

What color is the chartreuse?

Author Gleb Zakharov Reading 2 min. Views 127

Contents

  1. This yellow-green hue gives a sense of growth in the design
  2. History of Chartreuse
  3. Using Chartreuse in Design Files
  4. Selecting Pantone colors closest to Chartreuse

The color font is halfway between yellow and green. Some shades of greenish yellow have been described as apple green, light green, light green, light green with a hint of yellow, and ripe yellow.

Chartreuse is a combination of warm and cool colors. Green shades of greenish yellow have a fresh spring feel and can be a little retro 60s. The more yellow greenish yellow is a cheerful color, but its warmth is tempered by bits of green.

Chartreuse is reassuring and refreshing. Like most greens, it is soothing, and as a bright light green, greenish yellow, it represents new life and growth.

History of chartreuse


Chartreuse is the name and color of a liqueur that has been made by Carthusian monks since the 1600s. The name comes from the Chartreuse mountains, where the monastery of Grande Chartreuse is located, in Grenoble, France.

There are two different varieties of Chartreuse liqueur: yellow and green. Both are made from herbs and plants that are soaked in alcohol.

Using Chartreuse in design files


When planning a design project that will go to a commercial print shop, use CMYK wording to use in charts in page layout software, or choose a Pantone spot color. For display on a computer monitor, use RGB values. Use hexadecimal notation when working with HTML, CSS, and SVG. Chartreuse shades are best achieved with the following: