DECORATING | ROOMS & GARDENS | WORLD OF CABANA

 Going Green: A colour with a long memory and an even longer reach, scroll on for some serious interior inspiration with green-hued rooms that demonstrate the color’s persistent hold on the decorative imagination. Discover some of our favorite interior interpretations from the World of Cabana and beyond.

WORDS BY EMMA BECQUE | ROOMS & GARDENS | 24 FEBRUARY 2026

The Interiors and Architecture of Renzo Mongiardino: A Painterly Vision, by Martina Mondadori Sartogo and the editors of Cabana, Photography © Guido Taroni, Rizzoli.

Green has occupied interiors for millennia, appearing first in pigments ground from minerals such as malachite and later in the wallpapers, velvets, and painted panelling of European rooms. It has signalled fertility, status, and retreat in equal measure, turning up in medieval painting, Victorian decoration, and in canonical interiors like William Morris’s Green Dining Room at the V&A, where dense ornament and deep color form a single decorative argument. Even its more hazardous incarnations, including arsenic-laden 19th-century dyes and the avocado kitchens of the 1970s, failed to loosen its grip.

Decorators return to it for range rather than novelty, from olive and bottle to celadon and moss. Green absorbs light, steadies ornament, and shifts the atmosphere of a room with minimal intervention, which may explain its persistence across centuries of taste and revival. Read on for a curated selection of Cabana's favourite green rooms.

A Glossy Green Bathroom on Shelter Island

Lacquered green walls wrap the powder room inside Alfredo Paredes’ Victorian cottage in Dering Harbor. Image from Alfredo Paredes At Home, published by Rizzoli.

Alfredo Paredes, former Chief Creative Officer at Ralph Lauren, is “drawn to homes where things have been allowed to age in place". Throughout his home on Shelter Island, he layered shades of green drawn from the surrounding trees, grass, and porch awnings. 

A Medieval Green Kitchen in Tuscany

The green kitchen at Castello di Castagneto Carducci © Antonio Monfreda, Cabana N12

This atmospheric green kitchen in the Tuscan Province of Livorno lies within a medieval castle, Castello di Castagneto Carducci. Built by Italy's della Gherardesca family, it remains within the family and has been extensively refurbished over 20 years by the late art consultant and designer, Manfredi della Gherardesca.

A Seagrass Scheme in Charleston 

The avocado green dining room, wrapped in Philip Jeffries grass cloth is the perfect stage for Nancy's Milton Avery (1885 - 1965) painting © Julia Lynn. 

Clients who arrived requesting neutrality left with a Phillip Jeffries grasscloth dining room in this 1749 Charleston house. Interior designer Angie Hranowsky’s response to their evolving taste and the demands of a multigenerational household proves that even small spaces can be efficient and characterful.

A Serene Green Bedroom in London

The primary bedroom in Cox London Founder's Chris and Nicola Cox's North London home, featuring their Polypore chandelier © Inge Clemente.

In the North London home of Chris and Nicola Cox, founders of Cox London, a bedroom washed in mottled green centres on a studio-made wrought-iron daybed beneath a sculptural Venetian glass-leaf ceiling light, completing the nature-led scheme.

A Green-Fingered Garden Room in London

An earthy green scheme in London by Rose Uniacke © Simon Upton.

Aptly dubbed the ‘Queen of Serene’, Rose Uniacke’s refined, quiet approach to interiors extends to garden rooms too. In this restful space in an 1805 Georgian Townhouse in south London, Rose has used a warm, earthy toned green - 'Moor', from her own paint collection - to reflect the gardens and park on which the property overlooks.

A Nature-Inspired Dining Room in Belgium

Amelie de Belder's custom-fitted green dining room © Miguel Flores-Vianna.

Amelie de Belder's beautiful estate in Antwerp may adhere to the best of Belgian minimalism, but the art historian's love of colour shines through in her sea-green dining room. Here, a commanding centrepiece: a custom-fitted green library acquired from Axel Vervoordt's TEFAF stand. "The shade is so unique; it brings such depth," she reflects. The walls sing with Thierry Bosquet's hand-painted panels depicting the four seasons. 

A Green Room at Château de Montigny-sur-Aube

Panelled walls painted a saturated emerald frame a vignette of silver and gilt in antiques dealer Andrew Allfree’s 15th-century Normandy home. © Cabana N5. 

This spectacular shade of green originally featured in Cabana Issue 5, guest-edited by Alessandro Michele, whose fascination with historic interiors shaped the issue’s exploration of decorative rooms rich in atmosphere and patina.

The Green Velvet Shell Bed at Houghton Hall

The Shell Bed at Houghton Hall is draped in green velvet © Ashley Hicks.

Houghton Hall, built in the 1720s by Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, is a masterpiece of Palladian architecture tucked away in rural North Norfolk, England. The William Kent interiors are renowned for their grandeur and attention to detail, exemplified by the spectacular shell bed with green velvet hangings. 

Bunny Mellon's Green Garden Room

A light-filled garden room at Bunny Mellon's home © The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, Vendome.

Over the course of her career, philanthropist and art collector, Bunny Mellon, became one of the most influential landscape designers of her time, famously redesigning the White House Rose Garden under the patronage of President John F. Kennedy. Her garden room benefits from a gloriously calm shade of green across its elegant cabinetry.

A Hand-Painted Green Stencil in Belgium

A stencilled green border makes a striking backdrop for Johan Van Dijck and Kaat Van Doren's Suzani textiles and foraged finds © Isabel Bronts.

In their 16th-century guild house in Mechelen, Belgium, antique dealer Johan Van Dijck and artist Kaat Van Doren have crafted an exceptional house where colour takes centre stage. This show-stopping green arch is a simple, yet highly effective, touch.

An Umbrian Farmhouse designed by Retrouvius

Photographed by Theo Tennant © Rizzoli International Publications

In this bedroom in Umbria, Maria Speake, co-founder of Retrouvius, chose a deep earthy green that complements the timber beams and rustic, pared back charm of the farmhouse, parts of which date as far back as the 16th century. 

A Green Library in the English countryside

A library in ‘Bancha’ by Farrow & Ball, designed by Rebecca Hughes © Astrid Templier. 

British designer Rebecca Hughes has transformed a modest family home on England's south coast into an expanded, joyful space layered with rich colors, playful patterns and antique finds. The library is given a sophisticated, timeless scheme, which also feels contemporary, courtesy of a deep rich green: Farrow and Ball's Bancha.

The Dutch Room at Buscot Park

Green silk damask specially woven for The Dutch Room at Buscot Park, coloured to appear as though it had always belonged to the house. Photograph © James McDonald.

London-based decorator, Alidad, commissioned silken green fabric from an antique design, its tone calibrated so the walls feel authentic rather than newly dressed.