Use sage to create tranquility.

Morrison says she chooses silvery greens when she wants to create “a sense of calm,” making it a great color for bathrooms and bedrooms. For the greatest calming impact, use it on the wall, which Morrison says creates an “enveloping” feeling.

Employ it in your workspace to boost creativity.

An old wives’ tale says that if you plant sage in your garden and it thrives, you will do well in business. Modern research suggests that if you surround yourself with the color, your business might thrive. A 2012 study in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin showed that subjects’ performance improved when they glimpsed green before a creative task, and another study showed that business students who completed a task on green paper demonstrated increased visual creativity. Choose a greener-leaning sage to boost this possible effect.

If blue is your go-to, consider sage green.

“For a lot of people, there is an instant comfort working with blues,” says New York–based interior designer Emily Butler. However, Butler says that can often lead to what she calls “bluetral.” To vary the palette, she tries to steer people toward colors that play well with blue, such as sage green.

Swap in subtle sages for white.

Decorators will often suggest that a pale color can be treated like a neutral, but this is especially true for pale, sage greens. The lightest shades of sage can be a nice alternative to white, especially in a space that looks out onto a view of trees, foliage plants, or grass.

Warm it up.

Sage is by its nature a cool tone. Morrison suggests pairing it with warmer shades of white and ivory. “It’s too jarring when you do a cool true white, it stops the earthy nature of the sage,” she says. For a bolder way to add warmth and brightness, try pairing gray-greens with a muted yellow, but avoid anything too bright, she cautions.

Borrow Mother Nature’s palette.

Sage pairs well with a range of purples because the two colors are natural companions. When sage plants flower their blossoms are a lavender hue (many other culinary herbs also have purple blooms). There is even a variety of “tricolor” sage that has pale green, cream, and purple leaves that can be quite vibrant with a red undertone.

Work with woods.

Pair sage greens with wood tones for an all-natural effect. Greens work with almost any wood tone because they are found together in nature, but pay attention to how many woods you are using in a room. You don’t want a hodge-podge of different woods. If you’re mixing woods, try to use each type at least twice for a pulled-together look.

Try it monochromatically.

“Sage green can easily be used monochromatically,” says Butler, who suggests you might play up various textures and tones, rather than adding in additional colors. So you might start with a pale, gray-green wall color, opt for a deep sage upholstery, and choose a drapery fabric that includes herbal greens.

Play with textiles.

If you’re not ready to commit to a sage green wall color or even a major piece of furniture, start with textiles, say the experts. Morrison likes to use sage in both bedding and drapery, and Butler suggests the color for linen or velvet upholstery, which “are a beautiful way to add rich texture to a space,” she says. “A lush cotton velvet could elevate a space with a little bit of plush elegance, while a casual linen could suggest a relaxed luxury.