HOME STYLE: Adding an accent color to a room

Our living room has transformed over the years.  Our most recent version is my favorite so far!  Here is how it did look, how it looks now, and what I have planned for the future!  I love how adding the pop of turquoise to the brown and orange made everything look so fresh and new.

BEFORE:

Looks okay, but LOTS of brown with that big couch, then with the addition of the brown chair, it just seems very two dimensional.  (Plus lots of clutter under the couch, see this post for that story)

IN PROGRESS:

The pops of color I started with - a thrifted plastic platter and an ottoman from Overstock.com

AFTER:

Adding color in pillows (homemade with fabric from Joann Fabrics).

 A view of the other side of the room, across the couch.  The red bench was from a former color scheme.  It almost works with the orange in the chairs and curtains only because of the wall hanging (from our trip to Nepal), but I always planned to recover it in a more neutral tone - maybe the taupe from the rug.  Now that we are moving, we will be selling this.  If I get a place where a bench fits again, I would rather find one with storage below it for our gear.  This feels wasteful since there is no storage but it takes a lot of space.

FUTURE PLANS:

I still plan to add more pops of turquoise.  For instance, in that photo wall grouping, I would like to paint the small frame on the lower left turquoise, to give that a pop of color.  Also, I need to recover the black and silver pillows currently on the right side of the couch.  They really don't add anything to this room, and are showing signs of wear.  I'm thinking something silvery or with some metallic shine, but we'll see what fabric I find.  The entertainment center also needs a bit of color, so I'm trying to figure out what to remove and what to add in that arrangement that has some color. I saw a beautiful turquoise vase at TJ Maxx for only $10, so I may swap out the black vase for that one, but then I want to find another spot for the black vase, as it is a treasured gift.  My preference is always to use items with meaning for the few purely decorative items we display, but sometimes that isn't always possible when you need a specific color.

What are your tips for adding color to a room?