You love the idea of a highly colored house, but a blue-colored entire room or a highly colored sofa is skin-crawling. Not many fear taking such an extreme decision in furnishing, fearing costly blunders or going overboard in one place. The better news is that you don’t have to always plunge headlong into extreme decisions at first. Slowing down to test with color builds confidence step by step and brings your space back to glory. Test a little, test frequently, and learn that adding color is less scary than you think.
Begin with Teeny Décor that’s Easy to Change
The simplest method to use color without being committed long-term is with something that you can switch out at any time. Pillows are your best option here; cheap, replaceable, and allow you to play with color combinations without worrying. Limit your accent colors to no more than two and balance them with neutral colors to prevent the room from feeling overdone.
Throws, plates, and artwork are multimorphic. Have a coral throw blanket over your beige sofa, or pile shelves with bold ceramics. Make it sophisticated without paint or expensive buy. If you’re not satisfied within a few weeks, you can return it for a replacement.
Things to include:
- Pillows and throws are cheaper than furniture and paint
- Mixing accent color and neutral color balances
- Exchange accessories each year to try new color combinations
Tip: Get inspiration from current artwork or content in your environment. It helps achieve balance and gives the impression that your color choice is well planned, not random.
Read More: How to Create an Entryway That Feels Like a Hug
Try Accent Walls in Painted Rooms Before
Accent walls are the style of color minus the mortgage. Paint a single wall, typically the room’s focal point, such as the wall behind your bed, sofa, or entrance, and keep the other walls neutral. So, you enjoy the drama of color without the expense or visual impact of painting an entire room.
Paint the wall facing your sofa a deep sage green, and save the other three for a warm white. Green is a beautiful backdrop for furniture and art without overwhelming a room. If you find that, within a few months, it overwhelms a room too much, repainting one wall is less work than repainting four.
Include supply try peel-and-stick removable wallpaper for ultimate flexibility. Its new models feature beautiful patterns and colors, are simple to hang, and easy to remove when change comes knocking on the door. It’s best for renters or conservative decorators who aren’t quite ready to make the leap yet.
Style trick: Use graphic accent walls with neutral pieces and low-key accessories so that your graphic wall can be the star of the show without distracting elements.
Read More: The Best Paint Colors to Brighten Dark Hallways
Layer Neutrals With Strategic Color Pops
Layered neutrals offer a clever starting point that welcomes the play of color. Start with paint, flooring, and investment pieces in beige, gray, white, or greige. These timeless foundations enable you to stack and swap out accent colors without leaping into fright or replacing entirely.
Once you’ve got your neutral backdrop in place, introduce color with thoughtful pops—painted interior doorways, a graphic area rug, or splashed kitchen stools. These mid-priced items bring more oomph than pillows but don’t require you to undertake whole-room makeovers when they need refreshing. Now that the neutral backdrop is done, you can confidently know that whatever color you’re selecting will go along just as well.
This technique will be just as effective for you years from now. Your expensive beige sofa can be highlighted with whatever color of your design years from now, from yesterday’s terra cotta to next year’s. You are not limited to a permanent color scheme.
Color decorating is not about going crazy with boldness on day one. Begin with confidence builders, such as reversible pillows and throws. Toe-dip first with accent walls before committing to a full room’s worth of paint, and sprinkle pops of color on neutral territory. Every step has you recalling what colors you simply love to live with, as opposed to what looked wonderful in a magazine.
Ready to bring some personality to your space? Pick something today, like your blue pillows you’ve been wanting. Something like that, and your confidence will increase with every fearless ad.
Read More: 5 Flooring Trends That Are Timeless — and 3 to Avoid
