Using Neutrals to Set Your Living Room Apart

Guest Post by Artistic Homeowner

Years ago, neutral was often synonymous with boring. But today, that is definitely not the case. 

In today's day and age of home decor, when everything seems to be bold and brightly colored, it can be refreshing to return to the basics of neutral colors. In this article, we will look at how to successfully use neutrals to bring harmony to your living room as well as set it apart with elegance that never goes out of style. 

By marrying a neutral color scheme with your furniture and decor choices, you have the freedom to mix and match sculptural furniture, found art, natural accents and more. Since you are not limited by the constraints of loud color, you have the freedom to decorate as you wish and make your living room truly one of a kind. With neutrals, you never have to worry about your room being over-done or busy. 

Consider the setting. If your space is small, you can go for over-sized furniture pieces like a sofa or ottoman. Not so with bright colors. Neutral tones will help the furniture to blend well and the room will feel decidedly cozy, never cramped.

A larger living room allows you to be more courageous with mixing your decor and furniture choices. The neutrals help soften the patterns, allowing them to complement, instead of compete with one another.

There are so many neutrals to choose from! Neutrals are definitely not a one note color story. You can blend beautiful neutral hues of ivory, grey, khaki, lichen, and beige and create a warm and inviting space. 

Consider painting 3 walls in your living room a barely there shade of pale butter cream and accenting the 4th wall with a custom wall mural of a sepia vintage photo. 

Neutrals in nature. Infusing elements found in nature is a wonderful way to enhance a neutral living room. From a huge piece of driftwood doing double duty as a sculpture, to a large bowl of pine cones on the coffee table, to a collection of shells or weathered stones in hurricane lamps, neutrals straight from Mother nature bring an organic and harmonious element to the overall room theme.

You can extend this feeling of nature by adding decorative wicker baskets, rattan backed chairs, and a woven natural fiber area rug, such as sea grass, jute or hemp.

Using neutrals allows you to successfully blend design styles as well. With a neutral color palette as the anchor, you can make traditional pieces work well with contemporary pieces, or marry art deco design effortlessly with arts and crafts elements.

The happy ending- your living room looks glorious and makes a statement without trying too hard. That is the wonder and subtlety of using neutrals. 

Byline:

ArtisticHomeowner.com features several neutral wall murals perfect for your neutral living room. Or use a vintage photo to create a custom wall mural that is truly one of a kind.

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Images 1,2,&4 from my Pinterest account.
Image 3 from here