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Room-inations: Design Advice, Tips & Interior Musings

The Neutral Zone

10/29/2018

6 Comments

 
Hi Everyone! Since my last few posts have been about colour and how to use it, I thought this time I’d give you a lesson in working with Neutrals and the Achromatic Colour Scheme. Neutral interiors seem to be the favourite of sooooo many people. They fill the pages of every Design Porn magazine; some Designers have made entire careers out of using only them; I heard your collective woohooery when you read it’d be today’s subject. I think there are two reasons why people love neutral interiors. 1) they’re very calming and harmonious and 2) they’re hard to screw up. While the former is true, the latter is a little trickier. So I thought I’d do another of my oh-so-popular “One Room, Two Looks” showing the same space done in Neutrals and using the Achromatic Grey Scale. Never let it be said I don’t give my audience what they want.


When working with Neutrals you’re not using any colour, only black, white, grey, brown, beige, tan, etcetera. What you need to understand is black, white, grey are “cool” colours and brown, beige, tan are “warm” colours. So when using them you want to have a balance of warm and cool because it’s not only more harmonious, our brain actually likes to see it. So here’s a Transitional Living/Dining Space to illustrate my point:
Picture

Room Design Created Using HOMESTYLER App

Here you can see that I’ve balanced the grey walls and white trim with some beige walls and warm woods in the flooring, case goods and rug. The browns and beiges are warm because they’re a broken hue derived from orange which is a warm colour. By mixing them with the greys, blacks and whites, they balance each other out. In addition, I’ve mixed the metals here (yes, you can) using brass and chromes together as they’re warm and cool, respectively. This room is very harmonious and this look is one so many want to have. You’ve seen it in a million Design magazines and it’s a look I get asked about a lot - I can’t lie, it kinda looks like my own parents’ house (Hi Mom & Dad). Now we’ll look at the same room in the Achromatic Colour Scheme.


Using the Achromatic Colour Scheme means you’re layering black, white and shades of grey as can be seen in the Achromatic Grey Scale:
Picture
So let’s have a look at the same room done using only black, white and greys. This is the scheme that’s trickier because, without the warm tones, how do you achieve that balance?? Let’s look:
Picture

Room Design Created Using HOMESTYLER App

So what you’ll notice here is while the room is still harmonious, it’s much more dramatic. This is because of the stark contrasts going on. The conflict of black and white gives this room a bit more edge. The other thing to notice is without the warmth of the brown tones the room feels colder and needs something else to warm it up. Cue the Heavy Metal. I achieved that by bringing in warm metallics only here in the accessories. I used golds, coppers and bronzes to achieve the temperature balance. Metallics don’t really have a hue. They take their cues from what’s around them. In all that achromatic surrounding they appear yellow, orange and brown - all warm hues. If you’re going to go with an Achromatic Colour Scheme like this one, you definitely need warm metals or your room will feel colder than a virgin on Prom Night.

So I hope this has given you some insight on navigating the Neutral Zone. It is a popular look and fairly easy to achieve if you follow the rules of design.

Be sure to check back with me for more posts. Also, feel free to leave comments on what you’ve read here or if there’s something you’d like to see a future blog posts about. And don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re looking for help with your home. Thanks for reading and striving to live the Well Designed Life.


Steve



6 Comments
Jill Robson
10/29/2018 02:44:12 pm

I prefer the first rendering, i found the second too dark for my taste and not as relaxing. I love how you use the images to convey your message, it helps to see how you could use it in your own home. You are doing a great job with your blogs.

Reply
Steve Ryan Designs
10/29/2018 08:16:33 pm

Hi Jill

Thanks so much. I also prefer the first rendering but funny enough, the app I use to create them has a community that can view and like them and the Second has gotten waaay more likes. Go figure

Steve

Reply
Emily Grundy
10/30/2018 09:24:36 am

Another winner winner chicken dinner! It’s so funny, this is something that we deal with on a daily basis in colour theory. You would think white is white is white but in reality, understanding undertone vs masstone and all of the tricky little things that affect the tonality of a colour are so important. Lighting, pairing cools and warms etc!! Great read, very informative!

Reply
Steve Ryan Designs
10/30/2018 01:27:25 pm

Hi Emily

Thanks so much, I’m glad you enjoyed this. You’re right. White is a very complex colour and you’ll be happy to know I already have plans for future posts about using whites and also how light affects colour

Thanks for reading
Steve

Reply
write my college paper link
1/3/2020 02:13:59 am

I believe that modern design has something to do with simple but striking ideas. I want to teach you for teaching us the right ideas about Neutrals and the Achromatic Colour Scheme. I know that there are still things that I need to learn, so I guess I need to learn more stuff about interior designing. If I will have my own house anytime soon, I would go with neutral and earthy colors too for my interior. I find a different kind of peace whenever I see neutral colors! By the way, I would love to learn more from you.

Reply
Homeia link
3/21/2021 09:06:10 am

The Neutral will be 2021 trend... Thanks for nice share about that..

Reply



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