COLOUR CONFIDENCE WITH NEUTRALS
Calming neutrals
From fresh white to charcoal black, and the nuances of creams, taupes, beiges and greys in between, neutral interiors are a staple of a beautiful, calm and elegant home. The key to keeping a neutral scheme interesting is to layer textures and details to create a well-considered, carefully curated room that is full of character, if not colour.
Though the rest of this colour series has looked at being confident with bolder hues, using neutrals successfully requires a confidence of its own, for instance knowing how to balance dark and light, rich and pale, finding the right base tones and perhaps introducing small accents of more powerful colours. Neutrals are versatile and work well in any room of the house. They can be sleek and chic for a townhouse, pared-back and rustic for a modern country home and pretty and comforting in a period cottage, making them one of the most loved ‘colour’ choices.
DEFINING TERMS
A popular way to describe neutrals is as cool or warm, which can work to a certain extent. Kelly Hoppen, who advocates a neutral palette in her design aesthetic, prefers to break the palette into “sands and taupes”. In her book
, Hoppen explains the differences between these
