Erica Gelman: Every room starts off with a blank slate

Our natural landscape is our best resource when it comes to inspiration, especially with colour. Neutrals are often considered exclusively to be white, grey, cream, brown, and even black, but there are other hues nature offers, and it’s time to incorporate them back into our spaces.

While decorating with neutrals can be a very chic approach to design, you also need to make sure you don’t create a room that feels bland or boring. What if neutral colours didn’t have that boring connotation attached to them? What if neutral colours weren’t just shades of cream and grey? Can you extend neutrals into other colours? The answer is yes, because a neutral colour helps to balance and create harmony with dominant hues.

As the season changes and we transition into fall, you may begin planning your next design or decorating project. The season may have you excited about warming up your surroundings and introducing a cosier feel to your home. This is a great opportunity to take direction from the outdoors and integrate it into your space. Consider combining the core essence of blue skies, the depth and vibrancy of sapphire water and the saturation of green grass. Use any of these hues as your base and build an entire scheme around it. This type of neutral will elevate your design esthetic to a much more current approach. Contrasting these colours with complementary textures, fabrics and patterns will keep a room feeling dynamic. We like to introduce small pops of colour in artwork and accessories with various shades of a similar colour throughout a room. Blues and greens can complement any cool or warm tone, therefore pairing them with other hues is a simple task.

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Repetition is the key to consistency. Why limit yourself to only one shade of any particular colour? Layer and introduce variations of textiles to produce a distinctively coloured effect. Blue and green are classics and can be reworked to fit into any space. If it’s refined elegance you are going for, muting these hues will provide a level of sophistication typically brought forth by common neutrals. However, if it’s a vivacious or contemporary design, then introduce high contrast and unexpected jolts of bold colour. Think emerald green and midnight blue, mixed with a simple shade of grey, and you have a formula that’s inspired by nature’s own colour palette.

Every space is different and each room varies in requirements, however, keeping a strong colour story will reinforce your design direction.

When beginning to tackle any decorating or design project, always start with a plan, and build a clear concept of where you want to take your vision.

www.ericagelman.com