I love a neutral color palette. It creates a calming atmosphere in the home. What I love most about a neutral color palette is the versatility that it gives when decorating. You can change your accent colors every season if you want to. I do!
Here is a mood board that I created of a neutral room. I have changed out the accessories so that you can see how the look of the room can change.
Here I have created an entirely neutral color palette. Using furniture pieces that are light beige creates a soothing, clean looking space. The use of texture is very important when decorating a neutral room because otherwise it will look boring. Very boring. When you use texture, and your eyes travel around the room, it is visually interesting. Using textures such as soft, hard, bumpy, shiny, and smooth will give you a great looking room.
I love blue almost as much as I love neutrals. Here is the best of both worlds. Adding blue accents to the neutral furniture pieces creates an entirely different look. The use of dark blue accent colors creates a "cool" feeling in the room. Notice that I changed the area rug in this version, but you wouldn't have to. The jute rug pictured above would work just as well.
Look at how different this space seems with red added in! The overall feel of the room is warm and inviting. Can you see how a neutral room is so versatile? I changed the pillows and artwork in each space which totally changed the look of the room. The rugs were changed, but didn't have to be. You really can change the look and feel of your space for a small investment, quickly and easily. Keep this in mind if you are like me and like to change things all of the time. Or if you are just looking to mix things up every once and a while. Keeping your main furniture pieces neutral gives you unlimited decorating options.
Here are some more examples.
Poster Store UK
This neutral room has a laid back feel. There are several different textures that make the room interesting. It uses green as an accent color. You can easily imagine how different colors would work in this room to create a number of looks.
Sabina Brandanisio
This designer created a beautiful neutral living space. I can imagine removing the top rug and adding black and white accessories for a different neutral look. This room would also look great with jewel tones like blue or purple. Green accents would also be fun to blend with the colors of nature that you can see through the windows.
McGee & Co
Here is room that uses texture well. This room has touches of blue which create a cool, clean looking space. As an alternative, wouldn't it look great with rust tones to create a warmer look?
So there you have it. I hope that I have showed you how versatile starting with a neutral color palette can be. Neutral rooms are one of my favorite to design because there are so many options to change the look. A few small changes and careful use of color choices will give your space a different feel.