THE WASHINGTON POST – Chanel Boeve-Roth was browsing an estate sale near her home in North Bend, Washington, when she spotted some emerald, hanging lights and a celery-hued chair in the shape of a hand. The combination sparked the entire vision for her front room.
“I just knew, after seeing them, that I wanted that whole space to be cohesive and green,” she said. The result “is a place where I’ll make a drink, sit down and just relax after work”.
Colour trends come and go. Each year, Pantone releases its colour of the year (2023’s is magenta), and design experts hail one shade or another as “the new neutral”.
But going all in on a monochrome palette, for no reason other than you love it, can simplify the design process while creating drama and a specific mood.
In a world of all-white kitchens and endless shades of gray, here’s how to embrace your favourite colour with abandon.
LET STATEMENT PIECES LEAD THE WAY
Boeve-Roth, a self-proclaimed “maximalist” who often shares photos of her home on Instagram, loves decorating rooms in only one colour.
Her living room features an orange couch and retro orange decor, and she’s in the process of redoing her bedroom in all red.
In each case, the colour scheme was determined somewhat by happenstance: After finding a vintage statement piece that caught her eye, she decided to let it dictate the rest of the room.
The same estate sale with the green treasures yielded the orange lamp that was the starting point for Boeve-Roth’s living room. It’s a nostalgic colour for her, reminding her of her grandparent’s home.
“I love collecting things and the idea of filling a space with things that make you happy,” she said.
She took her time hunting for other thrifted items to fill out each room, often for bargain prices. A painting of a field in her front room was a USD10 score.
CONSIDER THE COLOURS YOU LIKE TO WEAR
Interior designer Annie Lowengart begins her projects by giving clients detailed questionnaires to learn about their preferences, including clothing styles.
Often, the results steer them toward a colour that she digs into for a particular room.
For one client, Lowengart did an all-pink library. They came to the idea after discussing the client’s fashion choices.
“She has a beautiful wardrobe,” Lowengart said. “I’ve seen her in a lot of formal events. She’s worn Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta, and she really loves pink.”
To use your wardrobe to guide your decor, Lowengart advised thinking beyond the colours you wear most often, since, for many people, those may be black and neutrals. Instead, consider which pieces “light you up”, she said.
Maybe you gravitate toward turquoise accessories, or a purple scarf. Then consider that colour in the context of the room.
If a bright purple living room seems too loud, perhaps a more muted version – such as lavender or mauve – could work instead.
VARY TEXTURES AND TONES
Varying textures and different tones of the same colour helps break up a monochrome aesthetic, said designer and editor in chief of the design blog the Octopian Jonathan Lo.
“Otherwise, you run the risk of it becoming super matchy-matchy.”
A good approach, he said, is to start with a neutral base and slowly add in colour.
“I started with a blank slate of warm white walls, then added the big furniture pieces, keeping them in wood tones and upholstery in whites and creams,” he said, describing an orange guest room in his home.
“I added the colour as accents.”
He also mixed in analogous colours (those next to each other on the colour wheel), which, in the case of orange, meant reds and yellows.
Layering textures keeps your eye moving in the space and adds depth to a room, he said.
“Different surfaces reflect light differently, so having both matte and glossy textures will help prevent the room from feeling flat.”
Lowengart said that with monochromatic rooms, she adapted the principles of classic colour theory.
“Sixty per cent of a given room will be one colour, 30 per cent is a secondary colour, and that last 10 per cent is a third colour,” she said.
“We could use very different colours in that mix, but we also could use different shades of the same colour. That’s a great way to balance the space because it feels grounded in something.”
Killam Colour System founder Maria Killam said a monochromatic room is easier to pull off with blues and greens, possibly because they both appear so often in nature. With other colours – say, purple – she said it’s more important to choose shades with the same undertone.
Another consideration: Ensuring that “clean” colours (which Killam defines as “bright and fresh”), aren’t clashing with “dirty” colours (which is just her term for colours that are “muted and earthy”).
In a monochromatic red room, for instance, candy apple red (a clean colour), would not look great with burgundy (a dirty one), she said.
GO GLOSSY WITH DARK PAINT
The key to coating a room in a bold colour, said Lowengart, is to use a high-gloss enamel paint, such as Hollandlac Brilliant 98.
She bedecked a library in Los Altos, California, in rich blues, which appear in the paint colour, the drapery and the sofas that she had reupholstered in an indigo fabric.
Against the monochrome palette, dozens of books, organised by colour, stand out.
For the library’s walls, the painter on the project mixed a small amount of the Hollandlac Brilliant with Gentleman’s Gray by Benjamin Moore (a bit of a misnomer, as the hue is described as a “blackened teal blue”).
“With saturated colours, what I’ve found over and over again is that you can go as dark and intense as you like if you add high gloss,” Lowengart said. “It gives it a vibrancy, so it feels very upbeat, even if it’s a really dark colour.”
LET THE COLOUR PALETTE EVOLVE
Sometimes, a more focused palette emerges over time. When Lo began decorating his guest room, he felt inspired by Hawaii.
“The original idea was to create a sort of retreat vibe, and bring a bit of tropical flair to the suburbs,” he said. One of the first pieces he bought for the room was a white couch.
“I had a hard time finding a colour palette in the beginning,” he said.
He’d seen an image of a mid-century space filled with pillows of all colours and wanted to emulate the look.
“I thought, if I kept the couch neutral, I could get away with using all the colours that I wanted. But then over the years, I started swapping stuff, and it started to take on more orange, warm tones.”
He painted an accent wall bright orange, then later toned it down to a softer coral.
The many throw pillows were picked up one-by-one from different sources. – Annie Midori Atherton
