In today’s post I’m sharing a question a reader sent in. Using my Neutral Colour Wheel, she distinguished that the reason why her paint colour didn’t match the sofa is because her walls were pink beige and the rest of her furnishings her designer chose was taupe. Now she’s looking at repainting her open layout to better coordinate.
And that all makes perfect sense. Except she’s making one of the most common decorating mistakes.
The familiar tale of mixing taupe and beige
Maria Killam Understanding Untertones Colour Wheel
Commit to colour constraints earlier than you think
This is where homeowners, and even designers, often miss the opportunity to create a beautiful room. Because they avoid making a colour commitment until it’s too late, and all the major pieces in the room: the paint, sofa, chairs, area rug, drapes, are all super plain, neutral and boring.
A few toss pillows as a “pop of colour” doesn’t carry the room.
So she reached out at the perfect time! Because here’s exactly now that she can take her room from “meh” to joy!
The tendency is to keep matching everything. Better if you know how to identify and match the neutral undertones in your room. But better again if you can recognize when you need to start committing to colour. It’s much sooner than you think!
An area rug is the ideal place to start. I put together this mood board below to illustrate how a rug that pulls in more blue would transform this room.
Read more: Why Embracing Decorating Limitations Will set You Free
I’m showing the walls in SW Upward , a cool muted blue that could absolutely run through her open layout as a much more fun and custom colour.
While it wouldn’t offer quite as much joy, she could certainly paint the walls taupe, this is the same combination with SW Kestral White, a pale taupe, on the walls:
But she absolutely needs to decorate!
Colour is timeless
Adding colour to your room, sooner and in larger doses than you might think is key to a timeless and elevated look. Pattern that pulls disparate colours together and creates interest is also a must. I teach how to do this confidently in my colour training. Both the training for homeowners and for designers and aspiring colour experts.
Plus a room needs personalizing details. The gallery wall is a major element in my mood boards, pulling in more colour and interest. A gallery wall like this is ideal for a smallish fireplace on a large wall. Or, in this case, on a big blank wall behind the sofa, with the statement mirror over the fireplace.
In my True Colour Insider community, members have access to my How to Create Mood Boards course. It’s included in basic membership! They are busy creating mood boards and getting feedback and suggestions from their new community! You can join here.
And very soon I’ll be launching my How to Create a Gallery Wall Module of Styling School! Currently also available inside the community 💛
If you’d like to know what paint colours I would suggest for your room or open layout, check out my eDesign paint packages here!
If you have a question for my Ask Maria column, clean up your room, take good photos in good natural light and email them here with your question.
Related posts:
What Everyone Should Know About Taupe
Ask Maria: Now That I have your Colour Wheel, Does Everything Have to be Neutral?
Ask Maria; My Paint Colour is X What Colours Work with it?
Great post Maria! What about the ceiling in this room? Is a white the right color?
This was a great teaching lesson for all of us Maria! And a confirmation for me that what I learned in your class really “stuck” and I was able to pull out all the issues I saw before reading your post. You are a joy!
Hooray thanks Linda! Maria
It seems this may be an open floor plan that will segue into the kitchen. At a minimum, the front hallway (two story) and whatever’s around the corner are connected. A neutral taupe (second option) might be best to accommodate this. I do love the rug and the idea of floating the sofa away from the window to create better flow.
Maria – color was definitely needed .
The blue just brought it to life .
Was wondering if green would look good ?
Living green but doesn’t mean it always works .
Thanks for all the inspiration .
Yes it would but we went with blue because she had blue pillows. Maria
Thank you Susan for generously sharing your decorating dilemma. In my opinion, the first issue is not decorating, but design.
Susan needed a furniture floor plan. This would show how the the size of the furniture, it’s placement and the number of pieces
could fit in the room allowing for the home residents to live in and move through the room in comfort.
Susan, thank you for sharing your lovely home with us. I wish you well as you continue to refine it. Maria, your mood boards are wonderful! I especially love the one with the blue walls, if that would work with whatever else is happening in Susan’s home. Great suggestions for furniture placement also! I love that pic with the gallery walls on either side of the fireplace. When I click the link below (Source), it just takes me to Pinterest with a link back to this blog post. Just FYI :]
Hello Maria,
What confuses me is that if her walls are pink beige, and her sofa is taupe, it should work, according to your system: Pink Beige works with “green beige, green grey, blue grey, violet grey, and taupe, ” and taupe works with “all neutral undertones.” I think the yellow fireplace surround and lamp are part of the problem. But other that that, does the system not work all the time? This is concerning when buying large pieces of furniture. I am not a true colour expert, just an avid reader of your blogs and publications.