A term you have often heard me use here is “pop.” By that, I mean you add something to the design of the room or bring a certain color out so the room is not so bland. This can be done with something on a table, a lamp, accent pillows, or even a bowl of fruit on the table to pull out a particular color.
I can use a room in my house as an example of this. I like a combination of country with modern, so my house has aspects of the farmhouse look but is still very modern. So, most of the furnishings are gray and black. Obviously, if the whole house looked that way, it would be very bland, so I have used blues and reds to add “pop” to different rooms.
In my living room, I have gray wood round table. On that table, I have three black, red, and white vases, with one lying on its side, and two of them standing tall with red flowers. I also have paintings on the wall that are black and white photos save red leaves in a waterfall picture and a red bench and tree in a country landscape. The red on the table makes the red in the canvases pop, and it draws everyone’s attention when they walk into the room.
My bedroom set is also gray, but I have abstract blue artwork and use blue striped sheets to break up the room. The artwork pulls the blue from the sheets to give the room some color pop.
A table lamp or shade is also a great way to add that pop. Let’s say you have a red accent wall behind a white framed bed and white bedroom furniture. A lamp with a red shade would create that pop we are looking for in the room. If there is no accent wall, consider a pinstripe in the sheets or a color that is in the carpet.
Vases, decorative objects, and, as I noted above, flowers or fruit can be used to add that little pop to the room. If your bathroom is all white, consider a black vase with red flowers to break it up. Maybe a painting of bluebonnets, or a series of vases that can be filled with potpourri.
One final tip I will give you is something that far too many people do not make use of. If you have a glass-front cabinet or bookcase in the home, consider painting the back of the case to add some color pop to the room. Rather than just having that white backdrop to a white cabinet. If you don’t want to paint the back of the cabinet, consider doing the front of each shelf with an accent color to bring something else out in the room.
Again, the best way for me to explain this is in choosing a tie or pocket square for a suit. When you want that suit to pop, you choose a tie or pocket square that pulls out the pinstripe or a different color thread that is almost unnoticeable in the suit. All of a sudden, that color becomes more prominent because the accessory pulls it out, which is what we mean by “pop.”
Have some fun with this because as long as you like it, it works.