One of the hottest ways to design your home is monochrome. Monochrome is using a single colour, or values of a single colour, in a piece of art or design. There are several benefits to designing in monochrome, including its simplicity.
One of the hottest ways to design your home is monochrome. Monochrome is using a single colour, or values of a single colour, in a piece of art or design. There are several benefits to designing in monochrome, including its simplicity. Monochrome design is closely wedded to minimalist style, where less is more. It’s much easier to design a room or a home with one main colour in mind than to coordinate many different colours that may contrast with each other. Plus, when using a single colour and its derivatives, any piece you want highlighted that’s in a different colour will dominate the room and draw the eye. Here are some tips to design your home in monochrome.
Start from the ground up
A good place to start when designing in monochrome is the floor. Once you’ve chosen your base colour, make the floor the darkest shade that you’re going to use. This will provide a good base for your colour scheme throughout the room. You can use carpet or flooring, but make sure that your floor covering of choice will match well with any paint or furniture pieces you have in mind. You can then go with a medium shade for the walls, and contrasting shades of lighter and darker on your furniture and accessories. Some designers will flip this by making the walls darker than the floors, and the effect can be beautiful, but be certain that you have a neutral colour scheme like tans and browns.
How does it feel?
Before choosing your colouring, decide what mood you want in your room. The colour and shading choices should reflect that mood. For instance, choosing a violet base with blues, whites, and greys can be soothing and calming to the eye, and might be appropriate for quiet space in the house. Bedrooms are often done in browns and tans, to give off a feeling of comfort and warmth. Yellows and light blues can evoke fun and joy so that they might be perfect for child’s bedroom or playroom. Think about colours you might choose, and try to figure out how they make you feel, and whether that feeling is appropriate for what you’re designing.
Print it
Monochrome certainly doesn’t have to be boring. There’s nothing wrong with adding in some pieces, like a throw pillow or window treatments that have prints and patterns with the lightest and darkest shades on them. Patterns can give a pop to that area of the room, so only go with such bold prints in spaces where you want the eye to go. If you use patterns in separate places, try not to have those patterns contrast, such as lines that are vertical in one spot and horizontal in the other. These clashing patterns can annoy and distract the eye.
Style and texture
Keeping the colour palette simple allows you to play with style choices that are more difficult when you’re trying to match several styles. For instance, you can turn any room into a rustic delight by purchasing furniture and accessories in any shade of the colour you’ve chosen. Even if it’s white, you can have distressed wooden furniture and white wicker baskets to give off ome country charm. No agonising at the furniture warehouse over whether a certain piece will match your décor. Playing with texture instead of colour is the key to making monochrome fun and exciting. Some of the concern around designing in monochrome is that the look will end up being too industrial and stale, but by adding in throw pillows and other softer elements like cushy rugs, monochrome can be soft and inviting as well.
In living colour
Using plant-life will also make a monochromatic room for appealing and pleasing to the eye. Find a plant that matches your colour, like lilies for a white scheme, or violets for…um…a violet scheme. You can also add some pizzazz to a black and white room by adding in a green or other boldly coloured plant. The eye will instantly be drawn to it and provide a nice break from the contrasting of the other two colours.
Perfect placement
Another way to create interest is through the placement of the shades of colour throughout the room. For instance, having a larger neutral white coloured large furnishing, like a bed with a white bedspread, for instance, can break up darker coloured bedside tables and dressers. This provides a break for the eye and a nice oasis in the middle of the room. If the bedspread also has borders that are coloured in the same shade as the other furniture, then that will only add to the visual appeal.
As mentioned before, monochrome doesn’t have to be boring. Using monochrome properly can make design simpler while still providing plenty of opportunities to play with different style. These tips should help get you on your way to beautifully designing in monochrome.
