All puns about a certain book-to-movie aside, gray’s many shades make it a wonderful “color” to decorate a home. It’s a neutral shade, which means it goes well with any other colors going on in a room. It’s also a contemporary color trending now in the design world.
Gray can make a strong anchor color for a room. If you select a gray fabric for your main living room upholstery and a gray rug, you won’t have too much trouble matching pillows, rugs, lamps, throws and other pieces of furniture to this “blank canvas” – you could even add more grays, like left’s pillow with its bold pattern. Should you feel the desire to add more color, simply swap a few pieces out for the new color you’re in the mood for. This swapping is harder to do when anchoring upholstery, a main rug or wall color in royal blue or bright yellow, for example.
A big upside to gray is it is easy to find, and almost all of its shades naturally match well together. Dark grays and light grays go well with other shades, including metallic silvers, mirrors, white and black. In the above photo, you can see how nicely the gray chairs and darker gray-and-white pillows look lovely with clear vases, white flowers, and a mirrored table with black trim.
Instead of mix-and-matching colors in your pillows, play with different shades and textures of grays. Above, a central pillow pulls together the cooler and warmer grays in its flanking pillows. The soft texture of the medium-gray throw, chunky white fringe and light gray sofa add more gray texture layers to the sofa vignette.
Gray and metals can add an interesting element to a room that would otherwise just be white. A metal storage bin, a gray-and-white throw and a darker gray pillow tie make this office vignette more eye-catching.
Image via Pantone
Pro tip: Not all grays are created equally. As we said earlier, there are warm grays and cool grays, which have yellow, blue, purple or green undertones. This may not matter when mixing gray home accessories, but gray’s warm and cool tones should be considered when picking rugs, wall color and upholstery.
All images (c) The Kellogg Collection unless otherwise stated
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