New trend: Neutrals with an edge

There are plenty of practical reasons to decorate with neutral colors. The shades we think of as neutral — whites, beiges, tans — don’t clash with anything. They are calm, soothing and never go out of style. There’s just one problem. “Beiges and neutrals,” says designer Brian Patrick Flynn, “can be super boring.”

To solve that dilemma, designers like Flynn have a simple trick for making an entirely neutral room feel as edgy and exciting as one filled with bold colors. Bring in the only neutral color that isn’t bland: Black.

Mixing in the right amount of black accents, print fabrics or furniture can make the white, beige or tan shades in a room look more interesting, putting them in the spotlight.

How much black is too much, and how do you make sure a room done in this color scheme really pops?

Here, Flynn, the founder of Flynnside Out Productions, and two other design experts — Seattlebased Brian Paquette and Betsy

fruit — there are no soloists,” writes Kimmerer. “Not one tree in a grove, but the whole grove; not one grove in the forest, but every grove; all across the county and all across the state. The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know.”

In the chapter titled “Asters and Goldenrods,” Kimmerer recounts a mo- ment in her freshman intake interview, when her adviser asked, ‘So, why do you want to major in botany?” Kimmerer was proud of the answer she had carefully prepared: “I chose botany because I wanted to learn about why asters and goldenrod look so beautiful together.”

The adviser gave her a withering look and said, “Young lady, that is not science.” And enrolled her in General Botany, promising that it would teach her what science was. It took Kimmerer years to understand that her freshman question was “bigger than science could touch.”

We now know that there is at least one reason behind the flowering synchronicity of asters and goldenrod. Purple and yellow are reciprocal colors. Growing together, their striking contrast makes them “the most attractive target in the whole meadow, a beacon for bees.”

It also turns out that the colors of these flowers “appear very similarly to bee eyes and human eyes. We both think they’re beautiful.” And why that is, or if it’s important, is something science doesn’t know yet.

There is so much to talk about in this book. If you read it, I hope you will let me know if it speaks to you.

BURNHAM DESIGN, GREY CRAWFORD This is a living room designed by Betsy Burnham, where carefully chosen pieces of black furniture and black accents bring out the beauty of the softer, neutral shades of white and tan.