MONOCHROME
VARY TEXTURES AND TONES
Varying textures and different tones of the same color helps break up a monochrome aesthetic, says Jonathan Lo, a designer and editor in chief of the design blog the Octopian. “Otherwise, you run the risk of it becoming super matchy-matchy.”
A good approach, he says, is to start with a neutral base and slowly add in color. “I started with a blank slate of warm white walls, then added the big furniture pieces, keeping them in wood tones and upholstery in whites and creams,” he says, describing what eventually turned into an orange guest room in his Irvine, Calif., home. “Finally, I added the color as accents.” He also mixed in analogous colors (those that are next to each other on the color wheel), which, in the case of orange, meant reds and yellows.
Layering textures keeps your eye moving in the space and adds depth to a room, he says. “Different surfaces reflect light differently, so having both matte and glossy textures will help prevent the room from feeling flat.”
Lowengart says that with monochromatic rooms, she adapts the principles of classic color theory. “Sixty percent of a given room will be one color, 30 percent is a secondary color, and that last 10 percent is a third color,” she says. “We could use very different colors in that mix, but we also could use different shades of the same color. That’s a great way to balance the space because it feels grounded in something.”
Maria Killam, founder of the Killam Colour System, says a monochromatic room is easier to pull off with blues and greens, possibly because they both appear so often in nature. With other colors – say, purple – she says it’s more important to choose shades with the same undertone.
Another consideration: Ensuring that “clean” colors (which Killam defines as “bright and fresh”) aren’t clashing with “dirty” colors (which, despite the negative-sounding connotation, is just how she describes colors that are
“muted and earthy”). In a monochromatic red room, for instance, candy apple red (a clean color), would not look great with burgundy (a dirty one), she says.
GO GLOSSY WITH DARK PAINT
The key to coating a room in a bold color, says Lowengart, is to use a highgloss enamel paint, such as Hollandlac Brilliant 98.
She bedecked a library in Los Altos, Calif., in rich blues, which appear in the paint color, the ZAK+FOX drapery and the sofas by Jonathan Adler that she had reupholstered in an indigo fabric from Cowtan & Tout. Against the monochrome palette, dozens of books, organized by color, stand out.
For the library’s walls, the painter mixed a small amount of the Hollandlac
Brilliant with Gentleman’s Gray by Benjamin Moore (a bit of a misnomer, as the hue is described as a “blackened teal blue”). “With saturated colors, what I’ve found over and over again is that you can go as dark and intense as you like if you add high gloss,” Lowengart says. “It gives it a vibrancy, so it feels very upbeat, even if it’s a really dark color.”
LET THE COLOR PALETTE EVOLVE
Sometimes, a more focused palette emerges over time. When Lo began decorating his guest room, he felt inspired by Hawaii, where he often visits.
“The original idea was to create a sort of retreat vibe, and bring a bit of that tropical flair to lovely, suburban Irvine,” he says.
One of the first pieces he bought for the room was a white couch. “I had a hard time finding a color palette in the beginning,” he says. He’d seen an image of a midcentury space filled with pillows of all colors and wanted to emulate the look. “I thought if I kept the couch neutral, I could get away with using all the colors that I wanted. But then over the years, I started swapping stuff, and it started to take on more orange, warm tones.”
He painted an accent wall bright orange, then later toned it down to a softer coral. Above the couch, he added a woven vintage art piece from an antique store in Palm Springs, Calif. The many throw pillows were picked up one-by-one from different sources, including Target, West Elm, H&M and Jonathan Adler.