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Should You Decorate in Neutral or Vibrant Colors?

Updated: Feb 23, 2023


Should you paint your home in neutral colors or a vibrant color? Which colors should dominate your décor choices, neutral or bold? This small decision will have a major impact on how people react to the design of your rooms. The color of walls, floors, and ceiling in particular, create the background against which the contents of the rooms in your home either shine or flop.


Each room in the home contains items with different colors and textures. The right color scheme will help you tie these items together. But tying disparate items and colors in the home together can be challenging. If you don’t impose cohesion on the design, your rooms, even if filled with lovely items, will make the wrong impression on those who enter them.


What color categories should dominate? Depending on your personality and design goals, you will tend to favor one category of colors more than the other. But this decision should not be based on what you have always done or what the dominant trends dictate. You should know how decorating in vibrant or neutral colors will affect your home, says Peak Residential Inc.


What are the pros or cons of decorating in neutral colors versus vibrant colors?


Decorating in neutral colors


The pros of neutrals

  • Neutral colors have a calming effect that makes the room feel inviting. They create an illusion of space and make your rooms feel brighter. Using neutrals in a small room will make it feel less cramped.

  • If used right, neutral colors can be combined to create a dramatic effect and sophisticated appearance.

  • Neutral colors do not compete with the décor pieces in your home. If you want to bring more attention to a specific item, neutral colors will let you do it easily.

  • Neutral colors give you flexibility. You can easily alter the design without needing to remake the entire room. You can retain the main pieces in the home even when you adjust the color.

  • If you have an assortment of art or décor items or the architecture of your home is unusual, using neutral colors will help to inject balance into a room.


The cons of neutrals:

  • A lot of people view neutral colors as bland and lacking in personality. Some will even go so far as to say the colors are depressing.

  • An all-neutral color scheme can create a uniform design that strips your home of style and focal points of interest.



How to use a neutral color scheme

  • Use different shades of the same color. From the lightest to the darkest ones on the color swatch. This will let you add variety while still staying within the plan.

  • If you want to make a room feel larger and airier, use lighter brighter neutral tones.


Decorating in vibrant colors


Pros of vibrant colors

  • Vibrant colors pulsate with energy and that energy is transmitted to the people who enter the room. It is easy to add personality to the design when you use vibrant colors.

  • It is not hard to draw attention to objects or spaces if they are painted a vibrant color. This makes it easy to create focal points of interest within a room.

  • Because they are usually dependent on current trends, using a trending vibrant color in an office or the home will make the place feel more modern.

  • Vibrant colors have flair. The design will look and feel stylish. Vibrant colors are perfect in those situations where you want to draw maximum attention to an item or space.

Cons of vibrant colors


  • It is more difficult to keep the design cohesive when you use vibrant colors; the decor can easily go out of hand and the colors can become overwhelming.

  • Vibrant colors can make your home look like a circus or a little child’s playroom. It is hard to find the right combination or amount of vibrant colors to get the right effect.

  • When you use vibrant colors in your home, your design can quickly become outdated. This is because vibrant colors follow trends and trends are replaced quickly.

  • Vibrant colors can heighten the energy levels of room occupants to the point where they feel stressed out. They can heighten anxiety by overstimulating the mind.


How to use a vibrant color scheme

  • Choose an anchor color. This should be the color of the largest pattern in the room. It will help you tie the other textures and patterns together.

  • Use the boldest colors on your walls; doing this will make the most impact on the room.

  • Choose a secondary bold color that you will use to complement the main color.


Finally, you can actually use both neutral and vibrant colors. A neutral color scheme with pops of vibrant color to add pizzazz works well in most places. For instance, you can paint the walls neutral and spruce the color up with bright rugs, throw pillows, and lamps.



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