Basement Reveal & How to Add Color to a Neutral Living Room

If you have been following along on Instagram, you might already have seen my basement living room reveal!  I have white walls and the trim is beige, so I was a little worried this was going to have too many neutral tones for my color-loving heart.  In the end, it doesn’t feel neutral at all, so I thought I would share some ideas on how to add color to a neutral living room!

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Why Choose a Neutral Base Color (And What is a Neutral, Anyway?)

When I was deciding what color to paint this room, there were a lot of things to consider.  The biggest thing to consider was how this room connects to the rest of my house.

This room is open to the stairwell which is open to my main floor, all of which has been painted white.  There is really no good stopping place for paint in this room to transition to another.

Now while I love a beautiful paint color as much as (more than?) the next guy, sometimes when you have big open spaces and rooms that are open to one another, your best choice is a neutral color scheme.  That way, your home feels cohesive and flows from room to room.  To make each room feel designed, independent from one another and considered, you can switch things up in the decor and decorative items.

When people say “neutral” they typically mean colors that can blend well with other colors and serve as a bit of a blank canvas.  Most people think of white, beige, black and grey as “neutrals”.  

When You Ignore Your Own Advice

So although I knew that white walls in my house was the right call, I had a paint crisis mid-way through painting my basement and ran to the paint store and bought blue paint.

If you follow me at all, you know this is quite out of character for me as I always do a lot of planning for my spaces, and often swatch 5 or more colours before settling on the exact one.  I can not explain why I suddenly decided to go rogue and paint the basement blue at the 11th hour, except to say that I might have been under some stress.  Also seeing the white living room was just not filling my cup the same way that a fresh coat of a beautiful color does!

After painting most of the walls blue I re-evaluated the reasons why I wanted a neutral palette with paint.  It was going to be the perfect backdrop to showcase the items I was planning to bring in.  It sometimes can be hard to see the final vision when you are part way through the process!

So I sucked it up and painted the blue wall back to white and tried to trust the process, and I’m so glad I did!

Why Would You Want to Add Color?

I mean, maybe you don’t??  I have seen some very beautiful but 100% neutral spaces done really well.  I think if you want to stick to neutrals, the most important thing is to mix it up.  Don’t go all white, use different shades of white and cream and lots of textures to make a space feel more designed and layered, for example.  Bring in many shades and tones of that same color and a lot of texture.  

I challenge you to have a look at your wardrobe.  Is it full of bright colors?  Pastels?  Deep jewel tones?  All neutral?  Muted color?  Most people like to wear the same colours they are drawn to in their home.  So if you have a colorful wardrobe and a neutral living space, maybe it’s time to add some colorful accents to help express your style.

Color is just that – an expression of style.  It also can really affect your mood!  

How to Add Color to a Neutral Living Room – The First Step

I always think a good place to start is with a mood board.  I wrote a whole post about my design process and how to put together a mood board here.  It is a great place to start.

Whenever I am considering a new item for a space, even just small accessories, I often take a picture of the space and overlay an image of the item I am thinking of purchasing to see how it fits with the space.  

A mood board is a great way to begin, even if you aren’t an interior designer.  I always start with the pieces I already have or am sure about and then layer in the new pieces I am considering.  

I go into more detail in this post, but when building a mood board consider:

• Repetition – if you bring in one green thing, make sure you have another green thing.  Repeating colors makes a room feel designed and not half-hazard.
• Contrast – consider if you like high or low contrast spaces.  Low contrast would be a room with all similar tones so nothing stands out against each other, and high contrast is when things are opposite one another and stand out more.  This doesn’t have to be as bold as black and white.  For example, I love to use a contrasting pop of color in my spaces.  In my living room, I added in red branches which are opposite on the color wheel to the green sofa, for example. 
• Use Color with Restraint – The easiest way to add color is to pick a main color and one or two supporting colors to make a space feel colorful but not overwhelming.  
• Balance with Neutrals – I always like to add hefty doses of warm neutrals (think warm wood tones) to keep a space from feeling too cold, especially if you are choosing cool colors like green or blue as your main color.

Using Color with Restraint

It can be tempting to go all-in on a color palette and just keep choosing more and more things in that color, and that can be when a room starts to feel too matchy-matchy.  For example, in my living room, I chose a green sofa and there are a lot of green supporting cast members in this space but none of them are exactly the same green, and none of them are as large as the sofa.  But I do repeat green in a few places so the green sofa makes sense.

Then I sprinkled in a whole lot of netural colors.  Besides the white walls, there are white chairs, lots of wood and brown and beige tones, a dark metal coffee table, and beige curtains. These are great supporting cast members and make your main color pop.

I also have some red tones in here (just a few!) as red is the complementary color to green.  I brought that in with the rug, the sofa lumbar pillow, and just a single bunch of red branches on the table. 

Different Ways to Add Color to a Neutral Living Room Without Painting

Furniture

The next biggest thing in the room besides the walls is usually the furniture.  Furniture is a larger investment and so for that reason alone, I usually advocate for more neutral furniture that can span the test of time and work with whatever color palette you might switch to down the road.

But if you are feeling daring, a colorful piece of furniture is going to go a long way towards bringing in the color.  In my basement I chose to bring in a more bold color in the sofa.

A beige sofa would pair well with a more colorful accent chair, too, and is a much smaller investment than a sofa.

If you already have a neutral or white sofa or you aren’t interested in venturing into the land of colored upholstery, you can still bring in furniture with color.  A painted piece of furniture is a great way to bring in a little color and if you paint a piece you already have or buy second hand, you haven’t invested much in that, either.

Curtains

Probably the next largest thing in your room that you can swap out to bring in a little color is the curtains!  I have green velvet curtains in my main living room and it really adds a striking contrast.

I also have some patterned blue and green curtains in my bedroom and some floral blue curtains in my dining room for a tone-on-tone look.  The only place I have neutral-coloured curtains is actually in my dining nook!  

Art

Art is a wonderful way to bring in color!  You can have a totally neutral room and bring in almost any art and it’s going to instantly take center stage and set the mood for the room.  I recommend choosing art very early on and even using it as a muse for the rest of the color palette.  

Rug

I mean, have we met?  OF COURSE I was going to tell you to look to the rug for color!  A bold color on the rug can have a big impact while simultaneously being not as “in your face” as it might be if that same color was on a wall or at eye level.  

I have also found that you can go neutral colors  with every single thing in the room and throw in a colourful rug (bonus points if it is vintage!) and it just pops and carries the space.

Throw Pillows

Pillows are an obvious choice to bring in color and to even change the color of a room seasonally.  I have lighter toned pillows that I bring out in the summer months and more deep tones in the fall and winter.  Accent pillows are a low cost and low commitment investment and really change the look and feel of a room. 

Throws

If you have neutral living room furniture, you can also change up the look and add color (and pattern!) with throws.  I found these green striped throws and draped them over my neutral accent chair for an instant, and easy, pop of color.  

Flowers and Plants

I am all black thumbs over here but I am really good at finding a good faux to bring in a bit of color!  You would not believe how impactful a vase of pink flowers or bright red stems can be in an otherwise neutral space.  It is a simple way to add in a little something without overwhelming the space and it’s a really subtle addition, too!    

I love a really deep red in almost any room for pops of color, and I’m always happy when autumn rolls around so I can add them all over the place!

Accessories

Bringing in a few pops in accessories is a great way to bring in accent colors, too!  Lamp shades, vases, light fixtures… these are all places where adding color would work well.

The Living Room Before and After

This room was one of the only rooms in the house where we hadn’t changed out the trim yet.  We had speckled, textured trim on all the doors and windows in this house and we have been changing it room by room.

There were shutters in this room installed on top of that trim, so we also took those down when the trim was replaced.  We were blown away by all the light that came in once we did that!  

​After that, I painted the whole room Valspar Swiss Coffee and painted all the trim Benjmain Moore Edgecomb Grey to tie in with the other main spaces in the house.  

I worked with Article on this space and bought a few key pieces to set the tone, and then the rest came together with the help of my mood board.  

So with all of that in mind, let’s take a look at the before and after of my basement living space! Despite so many neutral pieces, I really think it reads as a room with color and personality and feels like it belongs in our home now.

Whether you opt for small changes or a complete overhaul, the key is to have fun and express yourself through color!

Basement Living Room Sources:

• Sofa
• Ottomans
• Checker Table
• Barrel Chairs
• Coffee Table (old from Pier One) – Similar
• Floral Lumbar on Sofa
• Striped Throws
• Block Print pillow on Chair
• Rug
• Curtains (Use Code ErinZubot for a discount!)
• DIY Curtain Rods
• Scalloped Wood Tray
• Red Faux Stems
• Tapestry Style Art
• Lamp (thrifted and made over) – Similar

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