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[homedecor1]

@151949

Your new home sounds beautiful and love that you chose "neutral" color pallet.  Once you move your furniture, etc. in you'll be able to see what "colors" will blend.  I like neutrals because you can add pops of color through accent pieces, etc.

I'm in the final phase of our home remodel.  Today, I selected the flooring, paint, lighting. I stayed completely neutral on my paint choice but I need a accent wall in kitchen. (Right nowIt's a very light yellow - SW icey lemonade) I'd like to change it but my kitchen/den area is combined and I've decorated it around the French country decor & definitely needed a "pop of color" because it's a galley style with bay window eating area.

I've been going to a lot of model home open houses for the new developments being built in our area for ideas (next part is our bathroom updates) -- seems new designer colors are different variations of "grey" even the kitchens have white cabinets with accent cabinets of grey.  But, then again these houses are huge!  I don't know whose buying them but they are selling faster than they can build them!

🤞🏻🤞🏻your home sells fast.  My friends just moved from Grand Paradiso to Island Walk (Venice).  They built a coach home a year ago & hated it...so they moved into a single family home.  I love that area: nice close beaches & lots of great stores to shop! 

[BirkiLady]

@151949You seem to enjoy neutrals, but feel HGTV is telling you to do something else. Is this the reason for your question? Forget HGTV! Why don't you live with what makes you happy? If neutrals make you happy, live in a neutral home. If you like color add it with the window treatments, some original artwork, wool area rugs, and different textiles for added interest. A pretty wing back chair (or two) with a small/medium print or floral on the front and a solid on the back would add more color to your room. Would be lovely with your antiques. Think out of the box with buying your furniture and have it custom made  for your new home. Such a chair could match drapes in LR & BR (if both windows face the same direction & are visable from the street) and/or the bedspread in the adjoining bedroom. Hope the bedroom has french doors for beauty; and agree they should be closed. Personally, I wouldn't mess with throw pillows ever for color. Far too many lovely ways to add color and texture without the same tired look.

[NickNack]

I love cove ceilings but think you'd be sorry if you painted it a medium gray.  If you want gray, I'd go with the lightest shade from the swatch.  I would also keep the door to your bedroom closed when you have company.  

As far as colors or neutrals I would go with what you really love.  I would put the oxblood furniture in your husband's den though, regardless of which way you go.

[Gabidog]

I love neutral backgrounds so I can add accent colors with florals, pillows, artwork.  You mention oxblood furniture and I assume this is leather upholstery.  Drape a neutral throw and add a few faux fur toss pillows and perhaps bring in a nice faux palm tree into the room for warmth.  Your bedroom door should remain closed from the living room so you can do any accent in there you like.  Too many HGTV shows have too much color, too much furniture, too many patterns.  They used to have Sarah Richardson programs about decorating and not so much about demo and drainage issues and bad roof leaks. She offered some amazing designs.  Fixer upper show seems to show designs with a lot of neutrals so maybe watch that for some ideas.

[151949]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

[Regal Bee]

@151949 Your home sounds lovely. I love neutral surfaces.

Having all neutrals allows you to be creative with your colors and also to change out things when you desire. Add color in pillows, decorative accents and smaller less expensive items.

Color can 'lock you in' with your creativity. Be careful with it. 

[CAMOGIRL]

Just do not go too dark on the gray for the ceiling - perhaps a very pale gray to a pale gray - keep that height up there! - accented with the white. Or, just do all white and let the ceiling shape speak for itself.

For the bedroom, seeing you can see it from the living room - I would keep the color schemes similar -  complimentary to each other - but nothing matchy matchy of course, they are two separate rooms.

I like to decorate with color. But, if one wants to brighten and lighten - use whites in decorative pieces and accents. Let’s say like a couch - I would never have a white one -of any shade is white -  but I would do whites in the pillows and a few nice fluffy throws or in the pictures hanging on the walls and in the accents around the room. 

Happy decorating 😀!

[151949]

@BirkiLady  The other way around - i love color but feel the trend currently is white or neutrals.And seeing as how the builder's decorators chose a specifically neutral color theme I'm assuming that is how they intend you will go with it.

I'm not at all interested in trends, so that doesn't impress me at all , but I'm concerned that with everyting in this neutral tone my oxblood color furniture will look out of place.

[151949]

@Loveac Our new home is also mostly ivory ( all the walls are ivory) and beiges to browns  but the kitchen island is right in the middle of the house and there is a lot of grey in the granite. The pattern is not small but instead large swirls if greys and browns to beige, & creamy white. The window sills are large and are grey & white carrera marble too, so there is enough grey that I can use that color.

If I decide to put my oxblood furniture in the living room, then I'd like to get a grey rug and paint the cobe ceiling with some grey - I agree a lighter shade will be good.

[Mominohio]

These days, I prefer a neutral back drop for a home, in the walls, flooring, counters, and woods of cabinets, trim etc. 

As others have stated, it allows for change over time, of the upholstered pieces and accent pieces and doesn't lock you in to any one area of color. 

I like to accent color seasonally. Some people like to choose an accent color for some period of time (years), then completely change to another, or add something new to what they have. 

That is easiest to do with true neutrals for the backdrop. 

I have come to like grey in home decor in some circumstances, but I still don't think it mixes well with the brown family lighter shades that are considered neutrals. I think grey and white together are rich and a beautiful crisp look.

As others seem to be expressing, I'd be very concerned with a bedroom that is so visible from the living room. We have an upstairs, where all the bedrooms are, but with a split level home, and only five steps up to that level from the living room, one of our bedrooms is quite visible shortly after people walk into the main area of the living room. 

It drives me nuts. I don't like seeing bedrooms from the formal living room, but it is what it is. I also hate closed doors, so that wouldn't be an option for me to just close the door when company was coming. 

That bedroom that is seen from the living room in my home is given extra attention in the colors, style of decor, tidiness, arrangement of the furniture because of it's location and being viewed from the main area of the house.

Keep us posted as to what you decide and have fun doing it.