What If...Everything's The Same Color or Nothing Matches?!?

And so it goes... the age old dilemma of "I bought all of the same color of everything because, well, I knew it would match!!" I hear it time and time again. And the good news is, it's not too late! You can add color and keep all the stuff you have acquired and come up with a room makeover without too much fuss or additional cost. That is what was needed for my next client. Just a light refresh! All of what she had going on was not to be lost, just added to and livened up. So that's just what we will do! 

Enter, the matching problem. Gray on gray and gray. I love gray and it is very much an awesome neutral to begin our refresh. 

BEFORE: (sorry for the dark pics! It was a sunny day and I was armed with only my phone)

Below is what I am recommending we add to her master bedroom to just give it a breath of fresh air and color punch. We need to introduce a couple accent colors that she can add to when looking for accessories. Here is what I am recommending to start. Now that we have these colors, it will make accessorizing with decor very simple! 

A closer look at our selections...

My client loves eclectic style with a glam flair. She tells me she has a bit of "Liberace" in her style picks! Lol! I had to... Here he is! 

The challenge is they (eclectic and glam) are usually somewhat opposite each other. You find more eclectic fabrics in more whimsical tones and usually not in the bold colors. So imagine my excitement when I found the orange shams!! These euro shams I am recommending come from Dwell Studio and are part of an entire bedding collection called "Camille". But recall she already has the gray solid ruffle duvet and standard shams so in this case we just accent with the orange shams. Her is what the bedding set looks like in its entirety. In my opinion... a tad much. I actually prefer to mix pieces of the pattern in rather than a full overload of it. Too much of a good thing maybe. 

Recall that her current bedding is just this plain solid duvet cover in gray as seen in this closeup of the duvet cover below. 

So this makes it perfect for just adding these shams for color and the match on gray tones is almost perfect!

I'm also recommended the sheet set they showed from Dwell Studio as going with this bedding as I think its a great fit, pulls in the shams more and a perfect subtle pattern. 

Then we layer in some other pillows. A plum color seems to be a great color to bring in as the deep purple hue and the burnt orange are striking together. Plus you can never go wrong pairing gray and purple. When I decided on the plum shade I found this pillow on Spark Modern (one of my fav pillow shops on Etsy) with Kelly Wearstler fabric on it. I died! Kelly is one of my fav designers. And there is no one more glam then her! It was perfect for my little "Liberace" client! 

If you do not recall who Kelly Wearstler is, I referred to her writing the post on stepping out of the trends in kitchen design to embrace something bold and different. She is the queen of following the beat of her own drum! A hero of sorts in my book:) 

Now listen closely on this one. This will go on my headstone. Animal print goes with EVERYTHING! I mean that. And it does. It's like a neutral. When I'm looking for that extra pillow, fabric or accessory to add to a room, I always go to a pattern like leopard print. It just, well, works! So for my client I am recommending we DIY something like this! All you need, a couple Target or Home Goods benches and some leopard fabric and a staple gun! You don't need to cover the legs like this one! It makes the DIY much more doable. Done and done! Fabulous!!

They also have a gray sectional in the room. I selected an eclectic pattern pillow from Dwell Studio with a hint of the gold color in it. The gold is also in the large Camille orange shams and I think this color could be played up in accessories, bath towels etc. This goldish yellow color goes with everything! This is the Peacock pillow from Dwell Studio and is on sale for only $44!! Great deal! 

Since this pillow had some chocolate brown in it I decided on these next accent pillows as I love the way they look with the Peacock pillow and I love brown and gray together. Always always be comfortable mixing neutrals. It is one of the easiest ways to pull off a very dimensional look without having to feel like you need to add tons of color. This is also a Spark Modern pillow on Etsy and is a David Hicks fabric. Love his modern fabrics too!! Best part...all of these pillows are very affordable and very well made! 

So what if you have the other issue going on? You have a room where you feel like everything is disconnected and nothing really goes together!! This often happens in guest bedrooms as it is the room that get some of the misfits or leftovers of the house. In my clients guest bedroom they painted the walls a beautiful blush color and she has orchid color solid bedding she already purchased and wanted to keep in the mix. She also has a vintage Hollywood Regency style silver dresser in there and a floral upholstered chair. How do we make it all work?! We can and we will!!

Here is the BEFORE: 

 Below is closeup of the chair fabric seen above on the chair in corner.

We need something to pull it all together and make a bridge between the silver dresser, blush walls, green and purple tones. So...we shall add black and white!! Seems like a long shot but let's see what it does! 

Black and white pulls together a focus for the room. Now it looks to be a black and white room with accents of blush and plum rather than a blush and plum room with no plan. The green accents are present because they help to anchor the floral chair in the mix. The chair has shades of purple but also has several shades of green throughout so accenting with some green accessories in one of those shades of green is perfect as it doesn't overwhelm but yet it helps to tie in the chair. Here is a a closer look at the items I recommend. 

These lovely Anthropologie sheet set. Small simple pattern but still interesting since we have a solid duvet. 

For Shams I love these plain banded standard or euro shams from Crane & Canopy! 

A black and white rug would be nice in the room too! This one is not a perfect pattern as it has some design element without being too busy! 

As far as accent pillows go for the bed, the sky is the limit. There are a ton of great inexpensive black and white throw pillows all over Pinterest, Etsy and lots of the stores these days. Any combo of these would be great. In the design I used this pillow below with a nice plain stripe pillow just to keep the patterns in check. Stripes can mix well with any other pattern and not overwhelm. 

So if you are matchy matchy or all over the place, pick some anchor colors to tie it all together! It's a balancing act! Design updates do not have to be about reinventing the wheel. They don't have to cost a lot! My client did the right thing by purchasing nice quality bedding pieces in solid colors. This allows you to change out your look fairly easily with pillows and accents and throw blankets that can change over time! 

~Cheers!!

{Laura}