White Room Design TIps
Welcome to The ReArranger!!! Slumberland Furniture's Award Winning Web Series! ** Season 3, Episode 5
Used to be a room done in whites and light neutrals was often considered too formal, maybe even kind of icy. Not warm and inviting. But the white room these days is a whole different thing. Today the white room is a beautiful combination of shades of whites and soft light neutrals, interesting textures and pops of color. The end result is warm, bright and light and VERY welcoming.
It used to be that a room decorated with whites and light neutrals was considered cold and uninviting. However, we flip that on its heel in this video and demonstrate how clever use of decorative elements can cause a primarily white and neutral space to come alive and look positively gorgeous. For example, in the video, we use a rug that contrasts itself with the white of the room and has a lot of texture. This adds dimensionality and depth to the room, allowing for more detailed decorating techniques to be used. What's more, the contribution of the lamps we placed cannot be overstated. More warm light in the room helps transform the mostly white space from cold and emergency-room-like to warm and inviting, like somewhere you'd want to sit and read comfortably. Also, the addition of color details to the mostly white background room helps metamorphosize it into a warm, welcoming environment. The soft blues help keep the room's overall tone light, but they also contribute a dash of visual excitement to the room as a whole. We're going to go into more specifics about these various features below.
Texture
A unique textured element added to the room is the soft wood-tone coffee table in front of the loveseat which contributes tremendous depth and warmth to the white background of the room. Adding texture to a room can have the transformative effect of creating greater dimensionality. What this means is simply there are a lot more intricate details visible. Look at the wood-toned table, for example. Is the color pattern of the wood entirely even? Of course not. This forces the eye to focus on the different shades and creates greater attention to detail in the room's decorating. The use of texture in this room is very clever as it contrasts itself with the white of the room without really distinguishing itself. White and neutral tones are very plain and don't have a lot of detail, so a great contrast–though not necessarily in color–is the detail given by accent pieces with texture.
Light
The addition of the lamps to this room serves a twofold purpose as it helps create warmth and a welcoming element to the room as well as illuminating the details present in the room's decór. The sharp lighting helps highlight the texture of the rug and table as well as show off the color of the blue accents added later. It also contributes the intangible quality of warmth to the room, making the whole space look more inviting and appealing. The addition of lamps helps parse out the details of the room while adding to the overall atmosphere of the room without contrasting itself from the white background of the room as a whole. Also, the dark-colored body of the lamp itself serves to contrast itself to the white of the space overall, creating some more visual diversity to the room as well as manifesting more warm light.
Color
The soft blues help keep the room's overall tone light, but they also add a bit of color to the room as a whole. The light blues used in this room provide a contrast from the overall white layout of the room and add interest to the space without being too strong and evident of a contrast, which would drown out the space. Additionally, the contribution of such light colors is not only in the soft contrast from the white of the room as a whole but also in the warmth that the colors give to the room. With the addition of the blue accent pieces, pillows, and blankets, the entire space seems warm and inviting. This is the exact opposite of the stereotype which exists about all-white rooms being cold and clinical. Also, the placement of the white flowers on the table adds another bit of color, even though the flowers are white. The green from the stems of the flowers illuminates the immediate area next to it, creating visual diversity in the space.
Slumberland
Check out Slumberland's multitude of unique furniture products for your home, and also be sure to look at other episodes of The ReArranger for more great decorating tips for your home.