How to Bring Life to a Monochrome Interior: 3 Rules

Transforming a beige or white interior can be achieved with well-placed accents. Ivanova Degtarenko shared useful tips for everyone who wants to add vibrant details to a monochrome room — follow them to make the interior cohesive and harmonious.

Ivanova Degtarenko is an interior design expert and project manager for construction projects. She has progressed from a designer to a project leader in one of Moscow's leading design studios.

"All the best at once" in interior design is no longer trendy: now, simple and minimalist interiors with well-placed accents are in vogue. This can easily be done using decorative furniture and interior items, but it should be approached with care.

What Are Accents?

An accent is a vibrant detail in an interior that visually stands out against the overall background. These details can be highlighted using color, light, shape, or material texture.

How to Place Accents Correctly? Start Small

Incorporating a Louis XVI-style four-poster bed into a modern interior is an interesting idea but a complex one and only achievable by a professional or a very talented amateur. Therefore, start small: find an unusual antique chair, a bold poster, or a lounge chair with printed upholstery.

Important: An accent item should not be the center of composition but rather a complement to it.

Pay Attention to Proportions

To make a decorative accent "resonate," its surroundings should be calm — in color, texture, and size. For example, a poster in the best traditions of modern art requires a spacious monochrome background.

A bulky leather sofa will likely visually "overwhelm" an elegant wooden bookshelf — even if it was inherited from your great-grandmother and should have been the pride of the interior.

Choose One Pattern

If the main accent in your interior is an unusual print, let other surfaces — walls or furniture — remain neutral. Combining unrelated prints of different sizes is the pinnacle of skill. A non-professional will most likely not be able to handle this task.

Important: If there are several prints, they should be in a common color palette and brought to a shared "color denominator".