Confessions of a Color Expert

Part Three- Getting to know the neutrals

What are neutrals?

Neutrals are just color, only less saturated. An all-important first decision, they form the backdrop for the more dramatic color choices that come after. The anxiety of making a wrong decision can default to a plain white box but that’s not the only choice. The neutrals have a huge range of subtle shades, understanding how to use them will give you confidence to build a layered space that is both warm and personal.?

Think warms and cools

There is no such thing as black pigment, what we optically?perceive?as black is generally just a warm or cool, muddy dark brown. If you mix white into any of the different blacks they’ll reveal their secrets. Gray is not going out of style, but I do see a lot of off gray combinations. The reason all grays don’t go together is because they are all different colors that have one commonality, black paint as a base.?

What makes gray?

When I was an oil painter, I learned to mix an optical black made from mixing the darkest red and the darkest green, it's a beautiful?almost?black that mixes with colors without making them muddy. If you want a gray that has some life to it, there are many ways to mix one without using black paint. My favorite, a mix of golden yellow and violet make the most beautiful gray imaginable, bouncing rather than absorbing light, taking on a different cast through the day in different lighting conditions. All opposite colors on a color wheel neutralize each other and make a gray, each with their own special character.

The new neutrals

I don’t follow trends, but I am influenced by what I see as directional and warm neutrals are making a comeback: caramel, butterscotch, and tobacco from lighter to deeper shades feel warm and friendly. Brown, not black is the new base color and this shift is already bringing about a complete change in home décor. In simplest terms brown is a mix of the three primaries, red, yellow, and blue. The percentage of the three is what influences a brown from cooler to warmer. The cool browns may cast violet, the greener browns range from olive brown to tobacco tones you are going to see everywhere this year. A lot of people don’t like the yellow browns, but they range from palest butter yellow to its acid tonged cousin, sharp mustard, an pop of color that goes with everything.

For accents, think orange, gold, warm reds, and coral, stepping up, they mix beautifully with all the warm neutrals as do the softer violets, warm pinks, terra cotta and the soft desert south west colors we haven’t seen in a decade or so. Brown tones have lot of nuances between the grayer taupe, mushroom, and soft violet browns, to the warmer golden tones. Those of us who remember the 70’s may have bad memories of brown and orange but as I wrote in an earlier article, popular colors go out of fashion and may need to slumber for a generation or so to be rediscovered. Fifty years is a long enough time for brown to spend in purgatory and it’s time for a new generation to own it. Watch for violet to blush mauve, an intensely flattering shade to make an appearance, you heard it here first.