There is a particular thing I find incredibly elusive when I flip through design books, magazines, and blogs. I am always on the look-out but find it quite hard to find. I really want to see the perfect neutral palette. The way I see it, neutrals can be the statement that we usually make the easy way: with color. I find that I use pops of color in my own apartment because I don’t have the architectural interior that I want highlighted. So using color can often be our way of cheating. But done well, the neutral palette is infinitely more intriguing. I don’t mean everything white or those hideous homes where everything is the color of oatmeal, including the decorator’s hair. Now, there are certainly lots of very modern neutrals (think whites, Lucite, and resin floors) but can neutrals be cozy? Warm? Sophisticated? Certainly, but like I said, it is hard to come across the right ones.
Feeding my design book addiction, I picked up a copy of Monochrome by Paula Rice Jackson. I loved the concept and felt like the book was done well, but it was really only half a book. The sleek, modern interiors with shiny floors were included, as was the monochromatic lime green living room. John Saladino’s home was there (he wrote the introduction) but his palette wasn’t the neutral for which I was looking. They left out the most important homes: the neutrals that are cozy, warm, and sophisticated. I’ve posted what I think the book lacks...