The New Neutrals: 9 Colors You Can Trust for Today’s Home

Farrow and Ball’s Pink Ground, glowing like the inside of a seashell, is flattering to skin tones and art work, and looks quietly fresh in a living room.

Related:  Living Room Paint Colors – 9 Top Picks from the Pros

The pale reddish-brown color of adobe walls is the original American neutral, employed for centuries in homes in the Southwest. A useful updated version is Valspar’s La Fonda Midora.

Related:  Set the Tone – 8 Colors for an Inviting Dining Room

Benjamin Moore’s Perspective is an very light fog-gray, with just a shimmer of silver. It provides a muted, elegant backdrop for upholstered furnishings and colorful rugs.

Related:  7 Classic Colors We Love to Live With

For a breath of spring, consider using a cool, pale green as a neutral. Behr’s Parsnip suggests the color of light reflected off of grass and leaves and would be a soothing choice for a bedroom.

Related:  Trending Now – Emerald Green

A hint of azure, as in Ralph Lauren’s Ephemera, brings with it a feeling of open sea and sky, and looks wonderfully calming with bright colors or whites.

Related:  9 Calming Colors for a Serene Home

The newest neutral might just be a charcoal such as Sherwin Williams’ Cityscape. Poised between black and white, it’s both on-trend and timeless.

Related:  21 “Expert Picks” for Fail-Safe Colors

With its look of English heather on a misty day, Farrow & Ball’s Brassica is another darker shade that works beautifully as a backdrop for paintings and fabric.

Related:  Color Made Easy – 9 Designer Tips for Working with Color

Bringing nature indoors, a hushed olive green mixed with a touch of gray, such as Juniper Breeze by Valspar, is pretty and welcoming in an entryway while relaxing enough for a bedroom.

Related:  10 Color Picks to Set Any Mood in Your Bedroom

A soft gold, Benjamin Moore’s Barley evokes sunshine and baking bread, and offers a lively—but still neutral—upgrade from beige.

Related:  The Best Colors for Low-Light Rooms

If you’re interested in more painting tips, consider: 

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Living Room Paint Colors: 9 Top Picks from the Pros