A room devoid of color causes the eye to search.
Because the most eye-catching element of design is color.
So where do you think your eye will rest first in an all-neutral room?
In a room where you THINK you’ve sucked all the color out of it?
Where you THINK you’re making a statement about white...or neutrals...or gray...or tone-on-tone?
Your eye will focus in on something that has color....
...yet your mind may not register it as being an actual color.
Let me explain...
Your eye is instinctive. It does it’s thing. Whether you tell it to or not. Your eye sees what it sees.
But what your mind thinks the eye sees is something different altogether. Because, no matter how odd this may sound...
Your mind thinks it knows everything, but it really doesn't.
So, if you have a space where you are wanting to celebrate a tone-on-tone look, and you have a golden oak floor in there that has some lovely yellow tones in it, that wood floor will dominate your eyes' attention.
Yet your mind still tries to overpower your eye and influence what it thinks your eye is seeing.“It’s just wood, it’s not a color. It’s a natural, neutral thing”
But your eye doesn't listen. Because it sees what it sees. No matter what you say.
That’s right...
If you have a colorful wood finish lurking around, and you think for one minute that the all-plain space you're dreaming of will capture visitors' attention and make the statement you want it to make . . . THINK AGAIN. Because...
The wood will dominate.
It’ll be the boss of your palette.
And your oh-so beautiful, tone-on-tone space will become a wood-and-tone-on-tone space.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. :-)
In fact, you may want that. (...I'm just sayin’.)
But if that’s NOT what you want, then paint it. Or whitewash it. Get the color out of it.
Then you can have that tone-on-tone look you want.
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See for yourself. Look at the pictures below and see how the wood element/color commands the room.
{ Click each image to enlarge fullscreen & view its source }
Click to see today's DESIGNED daily!