The Neutral Challenge

I think there are two types of people out there; those that are afraid of color, and those that are afraid of the absence of color. I fall in the second category. I feel like a house without color is a house without personality and if I were to remove all of the color I would be removing my personality and therefore turn into a lifeless manequin like on the beloved 1980's children's show, Today's Special.

Anyone? 

....Do I hear crickets?

Well anyway. In my regular shopping trip to Homegoods, Ross and Target this week, (I may or may not go weekly, don't judge) I decided to pick up a few things and see if I could style my bedroom with more neutral colors like white, beige, gray and gold. I found this awesome seersucker bedding at Target which is white with tiny little gray Xs on it. Neutral, but still modern, and a great price for $45. The best part about this bedding is that if it gets wrinkled, you can't tell! I also got a cute gray and white accent pillow for $7.50 on clearance. Can't beat that.

With the bedding figured out, I moved on to the side table accessories. I went to Homegoods and Ross in search of accessories, but after walking around aimlessly trying to find neutral accessories that spoke to me, I decided that maybe I had enough neutral things at home and only ended up buying one thing, which was the glass and jute candle holder at Ross for $7. I already had the lamps, which I got for $20 ea. at Ross, as well as a Nate Berkus beige geometric vase and frame. I also had two gold-framed pieces of art that I used as a backdrop. The brass peacock has found a place of honor again, and I also added a quirky vintage pot that I got for 50¢ and a Threshold plate on clearance for $1 to use as a side table tray.

The same rules apply for styling color and neutrals, except you don't have to worry so much about color coordination. So in that regard, this little experiment wasn't so hard. But it was hard for me to make choices because everything felt drab. It reaffirmed to me that decorating with only neutrals can be beautiful, but it is just not my thing. I am drawn to color. I crave color! I NEED color.

Here's what it looked like before. Actually, this is what it looked like "before" for about three days. Because I'm always changing it up, so who knows how long it will stay this way!

So here you go! A more neutral Mandie. Thumbs up or thumbs down?