Whether you live in a rented home and aren’t able to change the decor or are selling your house soon and want to keep it neutral, or maybe you just love the way neutral decor looks you can make a room look great with a few simple additions without the need for costly redecorating.
When it comes to decor, you can’t go far wrong with a neutral colour palette. It’s clean and simple, makes the spaces look larger and is completely inoffensive. However, it can be a little boring and it’s easy for a neutral home to look a little stark and simplistic. If you want to add personality and uniqueness to your home without touching the decor, here are a few things to try!
Choose an Accent Colour
Just because your decor is neutral it doesn’t mean you can’t introduce colour. Quite the opposite, in fact, neutrals go with just about any colour so why not bring some in with your soft furnishings? Grey walls look nice with blush pink or black for contrast, cream looks great with red, navy or chocolate brown and white goes with just about anything. Cushions, throws, rugs, lamps, flowers are all great inexpensive additions. An accent colour can bring colour and interest into the room without the need to change the decor at all.
Add Art To The Walls
You don’t have to add wallpaper or paint to the walls to liven up the look of a room. Some nicely placed pieces of art can bring in personality and interest. You could go to a gallery and pick out a piece you love by an artist alternatively you could browse the high street for canvases and wall art. You could even frame your posters and turn them into works of art! Another option would be to create a gallery wall. Here you can display lots of your favourite pieces together and make a real statement in the room. Perfect if everywhere else is kept quite plain as it will really draw the eye in and create an interesting focal point.
Choose Interesting Furniture
If you’re going to keep the decor neutral, it means you can have a little more fun when it comes to the furniture. How about going for a statement piece. For example, if you have a classic leather sofa you could team it up with a bold armchair. It could be an unusual coffee table, or you could even upcycle a piece and have something completely unique. You can find solid wood furniture in junk shops and on Craigslist, a coat of paint and some new handles can bring pieces up to date and give you a cool item of furniture for your home.
Go With Cool Looking Lighting
A statement light fitting is another way you can personalise and add interest to your home without redecorating and is ideal if you want to keep it neutral and not add any colour. A chandelier, a cool rustic piece with exposed bulbs or some unusual looking lamps are all ways you can bring in your personal style.
What would you add to enhance the look your home without having to pick up a paintbrush?
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These sound like some really good ideas to bring a netural look into the home, I have to admit I normally do the decorating in netural then add in colours with items I can change around.
Thanks Sarah. That’s a good idea as you can swap them around in different rooms easily too.
I’m in rented accommodation and looking for ways to jazz it up without doing too much so this is perfect, thank you!
Glad you found the post useful Nicholas. I hope it all goes well.
Some great tips. I love the cool looking beside lamp. If I had to redecorate I would add some art.
Art is always a good idea. It make really make a room come to life.
I love the neutral look and style of our house. It’s so easy to change out an accent color when I’m in the mood to redecorate.
That’s good as you can change it around easily to refresh the appearance.
I’ve started to recently add art to my walls and it does a lot for the place, makes it look a lot more interesting. Problems of rented accom and not being able to what you want with the place x
It sure can make a room look so much nicer.
Bright lighting can make a huge difference in a room as well as keeping light walls and accent characters x
They sure can. Lights can really make a difference.
I was looking at some new lighting for my bedroom the other day. I have such a small room, so need a white light!
If you take a look at my needlite post you might find just the thing x
I really like that lamp, the colour and the style is lovely. I want fairy lights and a washing line of polaroids in my room when I move and redo it
Great ideas fairy lights can look great as can the photos on the line.
I absolutely love this, my boyfriend is very minimalistic so its a work in progress persuading him we need more décor and neutral with a touch of colour is definitely the way forward!
So pleased you liked the post. Hope you can persuade him Jen 😉
I find that mirrors can really make a room look a lot nicer!
They can really add to it’s appearance can’t they 😉
I think adding art to the walls makes so much of a difference. You can literally make it look like a new room very easily!
That’s very true and makes it so easy to change a rooms appearance.
I am all over the neutral look, especially with little pops of colour splashed here & there!
It really does look god doesn’t it.
Great tips. We have a very neutral home really but I do like an accent colour. The lighting is a good tip, I hadn’t thought of that.
Glad you found this useful. An accent colour can look great in a neutral home.
I think art is a perfect way to bring a splash of colour to a neutral room. I have done this in my bathroom and it looks amazing!
It can really bring a room to life.
I miss decorating but ever since we moved last year some of the boxes are still unpacked because we thought no use to open them because we are living for a long term travel next mai. But love neutral colors on the wall but with bold colors as decoration.
It can be great fun.
Some great tips here Mel – we aren’t allowed to redecorate due to renting but this is very handy!
That’s such a shame although you can add items to make it look like your own.
I’m at a point in my life right now where I tend to jump around from apartment to apartment to rented room in a house every few years so these pointers were super helpful! It’s always frustrating to feel limited when creating an aesthetic especially when some leasing companies don’t even let you put nails into the wall!
It does make it hard but then there are so many other things you can do.
Sometimes simple looks also create a different ambience and it looks so calm and comfortable here. Simple decors are effective.
Simple can look great.
Adding art to walls is deffo a good idea and I love grey and blush as colours neutral yet still effective – less is more 🙂 x
I find a good lamp is very important. Warm light causes a lot. I love little furniture and good lamps. This lamp is very elegant and has a wonderful shape that fits in many places.
It’s important to get a good one that fits with the look of the room.
I have grey walls and would’ve never thought to add blush pink to my decor. I need to get some new cushions for my couch so I think I might try that color as my couch is also grey.
That would look great Amanda. Have fun shopping!
What a great post Melanie, we have just moved into a rental from our own home and we are starting to add little touches here and there to make areas stand out. Its amazing what you can actually do with smaller spaces when you need to x
It’s true you just need to be creative. Good luck Lynne 😉
I live in a rental and I am always looking for ways to revive it and make it more personal but I get very few choices. I have been really looking forward to adding some art on my walls, to give them a character. I hope it works fine. 🙂 Thanks for sharing all these tips!
So pleased you found them useful. I hope you find some great artwork 😉
I loved the idea of neutral color with some art stuff and funky furnitures styles. Minimalist look with some pieces of art is the best way in home decor.
I need to add more art to my walls. It just makes a room come together.
I love art and I believe clean and neutral walls are the best way to show case them! I started recently collecting art pieces and it is becoming an obsession! Great ideas, love the living room painting!
A little art can really make a big difference to a room.
I need to redecorate and am keen to do something more neutral and change the lighting
Have fun with your project Kara.
Great tips, I find adding large mirrors to a room can often really change how it feels and adds a bit more light.
Large mirrors normally make a great addition.
Amazing idea, I always like the DIY decor hacks. These are some great tips for me thanks for the share. Loved it!
No problem Alok. hanks for reading 😉
I am pretty sure we are not allowed to hang anything in the house we are renting right now. I would have to double check the lease again. But these are some awesome ideas. I love that bedroom. It is very pretty.
Thanks, it’s a great looking room.
i really need to think about adding some art to the walls that I have. But I also need to post some pictures of my daughter around. I have a few and just haven’t done anything with them. I am not sure why.
That’s a shame. You could use them for a collage maybe 😉
Adding art to the walls are one that I really like. I love art and it brightens up the house or any places!
Art can really brighten a room and add a lovely focal point.
The lighting helps sooo freakin much! However in my room.. I should also redecorate haha 🙂 Thanks for the ideas!
No problem. Have fun redecorating.
I love the neutral look. It makes me feel more peaceful and the tones can be made without decorating. We use cushions and bedding to make our home look good. Thanks for your tips.
Both are great ways to make a home look good.
I agree that having interesting frames and pictures on the walls can transform the look of a house. As soon as I put up the walls a few Paris paintings, my living room look changed. Also, the curtains can have this effect as well.
These sorts of additions to a room can make it look amazing. Bet your Paris paintings look great!