Dear Rita: I am Living in a Beige Hellscape of My Own Making!

Dear Rita,

I am a 32 year old single gal living in New York and I am sick of my apartment. It’s not the apartment itself, it’s the white walls, the beige everywhere, the lack of color in general. It’s all just so boring. 

I was living with my ex for a long time and I feel like I never really cared about my space before, but now that I’m single, and enjoy coming home, I want to come home to those effortlessly amazing apartments I see all over Pinterest, except not. I feel like everything I see across various social media lacks what I’m looking for or I like one style for one room and hate it for another. 

I love to travel and I love to go to flea markets and find weird things so I have really random stuff that doesn’t really match so I find it hard to bring it all together in a cohesive way which is why I just leave the walls beige. 

I really love bold colors and loud patterns but I just don’t have the eye. What do you suggest I do to get out of this beige hell I’ve created for myself and step into my fabulous single in the city girl era? 

Sincerely, 

Bored of Beige

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Dear Bored,

First, let me say my dear congratulations on living the single gal in the city dream. This will be a time in your life you will look back on and say “Wow, I’ve really lived!” and we all deserve that! So, out with the old dud and in with the fabulous new furnishings! 

Bored, you are absolutely right, beige is where happiness goes to die. Unless you have great colors to complement it, it is one of the lamest choices the rainbow has to offer. So let’s get you loud and proud and unafraid of making those bold design choices. 

I think you need a lesson in color theory to really help you brave the vast array of colors available to you. Choose a palette you want to stick with and go from there. Each room can be its own different and weird experiment but when you are working within your not beige color palette it will be cohesive and tell a story. I find that complimentary colors, analogous colors or tertiary colors work best for this type of project. Google a color wheel and learn the basics in how to pull those together. You can even start with the colors in the “weird” things you collect as your inspiration. 

Bored, I cannot stress this enough. Matching is as BORING as beige. Your weird little knick knacks and doo hickies are what are going to give your home a unique personality. Use those to your advantage, maybe even get more to bring the design all together. The key is coordination not conformation and that’s why learning about those simple color theory basics will help you hit this project out of the park. It will feel unique to you, your style and be a conversation starter for all the right reasons. Of this I am sure! 

Welcome to this new era of your life! As the leader of the wild old women’s club, I want to be the one to usher you into the period where your stories get better and your laugh lines get deeper. Cherish your friendships, nights out and dance on so many tables you lose count!

– Rita Fairchild