Elegant bedroom featuring rich earth tones with bold accents, showcasing ways to elevate an earth-tone palette with striking design details.

When it comes to designing a home that feels modern and calm, embracing an earth-tone color palette is the way to go. From beige and brown to sage green and rust, earth tones can bring grounding effects to virtually any living space, mimicking the soothing ambiance found outdoors. While earth-toned spaces are known for their relaxing atmosphere, they usually require a bit of help in terms of creating visual intrigue. Luckily, elevating the earth-toned adorned rooms in your home can be as simple as adding a few thoughtful statement pieces. Check out these 10 ways the trusted Star Furniture design pros recommend making the most of your earth-tone palette with bold accent pieces.

1. Incorporating Statement Furniture

Along with transforming your home into a tranquil oasis, an earth-tone color scheme can create a beautiful neutral backdrop that can be accentuated in a variety of ways. Once your neutral space has been established with stylish shades of leafy greens or sandy tans, you can add a touch of drama with statement furnishings. Oversized armchairs, unique side tables, a stately bed frame, or an ornate dining set can all make a bold impact in your home by combining soft colors with eye-catching pieces. Of course, when decorating with any bold furnishing, balance is key. To ensure that your statement pieces shine alongside your earth-tone palette (without overwhelming it), it's important to design the rest of the room strategically. Be sure to stick with one or two statement pieces within one room, then choose more understated pieces of furniture for the rest of the space. For instance, pair your boldly printed accent chairs or unique side tables with a neutral sectional sofa. The result will be a living room that feels polished and composed rather than busy.

2. Adding Vibrant Accent Colors

Believe it or not, bright colors can often make earthy tones more attractive and distinct. The trick is to choose accent colors that complement their surrounding neutral counterparts. For instance, bringing deep blues together with soft grays or rich oranges with dark brown shades is a surefire way to create a dramatic effect in any room while maintaining the relaxing ambiance that makes earth-tone color schemes popular. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to bring natural color combinations to life with vibrant accents. A few small pops of noticeable color can go a long way to bring an entire space to life. Here are some simple ways to add vibrant accent colors to a space decorated primarily in earth-tones:

  • Add throw pillows or blankets to your sofa, armchair, or bed for a playful pop.
  • Create a focal point in the room with a colorful piece of art or wall hanging.
  • Tie the room together with a complementing area rug.

3. Using Bold Textures and Fabrics

No matter what color combinations you bring into your home, color alone - even a fabulous earth-tone palette - is never enough to bring a space to its full potential. Texture is also a pivotal player in terms of helping a room feel stylish and balanced. If you've never considered the textures used in your home before, take a look at spaces that you find attractive and welcoming. Chances are that they use a variety of different textures, fabrics, and materials that enhance their overall ambiance and aesthetic. Fortunately, this is simple enough to replicate in your own home. 

Look for furniture and accessories that have bold textures, such as velvet cushions, chunky knit blankets, or leather upholstery. Once you have a few distinct textures in the space, you can mix and match them with others. For instance, a chunky throw blanket and woven accent pillows would pair beautifully with a linen sofa that features a subtle texture. By pairing understated textures with ones that are more noticeable, you'll be able to curate spaces that exude depth and visual appeal.

4. Introducing Patterned Elements

Like texture, utilizing patterns like a pro can instantly elevate an earth-tone palette in a space. Patterns can take colors that feel flat on their own and effortlessly help them feel more animated and unique. For example, a simple tan armchair may appear to be stylish enough for a space but not have nearly the impact that the same armchair would have in a tan and white striped pattern. Along with making living spaces more interesting, patterned elements can also reinforce the theme of the room. Adding a geometric rug to your home office can add to its contemporary vibe, while floral curtains may be the perfect addition to your rustic, farmhouse bedroom. For this reason, it's a good idea to consider what message the patterns you choose to use within a space will convey. 

Star’s pro tip: choose patterns that will complement the size of the space, not overwhelm it. When in doubt, be sure to ask a trusted Star Furniture designer to help select the best patterns for your home to bring your dream spaces to life.

Bright dining room with earth-toned furniture and bold chandelier, illustrating ways to elevate an earth-tone palette with striking design details.

5. Highlighting with Unique Lighting Features

Lighting can serve as a powerful accessory in any space. While a standard light fixture might go unnoticed or detract from a room's aesthetics, a unique light fixture can become a focal point, enhancing the beauty that earth tones provide. With this in mind, it's worth exploring all of your lighting options when trying to elevate an earth-tone palette. Don't be afraid to make a statement with bold lighting choices, such as a pair of bold buffet lamps in your dining room, a sculptural floor lamp in your bedroom, or industrial pendant lights in your kitchen. While you're selecting lighting solutions that are both beautiful and practical, don't forget to think about how you plan to layer the lights in the space. Pairing overhead, task and accent lights together is the best way to create a warm, inviting atmosphere that will help any earth-toned room look and feel its best. 

6. Incorporating Natural Elements

While earth tones can be curated and accessorized in a way that fits into virtually any home decor style, incorporating materials that can be found in nature is a no-brainer. One way to accomplish this is with houseplants. Large indoor plants, in particular, would make a charming addition to any bare corner of your home, adding much-needed color and texture. Likewise, wooden sculptures and stone accents can play off of the colors that surround them in space, including forest green and smoky blue. As with any piece you plan to add to a space, it's a good idea to choose ones that enhance the particular earth-tone palette that you're accessorizing. 

7. Using Bold Wall Art and Decor

Few decorations will have an impact on the overall vibe of your home as wall hangings. Wall art can set the mood for the entire space. Why not choose wall decor that makes a striking impact in an otherwise neutral room? The good news is that there are countless ways to put together a stylish space with eye-catching artwork. One way to create a focal point is with a large abstract painting. This allows you to easily incorporate various colors, textures, and patterns, depending on the look you're going for. If you want a space to feel contemporary and polished, you can't go wrong with a gallery wall that highlights your favorite photographs in matching or complementary frames. And don't think you can't bend the rules a bit by using something unexpected as your wall art, such as a metal wall sculpture. No matter what type of wall hanging you choose, be sure to hang it at eye level on the center of the wall for a result that looks like a professional arranged it.

8. Playing with Scale and Proportion

If you haven't already caught on, there are many ways to add visual interest to an earth-toned space. Sure, unique color combinations, textures, and patterns all have an important role to play, but they're certainly not the only options to enhance the style and comfort of a space. Playing with the scale and proportion of the decor within the space can also make your home more interesting. For most homeowners, displaying pieces together that are the same size feels natural, such as a medium-sized mirror over a side table. In some cases, pushing the limits of interior design by embracing bold choices can make the room feel special. This can be done in many different ways, such as using an oversized mirror where you'd expect to see a smaller one or hanging a few pieces of large-scale art instead of many smaller pieces. 

If you're worried about keeping different scales balanced to maintain harmony in your home, the Star Furniture design experts can help guide you along the way. Simple steps can make a big difference in terms of playing with scale like a pro, such as replacing one traditional wall hanging with a cluster of smaller ones. 

9. Adding a Statement Rug

If you love your earth-tone palette but feel like a space in your home is lacking that special something, bringing in a bold rug may be the perfect solution. Area rugs can provide an array of benefits to any space, large or small, including creating "zones" in an oversized room, enhancing its warmth, and adding a bold pop of personality. Best of all, statement rugs come in many different styles to meet the needs of any home, such as Persian rugs, brightly colored modern rugs, and large patterned rugs. When choosing the perfect rug for a room, there are two important factors to keep in mind: size and style. The rug should be large enough to fit under the front legs of the furniture within the space. Likewise, the pattern of the rug should complement the surrounding decor of the room so that it pulls the look together rather than making it feel disjointed. 

10. Creating Contrast with Darker Shades

The sky's the limit when it comes to enhancing your particular home decor style with an earth-tone color scheme. Just because the colors are inspired by those found in nature doesn't mean that your living spaces have to be limited to rustic or natural designs. You can easily give your home an air of sophistication and class by creating contrast with darker shades of your favorite earth tones. For instance, adding a darker shade of gray to your dining room walls can create a feature wall that will make a dramatic focal point. Likewise, dark green accent chairs can add a stunning contrast next to your cream sofa. Dark accessories can also bring eye-catching contrast to a neutral space, such as a dark lamp positioned in front of a light-colored wall. While prioritizing contrast can help make a space feel more chic and stylish, it's important to balance pieces with a darker shade with plenty of light earth tones so the space doesn't feel too dark or closed in.

Elevate Your Earth-Tone Palette with the Star Furniture Design Team

Nothing makes a house feel like a home quite like a welcoming earth-tone palette. Along with providing a modern aesthetic and calming ambiance, earth tones can easily be paired and elevated with a variety of pieces to help your living spaces look their best. If you're ready to make the most of your earth-tone palette with bold design details, the trusted Star Furniture design team is here to help make the process simple and fun. Whether you're beginning your decorating journey from scratch or are looking for the perfect finishing touches to pull a room together, we're ready to share our decorating expertise. Visit us online to check out our large selection of quality furnishings, including earth-tone armchairs, coffee tables, and more. We look forward to helping you make your home shine with calming earth tones and bold accent pieces.