White Done Right: Contemporary Style

A contemporary window is dictated by whether you want coverings to offer decoration or light control. A solid fawn pull shade, beige blinds or sand color sheers, as seen in this dining room by designer Andreas Charalambous, are excellent choices. Unless a window is a stunning focal point in the room, it should be minimized.

Mistake to Avoid: Not Balancing a Space
If you employ color as a focal point with artwork or pillows on a sofa, you shouldn’t have one piece of art on a far left wall, and nothing on an adjacent wall, or bold pillows on one chair but not on the opposite one. "Anything you do different from the white, needs to be in balance and make sense," says Heldenbrand. Tying everything together is even more important in the starkness of an all white room because you don’t have other colors to distract the eye.

Jennifer Nelson writes about health, fitness, lifestyle and home. Her work also appears in Better Homes & Gardens, Woman's Day, Cooking Light and O, The Oprah Magazine.