Brooklyn-based interior designer Taylor Simon coined the “unexpected red theory” in a Tiktok video that she posted in January 2024. She also posted it in her instagram page at about the same time.
The unexpected red theory is straightforward. She posits that when you put something red in a room, even when it doesn’t match at all, the room would look so much better. Red brings excitement and makes a room feel like it is intentionally curated.
This theory has influenced the interior design world even today.
Tips on How to Use the Unexpected Red Theory
Small Accents
The key to this design trick is restraint. Incorporate a striking red item, like a red lamp, a patterned crimson cushion, some small furniture, or a scarlet-colored art piece. The key is it must be an unexpected element, meaning that it is an isolated focal point.
Architectural Elements
Use a bold red to paint on window trims, mouldings, or door frames, for that element of surprise that make people take notice. It’s a kind of “mind ambush” that evokes an emotional response even before your mind has time to process it.
Statement Furniture
Use a red accent chair or a rug to break up a monochromatic color palette in a room. Get the undertones right. Choose a vibrant red for gray or white rooms, and an orange-toned red for rooms in a warm neutral like beige and cream.
Artwork
Your wall art can have touches of red or a red frame. These would be enough to draw the eye to it upon entering a room.
Create Balance
Ground your red element and not let it float in the room. You can do this by grounding the space through the use of darker neutrals or touches of black.
Using Red in your Living Space
Using the red color in your living space is not new at all.
Former Vogue Editor-in-Chief Diana Vreeland (1963-1971) was known for her iconic love for red, “the color of a ‘child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait’—not too dark, but a vibrant, energizing scarlet” (James Dunlop Textiles). Interior designer Billy Baldwin designed a room in her New York apartment that was wrapped in red, from floors, walls, furniture and home accessories, for which Vreeland made an off-the-cuff remark to a friend, “I want my apartment to look like a garden: a garden in hell!”
Trivia: It would be interesting to mention another “formidable fashion editrix” Anna Wintour who was the American Vogue Editor-in-Chief from 1988 to 2025, and who was immortalized by Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly.
Both Vreeland and Wintour set the tone for a whole industry. But whereas Wintour is known as an icy perfectionist, Vreeland was known as a flamboyant visionary.
Boysen Reds
Red is definitely flamboyant.
Here are 5 red paint swatches that you can consider for your home should you want to try out the unexpected red theory. Visit any Boysen Mix and Match Color Station (click locations) near you and ask to see the swatches or fan decks. If you are in Manila, visit The Color Library and see the Colorbooks.
We’ve got many interesting paint tips, color inspiration, and design suggestions lined up in the coming months. Subscribe to the blog and get technical, paint, and color tips for free.
