If you can't paint your walls and don't feel like reupholstering your furniture, your only other choice is just to spruce things up with accessories: curtains, lamps, rugs, pillows, art, flowers, etc. Also, if your furniture isn't brand new, you could try painting that.

For me, the solution to almost any dilemma is to make it seem intentional. Either focus on art, art and more art, so it looks like the cream was an intentionally soothing backdrop for your fabulous pieces, or go monochromatic, adding natural textures and metallics for interest without jarring the serene palette. Plants always help a place look alive too, no matter the color scheme. Think of those gorgeous Upper West Side aptartments in the 70s, with big, simple terracotta pots filled with small trees and creeping vines...

I have a lot of vintage design books, and some of those places have aged really, really well...usually the creamy monochromatic ones! Good luck!

You can also try colored slipcovers for your furniture; chairs, sofa, ottomans, etc. I agree with MelissaKay, use accessories to tone down the cream.

Rather than splashing a zillion accessory colors that pop in the space, I would pick one or two ranges of color that are somewhat muted and blend nicely with the creme so this all looks intentional rather than like a mistake: maybe charcoals and soft greens.

Focus on accessories that have the largest visual impact rather than tiny pops of colors. For example, curtains, a layered rug to put on top of your carpet perhaps under your table, a throw blanket for your sofa. If you go with accent pillows, I might do varying shades of neutrals that somewhat blend with the creme. I think your dilemma might actually be a good backdrop for a very soothing space.

While cream is not the neutral I'd choose (between my parents' color phobia and landlord color phobia, I'm left with a cream phobia)... It is a neutral. No matter how outlandish the color, it will go with cream.

What I'd do is examine your wardrobe to see if favorite pieces form a logical palette. Chances are they do, and it should be pretty straightforward to add accents in colors from your wardrobe. Even if your wardrobe revolves around fire engine red, with so much cream it would still be pretty quiet as a color scheme. Especially since a monochrome palette can cover a variety of shades, so ballet pink, rose, terra cotta, true red, madder red and so on could all fit in. Monochrome color schemes can be absolutely lovely no matter what color you pick.

If your wardrobe is heavily neutral as well, see if your photos have common colors, or do some research on a favorite location to see if there's a distinctive local color scheme. It doesn't have to be something trite like "Paris"... our decorating scheme's theme is "neoclassical libraries" since my partner and I both aspired to living in the Library of Congress as kids. I happen to have a pretty vivid color memory, so the actual colors are more drawn from Pennsylvania's State Library and other neoclassical buildings I know well.

Heck, you can do what my sister does, and pick colors based on whether they coordinate with a pet. In her case, the pet is a relatively subdued parrot, so lots of green and azure blues and bits of grey (for parrot feet) and red (for the beak).

I am in the process of adding some colour to my cream office space (rented house) basically I have picked a nice bright colour which I am going to use to accent the room. My personal choice has been for a nice bright Acid/Lime green. Then the trick is to paint anything you can, front of of draws and cupboards.

It is also a great excuse to buy every accessory you might see when out and about in that colour.

I have the same problem in my apartment. I added accent area rugs and went on CL and got a few poppy looking chairs. I changed the color of my floor lamp shade from cream to orange. That took care of most of the problem.

Good luck!

turquoise is a wonderful color to consider. it can look very fresh and modern.

Pick 2 accent colors and go to town with curtains, an area rug or two, and accent pillows on the couch. This sounds like a great space for art, you can really cover the walls with it if the rest of the space is so monochromatic and serene. Prints are cheap and Michaels/thrift stores have cheap frames if budget is an issue.

Don't fret too much, that looks like a lovely space, a nice blank canvas.

Buy a few large artist canvases and you can either cover them with wallpaper or use a staple gun to attach fabric to them. When applied to a large wall space (few nails), they can make it seem much more colorful and give you a visual focus away from the neutral cream...

Contrast! But whatever you do stay away from anything brown or autumnal, which will just feed into the blurry softness that I presume is what you're trying to get away from. Pine green, deep blue, cersise pink and bright red should work (er, you don't have to use all of them!). I'd also stay away from yellows, whites (which IMO never go with cream) and burgundy or terracotta reds.

What's up with the photo? It's tiny and cropped strangely. Is that your actual apartment?

Get some awesome curtains from Anthro and new throw pillows. Fresh flowers. Problem solved.

You could always buy large canvases and just paint them in bright or bold solid colors, or a couple colors Rothko style. The size will take up a lot of wall space and is a great temporary fix for renting (I do the same in my place). It's easy to paint and can be cheap if you go to Michael's craft store with their half off weekly coupon.

I agree with Thorndale, Chenel and others who are saying pick limited accent colors and carefully apply. Rug, throw, and couple pillows. Plants, art, meaningful objects. Don't overdo it. Creme and wood, with other neutrals like gray and black tables, and a green pillow or rug... nice.

Find some large, brightly-colored travel posters - I like the stylized ones from the 1930s-50s - and hang those up. Toss in some coordinating pillows, a fun throw rug or two, and some great colorful flower pots for plants. The place will look bright and cheery in no time!

What I get in a swath of cream is a sense that someone couldn't commit to a color so they went for "color without color". So the suggestion that you pick a strong color and another one or two to play a supporting role is a good one. On my screen it appears that your paint has a seashell undertone of pinky orange. I would bring some carefully controlled black in if this were mine --piping on cushions, a graphic on an area rug, ebonized furniture, trim or pattern in curtains. Some rich coral and camel could give it a vaguely vintage-chinoiserie feel -- especially if you brought in a few brass (gasp!) pieces.

But that may not be your thing. You could easily take this in a beachy direction with a range of sea blues, grays, lots of glass, sisal rugs.

Your apt., sounds so calming.
I would keep the cream and inject all sorts of ( cream ) textures into the room.

...adding: and some clear green, in small doses, to lift the palette. The color of apple jade.

This is what accessories are for. Find a color palate you like starting with cream, and any other colors you like, or which are in the room already (lots of dark wood, for example, becomes a color) and add a couple of colors you like. You can pull them from artwork you have already, a rug, or coverlet or something you find. Just make sure that 1) it works with what's there and 2) you love it.

In a similar space I had years ago, I used a lot of plants/ and greens with stark white, a little gold and some deep brown woods and one painting that had some other deep jewel tones as well. One of my favorite rooms ever.

Why was it "a really dumb idea" to paint your last apartment's walls? If it's because you did a poor job, learn from that and/or get these walls professionally painted. If it's because you put in money and labor for something you had to leave behind, that's the price of living in any nice space. If it's because you had to paint it all back to the original when you left, maybe what you want is to paint one feature wall.

I would go with green as a complementary color to all the cream. Green plants, green naturals in throw rugs, greens in landscapes or modern art, green throws, soft textures, lots of wood accessories, and I imagine a calm soothing room. Choose the green tones you love the best, and start collecting.

Oh I hate cream too. Not sure why it was a dumb idea to paint your old apt. I don't think it was dumb idea.

I had the same dilemma! I easily found ways to separate the colours:

- Prints in frames. Visit a craft store and take a look at what the scrapbook paper aisle has to offer. The print pattern paper is easily affordable and can make great works of art! Pick out ones you like, buy 8x10 frames (black) and then cut paper to fit the size of the frame.

- Bold colours. My walls were cream and the furniture I picked out was tan and brown leather. I used a dark red blanket from Ikea draped over the back of the sofa to separate the colours. It worked. Accent pillows can also help.

Art, rugs, pillows, throws, lampshades, plants, draperies, art, art, and art can add color to a cream room. Oh. . . and did I mention art? :-)

You could do pops of color like everyone is saying. Or how about a mix of luxe neutrals? I'm a huge fan of sort of beige-on-beige animal prints, or you could mix some gold in there with some tans, beiges, etc. (or like this Z Gallerie pillow ice-on-taupe, which sounds a lot more sexy than beige on beige.

If you mix pattern and texture but stay within that same color family, you get a feel like a high end hotel, imho.