Designers say ‘unexpected red’ really works. Here’s how to use it.

The key to “unexpected red” is exactly that: It should be unexpected. “This leans into my one and only dictum in design — that you have to ‘f— it up,’” Jacob Laws, a designer in Charleston, S.C., said in an email. Doing so gives a room a feeling of needed approachability, he noted. “There’s nothing worse than a homogenous and boring space, one that is ‘too darling,’” Laws said. “To avoid any matchy-matchy hellscape, a feel-good piece of the puzzle is red.” Even in a small dose, the color helps a room feel good emotionally, Laws said. His go-to: wrapping a lamp cord in red fabric, which is subtle yet “turns up the endorphin meter.”