How do you play in a closed position?

This game resulted in a closed middle game. Was this the right way to play?

For white

 I love closed positions...I just wish i knew how to play them well.

Why am i thinking of The Sound of Music???, or is it Fiddler on the Roof??

Gonna keep this short, and broken up into small pieces. Kinda like feeding an old person.

28.Ne3 could've been improved with 28.Qc1!, targetting the isolated g5-pawn and forcing 28...Nh7, a very passive Knight. As with any closed position, knights are very happy to move around to strong squares, so just as much as you'd like to move a knight to a strong square like c6, you'd also love to take advantage of a move that weakens their knight!

30.R7a2 could've been improved with 30.R7a6! Nxa6 31.Rxa6 Qb8 32.Rxd6 where you have 2 passed pawns, I'd be lying if I say an engine didn't find that one for me.

Overall it was solid play, I would've gone for d5 and b4 with the same idea as you. You traded your (weak) light squared bishop for their (strong) light squared bishop and forced his knights to the edges while cramping his position early on. From there, breaking in via b5, a4-a5 and rooks to back it up sounds solid.

If I saw it in a game, I might try it, might not. I'm trying to force myself to view material as "just another imbalance" so if I was daring enough and the game wasn't crucial to win, I'd give it a go to see how it pans out.

I mainly wanted to point out the idea, though. Bullet6422 wants to know more about ideas to look out for in games like this, I think 2 protected passed pawns have a hopeful enough future that going down a Rook for a Knight + Pawn is worth consideration.

There is no right way to play that position. As Garry Kasparov said, "If you do not feel that the game can unleash your creative potential, you are already on the losing side". 

Look at the features of the position, i.e. outposts, potential outposts, weak squares, weak pawns, open diagonals, pawn breaks, space advantage, bad pieces, open files, semi open files, minority attacks, etc, and using your imagination, formulate a long term plan. This plan has to be sensible and justified by the current features in the position. Strategy wins games, remember that. You should not think in "moves and variations", but in "strategies and schemes". Once you have found the best strategy (given the current position), the best, most accurate moves in the position will become a lot more obvious. And if you choose a terrible strategy, well then, you will be making all the wrong moves.

One short, sweet book that will open your eyes is called: Simple Chess by Michael Stean. The book is small and only around 150 pages, but it will seriously open your eyes. Everyone in here should purchase a copy.