Architectural elements married with the clever use of colour, materials and finishes that provide you with an environment that is innovative yet individual.
Colour nourishes our senses, and impacts upon our lives in a very powerful way. Colour is key when creating a winning interior, so when applying colour give consideration to area, function and existing furnishing to create a unified atmosphere.
In most instances the floor covering sets the scene, working from the ground up resulting in influencing joinery, and furnishings. Happily, we have turned the corner from minimalist interiors to a more ’soulful’ approach, combining personality and function, while being environmentally conscious.
As lighting influences colour, both natural and artificial lighting can be used to influence the overall affect and create moods. Lighting has evolved from a basic function to a major design element in both interior and exterior use.
For inspiration trust the psychology of colour’s and the emotions they evoke.
Red
Passion, intimacy and power. A backdrop for seduction, and all things oriental and lush.
Yellow
Sunshine, energy, and happiness. Evolving from buttery tones to stunning gold’s, sophisticated caramels and glowing hues. Unforgettable when accented with olive or exotic violet.
Blues and Greens
Peace, tranquility and nature. Turquoise is evident in both home wares and paint. Use blues and greens to unwind and de-stress.
Neutrals
Rich chocolates, warm beiges and versatile taupe’s. This palette is more popular than ever. Used in addition with textured fabrics and finishes to create interest and flair. The resulting contemporary approach is hard to go past.
PAINTING – TEN MOST COMMON MISTAKES
Since being contracted to Dulux as a Colour Consultant in 2001 and running a successful interior design business for twelve years, I have found most people make the same common errors when choosing paint colours. I hope this can be of use to you when choosing colours.
1. Look at all the existing elements in your room including flooring, furniture art etc and choose your paint colour to work with those elements in mind.
2. Planning a great space includes taking into account the usage of the area. Whether you’re resting, working or having fun entertaining remember to apply colour psychology when possible to enhance your paint choices.
3. Being afraid of colour and more importantly the strength of colour is high on the list of mistakes. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the darkest colour, most people choose a colour rating from 1-3. What they fail to realise is that creating a good strong backdrop of colour gives a space more depth and cleverly reduces the need for lots of decorating . Great for those on a budget or not generally confident with decorating.
4. Assuming a dark colour will make a room look smaller. This is not the case ! The key here is not the depth of colour its understanding that cool colours are recessive, creating the same or more space. Whilst warm colours are advancing and do make the room look smaller, however also create more intimacy, some rooms do benefit from this application .
5. One of my favourite mistakes is when people disregard their homes architecture and mindlessly follow trends. What most people fail to understand is that colours invoke feelings that support their overall style whether that be modern/traditional or contemporary. Always work with what you have, the boundaries can be stretched a little but know the difference ! When working in a modern home generally clean bright colours and neutrals work, including sophisticated greys, cool whites, and taupe’s. However a traditional home is best suited to warm whites and slightly dirtier hues. You don’t have to rush off and get a heritage colour chart but don’t paint modern colours in an older homes or vice versa, unless you are very confident with decorating and can pull off a design masterpiece.
6. Knowing what to blend in and what to highlight is also important when applying paint styles to suit your architecture. In general, modern homes should use a block application of colour ; The same colour on walls and woodwork, this reduced the amount of lines created in the room achieving a clean minimal look. Of course feature walls can be used to maximise interest. A traditional application for an older home is to apply more detail. So when painting wood work, perhaps pick a slightly darker colour than the walls or contrast colour, this creates more interest and depth.
7. Colour on the ceiling or no colour? If you have low ceilings, stick with ceiling white or choose a white that you prefer and have it tinted to your ceiling paint, but no real colour. If you have very high ceilings you can think about using a true colour but again this is more expected in an older home and even so the colours are typically more muted even though they may be dark. E.g. If you wanted to add red to your ceiling preferably select a burgundy rather than a fire engine red !
8. Too many feature walls in one home, is after all not a feature ! overall is boring and unoriginal ! Think this through and paint the features in limited rooms and where you feel you will get the most impact.
9. Thinking a white paint will greatly improve the lighting in a dark home. Quite simply it wont! It may help slightly, but in most cases the outcome is far more successful to choose a colour or colours to enhance your furniture and life style rather than trying to minimally enhance lighting.
10. No, all the house does not have to be the same colour throughout. Balance creating harmony and flow resulting in an interesting home. A safe design option is to personalise bedrooms, but to paint living and common areas another colour that works throughout. Lots of colour changes can be undertaken but preferably by a confident decorator, even so its advisable to achieve some link that unifies the overall presence and appeal of the home.