Choosing what colours fill your home is important and it’s easy to fall into the trap of applying the same one throughout. When I design the interior of houses, I come up with a basic colour scheme for the whole house and take that from room to room, to create a cohesive colour flow.
The hall tends to be the central area and all rooms leading off from it should connect with one another, to avoid a choppy and disjointed look. We’ve all been inside homes where there’s a sudden explosion of colour which takes us by surprise.
Ask yourself what atmosphere you want to achieve. Colour preferences vary as much as personalities — some love the bright and the bold, while others prefer to be surrounded by neutrals. The good news is that there really is no correct palette. The difficulty lies in choosing from the infinite amount of options one faces when staring at the sheer amount of colours available.
Choose colours which work best for you Different colours affect the energy of a space and control the feel of your home. They have the potential to visually change the room size — dark and warm colours will scale down a large room, making it more cosy, while a small room can be opened up by applying paler, cooler colours onto the walls.
Painting the ceiling a darker shade that the walls will lower it, while a lighter shade will add height. And, if you were to paint parallel walls a darker shade than the other set of walls, it will make the room appear elongated. Alternatively, one bolder wall will create a focal point within the room if you have a special painting or piece of furniture you want to stand out.
Use accent colours to pull a room together By adding light accents to a room, you essentially lighten the patterns and colours of whatever is inside the room. Dark accents will then bring out the darker colours of your living space. Look at existing furnishings and accessories for inspiration and pick up colours from fabrics and artwork, using them as the basis for your scheme.
Identify the undertone in a colour by comparing it to other similar colours. Build a palette of four or five colours made up of one or two neutrals which share the same undertone as your accent colour. Then add a lighter and mid-tone or darker version of your chosen accent colour and perhaps an adjacent hue. Using your palette of four or five shades, alternate the primary, secondary and accent colours for each room - perhaps the main wall colour in one room becomes the ceiling colour in another and an accent colour somewhere else. Utilise accessories — cushions, lampshades or curtains — to carry these colours from room to room.
