Simplicity is very much the order of the day, but rooms can quite easily appear bland, dull and rather unfriendly. So consider varying the tonality of the colours, as well as creating an interplay of pattern and texture to enliven your scheme.
2. Dark with accents – If you’re toying with going dark but haven’t yet done so then go for it! Bold, inviting and elegant, dark colours transform a shy flower of a room into a head-turner. Don’t think twice about enveloping your walls, floor and ceiling in the same intense shade: it will help blur the joins between them. For visual variation, combine different tones of the same colour, or accent the woodwork, furnishings or accessories with a strong, contrasting note – even small rooms can take four dark walls and a ceiling as long as you do this. The trick with accent colours is to vary the intensity and shade from the background colour. Then they will help define and enrich any dark space.
3. Going for colour – When it comes to painting our homes we are often a little fearful about moving away from a neutral palette. We needn’t be. For fabulous results all you need to do is familiarize yourself with a colour wheel (available from most art shops and on the internet) and decide on a tonal, harmonious or complementary scheme. A tonal scheme uses either various shades of one colour, or more than one colour but all with the same intensity. Harmonious colours sit near or next to each other on the colour wheel and give a well–balanced, unified scheme. Complementary colours contrast (but don’t clash); dramatic and daring, they are generally used in moderation for accents. Now you’re ready to take the plunge!
4. Tonal schemes can look beautifully sophisticated, as they subtly graduate shades of one colour (monochromatic) or use more than one colour but with the same tone. There are no hard or fast rules about which colours to select, but the key to making this look work is to use plenty of texture and pattern to alleviate blandness. A trick many designers use is to take on colour and paint the ceiling in the lightest shade, the walls the next shade darker and the woodwork in the darkest.
5. Harmonious schemes use colours that sit next to or very close to each other on the colour wheel. The wheel’s construction is rather simple: the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue) form its core. Three secondary colours (orange, green and purple) are created by mixing two of the primary colours together. Rounding out the colour wheel are the six tertiary or intermediate colours. These are made by mixing primary colours with secondary colours, for example, green and yellow to make lime. All of these colours can be mixed with one another to give an enormous array of hues, shades and tints. Harmonious schemes are the easiest for a DIY novice to use as the colour combinations are automatically pleasing to the eye.
6. Complementary schemes are bolder and far more dramatic than harmonious schemes. They use colours that are opposite each other on the wheel, which have strong visual resonance when they are placed alongside each other (or example red teamed with green, or plum and yellow). When using complementary schemes, decide which colour you want to feature most – if you use all the colours in equal amounts they will fight for attention. You can also balance them out by introducing a few neutral colours, say, soft creams or whites.
7. Colour moods – Figuring out the right colours to combine can be a daunting task – you want your room to look stunning but the choice is so vast! It is well known that colours have a psychological effect, so first think about the mood you want to create: warm and cosy or cool and calming. Certain colours affect the natural light: others enhance or diminish space, so be guided by the qualities of the room itself. With these considerations in mind you’ll have the confidence to create a truly individual scheme.
8. Warm colours such as reds, oranges and yellows, give a room a healthy glow and so are good in north– and east–facing rooms, where the natural light is at its weakest. Think oodles of burnt sienna with some damson, raspberry and pink thrown in. Loved by fashionistas, such colours ooze charm, but their deeper hues can gobble up sunshine – be sure to opt for some reflective finishes to bounce the light around. Warm colours tend to make surfaces appear closer (known as ‘advancing’), making them fab for large hallways and for creating intimate dining rooms or boudoir–type bedrooms.
9. Cool colours like lilacs, green and blues are ideal for west–and south–facing rooms as they tone down strong sunlight. They have the effect of making surfaces recede, enhancing the feeling of space, and are thus ideal in small areas. Soft and subtle, cool palettes are often thought of as relaxing, instilling an air of peace and tranquillity in bedrooms and studies. And even their deeper hues (strong electric blue, for example) will have the same effect.
10. Combining colours – Good combinations are harder to define, since there are no set rules. Be guided by mood. One of my favourite colour palettes is nutmeg, stone, pink and pecan and chocolate. Another is bronze, azure, deep grey, pearly white, salmon, buff, ochre and sage. Both are rich in feel, give a strong finish and can be used to create a sense of drama. But you might prefer a fresher look, so opt for colours that are clean and pure, such as lime, primrose and hot pink.
Bad combinations occur when rooms lack visual harmony, rather than when any particular colour no–nos are used – after all, colour choice is extremely personal and one girl’s idea of colour heaven is another girl’s psychedelic nightmare. So rather than avoiding specific combinations or colours, consider highlighting one shade and reducing the amount of intensity of the other. Moderation is the key: both under-stimulation (lack or variation in colour and tone) and over–stimulation (too many high–intensity contrasts) will have you swiftly running for the exit.
This is an extract from Abigail Ahern's A Girl's Guide to Decorating, published by Quadrille.
