How To Use Powerful Colours In A Room Setting
Bold and bright, calm and modest, shiny and contemporary. Choosing a colour scheme for the living room, redesigning a corner in your office or changing the mood in a bedroom can be a delightful experience! The whole process of decorating your first apartment or redesigning a house is life changing. Let your thoughts flow and be ready to embrace what sparks joy in this particular moment.
Founder of Designers Guild and writer of several books on colour, British designer Tricia Guild says it all: “Colour changes everything!” Her books are a wonderful source of inspiration for anyone wishing to master colour combination and pattern matching.
When choosing colour, pay attention to your intuition and begin by thinking of the main activities you will be using that room for. Perceive how you wish to feel. Is this is a place where you want to be relaxed or energized, cozy or fresh? Will spend a lot of time in or just rush through, as in a corridor? Which shades are you drawn to?
Refined choices in colour and pattern can change the mood of any room
Usually, hot colours convey warmer feelings. Shades of scarlet and orange can make a room feel warmer and energetic. Mauves and purples are linked to royalty, luxury and nobility. Depending on the shades, they can also be linked to
spirituality and wisdom, especially when paired with gold.
Large walls, curtains or rugs in bold warm colours such as bright pinks, oranges and reds can be used in places where not much time is spent, since they tend to be loud and strong. Touches of those colours can work well in any room, creating a pop of colour.
Bright pinks add a pop of colour to a minimalist colour scheme
Balance is one of the main keys when selecting colours and patterns. Try to balance a patterned wallpaper with neutral furniture and fabrics. The same goes for rugs and curtains. When choosing one piece with a lot of visual information, try to keep others more basic, preferring matching tones.
In a bedroom, it is usually advisable that larger patterns or colorful painted walls are located behind the headboard. It creates a visual impact upon entering the room, but as people tend to sit with their backs against the headboard, it does not become visually too loud.
Pursue balance when choosing items: bold patterns go well with basic items
Cooler tones such as blue, mauve, whites and grays are usually associated with calm and tranquility. These go well for rooms with plenty of sunlight and natural finishes, such as wooden floors and tables, which adds texture to the whole ensemble.
Unconventionally colourful decorations can be an interesting focal point. Try matching themes when choosing wall art and tabletop decorations.
Pattern, colour and texture can have a huge impact on the energy and mood of a room. Texture is essential, since it includes not only visual information, but also affects our touch. Textural contrasts makes light shine in metallic surfaces and be absorbed into rugs and curtains. You can even think of paintings with texture to create effects on a wall.Texture and patterns can play together in fabrics, for example. Tactile surfaces invite you to feel a sofa with your hands, slowly, rather than just sitting on it. It can delight your feet while you walk on a soft rug or remind you of the beach when you stand on a rope one. Different textures help create a successful interior design project. When decorating with white tones, texture is essential to create different results, playing with matte and shiny finishes, for example. Metallics can also create interesting effects when added to white rooms.
White tones get enhanced through different textures and interplay with metallics and natural wood.
Wall colours are also super important! Before deciding on wall paint, try buying sample pots of the desired colours to test first. American designer Eddie Ross from Maximalist Studios suggests painting large poster boards in the desired colours to test each paint swatch, instead of painting directly on the walls. This way there is no extra work to get the paint off the walls before actually painting the room. It also helps testing different colour swatches in different walls and rooms, since you can move the painted samples around.
Bring in wallpaper samples, fabric samples for upholstery and curtains and see how things work together before finally deciding on what you like. Seeing everything together will help when choosing between similar tones of paint or fabrics, as well as mixing patterns.
A good pattern mix combining colours, fabric textures and decor items is a work of art. Use patterns with confidence and remember to trust yourself: you are designing a place to feel comfortable in. Designer trends matter less than your own comfort.
