Hugo Fleming, director of award-winning local property styling and interior design company Cranberryhome, has five insider tips for colouring your home beautifully.
Look at the light
When painting, it’s vital to consider daylight. Download a free compass app to see which way your windows face.
North facing: avoid cold colours like blue, instead introduce warmer tones like ‘old English white’ or ‘linen cupboard’ from Crown.
South facing: these are full of warm light all day, so every colour looks great. Maximise light with soft pale tones like ‘Pavillion blue’ or ‘borrowed light’, both Farrow & Ball.
Match your paint to your architecture
Whether you live in a Georgian mansion or a 1970s semi, we can all get excited by our home’s history. If you want to evoke a certain style, it’s not just the colours but their combinations and proportions in which they were used.
Check out Crown’s ‘redefined’ series for a contemporary feel.
Paint for your lifestyle
To offset a busy lifestyle opt for a relaxation space – making your home more harmonious by curating gentle tones, ‘dirty’ pastels with a hint of black. ‘Drizzle’ from Little Greene is a great start.
Darker colours can help us create a quiet haven and reduce the heart rate. A home office needs plenty of natural light to enhance performance, go for fresh clean whites to create a sense of calm.
Be creative
Use different shades to create focal points in a room, consider painting the usual white surfaces such as ceilings, door and skirtings a complementary colour.
Paint yourself a headboard, particularly effective in smaller rooms or paint inside a cupboard to maximise space.
Express your personality
In the same way as we use colour in our wardrobes, the colours we use to decorate our homes are a reflection of our personalities.
Go with your instinct. Adventurous? Then go for a dark blue or grey. Creative day job? Then you might be hunkering after a calming cocoon.
Laidback? If you are attracted to softer shades, chances are you have a relaxed personality. Green shades will enhance your zen-like calm. Methodical? The logical one – then use an object that you love as your colour guide, colour match it and use as a starting point.
Hugo is often found at Ask an Expert at Grand Designs Live, and is in demand as an interior designer all over the UK. You can email him on hello@cranberryhome.co.uk or visit cranberryhome.co.uk for more information.
