Sunday 21st March marked International Colour Day; however, I was inspired and so have decided to extend the day out and mark the occasion with a notebook entry on a favourite topic of mine: colour in the home. For so long we had seen the neutral, paired back interiors grace the pages of our favourite publications and Instagram feed. However, the restrictions of the past year have seen us all spend more time indoors than we would have ever anticipated, leading us to look inwards and reflect on the choices we have made in our own homes. Yes, plain and simple is chic but, perhaps unsurprisingly, more and more people have chosen to take the leap - experimenting with their interiors and going bolder in an effort to brighten up what has otherwise been quite a sombre year.

So, if this burst of wonderfully colourful interiors has left you both inspired and overwhelmed, I have put together a few simple ways for you to go about incorporating colour into your home.

Pops Of Colour

Living rooms are typically the largest and lightest rooms in a home, so are often the prime spot to get creative and colourful. But, as the largest room, a bold colour for all four walls is not necessarily the solution to brightening it up. Colours can be injected in alternative, inventive ways. My favourite? Coloured framework. Paint your doorframes, ceiling mouldings or bookshelves. That way, you can choose a bold colour without just going for the cliché ‘feature wall,’ incorporating it in inventive ways which injects colour without overpowering the room.

This bold yellow colour surrounding the doorframe in this sitting room would no doubt have been very intense had it been painted on each of the walls; however, it is just the right amount of colour when paired with this, neutral backdrop and tonal furnishings. But, if you are after something a touch less bold, but equally as striking, painting the back of your bookshelves is a great way to go. For example, this dark green, painted in Farrow and Ball’s ‘Verdigris’ is the ideal compromise. It works perfectly with the crisp white walls – painted in Farrow and Ball’s ‘Strong White’ - creating a depth and cosiness to the room.

Another tip to take from these sitting room schemes is to carry the pops of colour into the accessories, as it creates further unity within the room and allows for more injections of colour. Also, as to not make the room too matchy-matchy, carry the colour through but have different finishings and textures. For example, the green from the bookshelves is almost the perfect colour match to the lacquer tray on the ottoman, but the glossy finish makes the room look less planned out and more of a happy coincidence. And with the yellow detailing, the colour works perfectly with these upholstered chairs in their beautiful La Maison Pierre Frey fabric.

However, in my opinion, there is no such thing as ‘clashing’ and ‘bad taste.’ Once you have taken the plunge and chosen your wall colour, you will find that most things you have in your home will work with it in some surprising way. So my top tip when choosing a colour would be: just choose a colour you love and would be happy seeing every day and everything else will fall into place.

Another way to subtly add colour into your scheme without it all being one block colour is to use a sponging technique on the walls. Below is the master bedroom from my Ravenscourt Park project. Here, I brought the blue from the accessories and the bed head onto the walls creating an almost distressed look to counteract the modern and slick finishes. I did not travel the blue all the way up the wall to the ceiling, so the room remains bright and light, and this effect creates the illusion that the room is bigger than it is.

Go Bold in Small Spaces

Small spaces are the perfect place to make more adventurous colour decisions - especially bathrooms! In my opinion, you can never go wrong with a bold bathroom, so instead of keeping those white tiles, why not add in colourful ones? You don’t have to use bright colours – pastels can do the trick. For inspiration, why not check out the bathroom from my Ravenscourt project that I covered in thin pink blush tiles. I kept the pointing darker to make it warmer, and I also chose a variety of different shades of pink to make it softer and more subtle.

Décor

The best way to bring colour into your home is to fill your walls with art. However, building an art collection can be expensive and overwhelming, but once you get going it’s much easier to bring in new pieces to work with what you have. So if you don’t know where to start, wall plates are often a good way to go and a more economical choice than art when you are looking to fill empty wall space in your home, but by no means less striking. It is also a fun solution as you can experiment with colour and get creative. My only suggestion would be to have a rough plan in place before you start hanging! Have a look at my Iconic collection on my website (pictured) for some inspiration; as you can see in the photo below, I like to use a variety of sizes and colours when hanging my plates. And the best part? You can swap them around every few months to change up the look and feel of your wall.

Lastly, I couldn’t talk about colour without talking about rugs. Graphic bright rug designs are such fun and are a simple way to add colour and interest into an otherwise paired back interior. Not only are rugs important to stop sound travelling around the room and echoing, but they are also a more discreet place to experiment and be playful with colour. Rugs are also a less permanent option to add personality to your home, which is especially difficult if you are living in a rented property and don’t want to change the flooring or paint the walls. If you’re feeling bold, my Luscious Lips Rug and Ramsey’s Eye Rug, pictured above, are available to order online now.