Image Source: Design@Studio17
And we would have to say we agree, although creating harmonious colour schemes and successfully applying them to spaces in your home can be quite a challenge. With a whole spectrum of shades, hues, tones, and tinges to choose from, selecting the perfect colour usually brings with it an element of trial and error. However, there are some simple starting points you can look at to help you narrow down your search and remove the risk of error…
Colour Theory
“Colour Theory” is an art and design principle which ties together the ideas, notions, and applications of colour. There are three basic categories of colour theory; the colour wheel, colour harmony, and the context of how colours are used.
1. Colour Wheel
A colour wheel is a circular visual representation of the colour spectrum. It can be a particularly useful starting point in selecting shades and building colour schemes for a specific project.
Image Source: Design@Studio17
2. Colour Harmony
Colours seen together to produce a pleasing affective response are said to be in harmony, although this aspect of colour theory can be quite subjective, as every person perceives colours slightly differently, so what may look harmonious to one person, could not quite strike the right balance for another.
Image Source: Design@Studio17
3. Context of Colour
This element is based around how the colours you choose will make you feel, or the purpose they will give to a space. As an example, you could want to choose colours for an ensuite bathroom that make you feel relaxed and bring a sense of calm to your space. If wanting to achieve this feeling for an ensuite bathroom, you would likely settle on a cooler colour palette to include shades of blue and green or purple, mixed with some neutral colours.
Image Source: Design@Studio17
The Impact of Colours on Mood
Many people have commonly associated colours with feelings, such as perceiving some colours as more calming than others. While everyone has their own preference for how they want the colours in their life to make them feel, there are some common associations of colour that you can consider when applying colour schemes to a design for a space in your home.
Warm colours, for example, create optimism, energy, brightness, and excitement, while cool colours radiate peace, tranquillity, calm, and serenity.
Warm colours include shades of yellow, red, and orange.
Cool colours include shades of blue, green, and purple.
Neutral colours include grey, brown, black, and white.
Neutral colours are unique because they can fit into any colour scheme to create a sense of balance. For instance, white can serve as a balancing point between two cool colours or two warm colours.
Considering how you want to the spaces in your home to make you feel, can have a huge impact on your wellbeing. Different spaces call for different moods in most cases, and being able to find the perfect colours to evoke these feelings is enchanting. One of our favourite questions to ask when starting a design scheme for a client is “How do you want your new space to make you feel?” If you are feeling stuck at the colour scheme selection phase of your design, we would highly recommend spending a moment to consider this question.
Colour Myth-busting
You will likely have heard some of these sayings before in varying places and versions…
“Brown and blue will never do.”
“Red and yellow catch a fellow.”
“Pink and green fit for a queen.”
“Blue and green should never be seen, except with something in between.”
“Red and green should never be seen, except upon an Irish Queen.”
While the origins of such sayings prove even tricky to find for Google, we think these age-old ‘rules’ are meant to be broken, right? Time and again we see these colours working brilliantly together in the most natural of environments, proving that rebelling against colour hearsay most definitely has a place in our homes.
Above: All Images by Design@Studio17
Navy Blue Dining Room: Image by Design@Studio17 | Yellow Hallway: Image Source via Pinterest | Pink Sofa: Image by Design@Studio17 | Sage green lounge: Image Source by beetrootandblack on Instagram | Image by House & Home via Pinterest | Post Box Red Side Table: Image Source by House & Home via Pinterest
"Small rooms shouldn’t be painted dark colours.”
Our take on this myth? Whatever colour you choose for a smaller space, it is not going to make it get any physically bigger! We will always advise leaning into the cosiness if you love a deeper hue.
Image Source: Design@Studio17
For gorgeous colours of paint, which are not only pleasing to the eye, but also kind to the environment, we love the selection available from Mylands. In 1985, Mylands was awarded the ultimate seal of approval - a Royal Warrant, and if their paints are good enough for royalty, we think they make a perfect choice for your home too! Mylands’ paints are available in a vast range of colours in various finishes for all your decorating needs.
Image Source: Mylands.com
Another brand that we love for their modern approach to creating beautiful, breathable, bio-based paints is Atelier Ellis. Featuring a selection of 107 timeless colours inspired by nature, their paints are great for spaces that you want to feel quiet and cocooned in. Their transparency in their materials and manufacturing processes are another aspect that we think makes a great sustainable choice for paint in your home.
Image Source: Atelier Ellis via Instagram
Little Greene are another company who are committed to the socially and environmentally responsible production of high-quality paint. Their water-based formulas carry the industry's lowest eco-rating, with VOC content of virtually zero. This means that you don't need to worry about solvent contributions to the atmosphere, any respiratory issues, or nasty smells; and their eco-paints are close to odourless. Their range of oil-based paints, favoured for a long-lasting, durable finish have been reformulated using sustainable vegetable oils, without compromising on their unrivalled quality.
Further to that, one of their paint collections ‘Re:mix’ is a concoction of left-over, unwanted paints, reformulated into a beautiful, matt finish for interior walls and ceilings. The upcycling of these waste paints prevents as much as 60,000 litres of high-quality mineral and organic raw materials from going to waste each year. If you want to get your hands on one of these twenty colours, you’ll have to be quick, Little Greene made these upcycled paints in individual batches as an initial, limited run in 2.5l tins. Revel in the delight of having a gorgeous exclusive edition of their paint on your walls, all while knowing that by choosing Re:mix paint, you’ve also made a sustainable choice.
Image Source: LittleGreene.com
Aspects for consideration when choosing your perfect colour schemes
Impact of Light
Light from natural and artificial sources can have a huge impact on how a chosen colour can look in the space you envisaged it in. Depending on the orientation of your rooms, if you were to have a north facing space in your home, you could expect that any colours within it would have cooler hue cast upon them in natural daylight. If you were looking for a lighter toned neutral colour for your walls in a northern facing room, you should opt for colours with a warmer yellow or pink base, rather than green or grey, to balance out the cool of the natural daylight.
Time of day
Alongside the direction in which your rooms face, the time of day changes the way your chosen colours will look. We would recommend that before committing to your colours, that you sit with testers throughout the day and during different weather conditions, for at least a week, to ensure that you are happy with how your colour looks under different conditions.
As part of our Virtual Room Design service, we monitor all the selected colours within your design in this way, we recommend that you also apply testers to each wall within the space you’re thinking of using it in, and to write the names of the paints underneath, it’s easy to forget in a day or two and you will need that long to ensure that its perfect for your home.
Usage
While paint is usually the go-to for adding colour to your walls, you can of course also look into the vast array of wallpapers that are available to curate a signature look that will make your space feel uniquely yours. Wallpapers offer a variety of finishes and complexities in prints and designs and can look beautiful in the right place, however a word of warning in using them in spaces with high traffic, or where they are likely to get scuffed – once a paper is scuffed it is usually beyond repair, and so would require rehanging entirely – for this reason, our preference is to explore the many colour options and finishes that paints can bring to a design scheme, as it can be easily ‘topped-up’ to keep your space looking fresh.
Colour Contrasting
Colour contrasting is based on the theory that selecting colours from opposing sides of the colour wheel will work in harmony, but a tiny nuance of the wrong shades being selected can throw the whole contrast off and not quite hit the mark. We adore these contrasting green and pink tiles from Claybrook in ‘Discotheque Whitney’ but saw many others during this search for the perfect bathroom tile, which were not providing that harmonious contrast.
Image Source: Claybrookstudio.co.uk
Colour theory appears relatively simple in explanation, but often it’s in the application that you can start to find difficulty; if you have any colour queries, we’d love to help, and our Creative Studio service is a perfect option to help you find the colours that make your spaces feel like home. Drop us a message to see how we can help you find the ideal colours for your bedrooms, living spaces and bathrooms.
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