How To Use Colour

Although there are a myriad of decorating styles and techniques, when it comes to colour choice and Interior design, there are no hard and fast rules, it’s about what you feel comfortable with, and your vision for your home.

Light Walls and Darker Woodwork

A marvellous way to create light and space is to use the lightest colour on the largest surface area, such as the walls, and a darker tone on woodwork.

This works well if you are using a neutral scheme, and gives a more ‘decorated’ feel.

The use of a dark colour on skirting boards, not only makes the walls appear lighter in contrast, but it also creates a strong contemporary aesthetic, making everything above feel elongated and lighter in contrast.

One Colour Used On Walls And Woodwork

There is great historic precedent for using one colour on both walls and woodwork and it is also popular in contemporary settings as it creates a strong, clean look.

It generates a sense of calm in a room, as well as exaggerating its size, as there are no contrasts to draw the eye.

Choosing Complementary Whites

When it comes to choosing white it’s really important to choose a white that complements the other colours in the scheme to prevent them from jarring. Each of our whites have different undertones making them more suited to different colours.

Whites like Great White and Dimity, for example, have red undertones so pair beautifully with pinks and reds like Calamine and Rectory Red. Cabbage White has fresh blue undertones so it’s the perfect white to use with our blues. James White is the ideal partner to our greens as it has soft green undertones that will create a cohesive look. While Pointing, with its soft creamy undertones works beautifully with yellows like House White and Dayroom Yellow.

These unique undertones also mean you can use our whites as colours in their own right when paired with All White which contains no pigment except white. Blackened will read as a cool grey when paired with All White, and similarly the pink tones of Great White are emphasised.

You can find suggested complementary whites and colour schemes for every colour on this website - simply click on colours and finishes then selecting your chosen paint colour.

How To Create The Illusion Of More Space

Costly extensions and architects aside, colour can be used to alter the shape of a room. When planning your colour scheme remember that a darker wall colour will bring it towards you, whereas a lighter colour creates the illusion it’s further away.

You can also prevent narrow hallways from appearing ‘tunnel like’ by painting the end wall a darker shade than the side walls. The same principle works within a rectangular room that you’d like to make appear squarer.

Creating More Ceiling Height

We are often asked how to make ceilings appear taller, and the technique behind this is to reduce the amount of contrast between the colour on the walls, cornicing or coving and ceiling.

Using the same colour on the woodwork, walls and on the cornice or coving will make the walls appear taller. It also helps to use a white on the ceiling that is sympathetic with the wall colour so that you’re less aware of where the walls end, and the ceiling begins. Try pairing Ammonite walls with a ceiling in Wevet for example.

Or you can gently graduate colour, by using progressively lighter tones from walls, to cornicing or coving and then a lighter shade again on the ceiling – this creates a soft lofty feel and feels as if the walls are gently graduating into the ceiling.

Finally, a very easy technique is to simply use the same colour on the walls and any cornicing or coving and up and onto the ceiling.

Creating Flow Through Your Home

We recommend choosing colours that all have the same tonal weight. It’s best to decorate floor by floor: considering the sightlines between rooms - there’s no need for military precision, but it is worth envisioning how colours will complement the adjacent rooms.

It can be rather effective to reverse wall and woodwork colours room by room, switching the colour of the walls in the main area to the woodwork colour of the other rooms. This creates a feeling of continuity throughout, and varies drama, as some rooms will be lighter than others, but still feel connected.

Making Rooms Feel Lighter

By using darker colours in a hallway, you can instantly make the other rooms off the hallway seem ardently brighter, and bigger. Meander into a lighter room from a dark space, and it’s bound to feel cavernous.

Making The Best Of A Room With Little Natural Light

Most of us have a small room that does not exactly benefit from natural light, and we all share an urge to paint it eye-wateringly white to force it to feel brighter.

But rather than unwittingly creating a doctor’s waiting room in your downstairs bathroom; instead use warm, darker colours or even bold patterned wallpapers to create a dramatic, yet intimate atmosphere.