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colour me happy
7 tips to follow whenever you're choosing paint colours - plus the biggest trend traps to avoid
“One colour can ruin everything,” says design consultant Adele Roche.
BASIC MAGNOLIA MIGHT not be cutting the mustard right now. But paint trends come and go, and you don’t want to pick something so trendy that it already feels dated in six months time.
So how do you find the line between boring and bold when it comes to choosing colours for your home? We spoke to colour and design consultant Adele Roche to get her advice on how to choose the perfect paint shades, whatever your needs.
1. Do test, test and test again
It’s not just helpful to get a tester pot, suggests Adele – it’s essential to choosing a paint you’ll love for a long time. “Always buy a sample pot and don’t choose in store,” she says.
“I think everybody has to choose in the environment they’re actually painting. People can’t understand why the colour looks different at home than it did in the shop, and the reason is that colour doesn’t exist without light, and retail lighting is completely different from residential.”
Don’t just test in the one place, either. “I would make sure my clients paint swatches beside their existing elements. So don’t pick the big blank wall and throw a load of samples on it. If I was doing a living room, I would paint a sample behind the couch, beside the window dressings, near the skirting and beside any artwork. And the one place I find people forget is beside the fireplace, which is key.”
2. Do understand your personality, and lean into it
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to deciding whether to choose a different colour for every room, or stick to a small palette of similar shades.
Adele believes this comes down your personality, at the end of the day. “There are main personality types and some are very elegant and peaceful and they cannot cope with colour because they need everything to be very tranquil and minimalist and very calm.
“And there are other people like you see a lot of people who are maximalists, and there’s layering, wallpaper, fabric, bright coloured couches, everything, who could probably cope with a mix of colours. For others, that would just drive them absolutely insane, they need the continuity and the palette to flow from one room to another. The only way to understand what you need is if you understand your personality,” she says.
3. Do choose your neutrals thoughtfully – and avoid ruling grey out just yet
Having every bit of your interiors in a shade of grey may be on the out – but Adele believes a neutral grey can still be the answer to many people’s problems when it comes to choosing a base colour for their walls.
“We have to ban magnolia, because magnolia doesn’t suit every space, and it’s often the go-to shade,” she says. “However, believe it or not, grey, the pure black and white grey shades without blue or yellow hues, those lighter tints of grey, go with more colours than creams and magnolias do, because cream is a shade of yellow. It’s easier to work other colours around in your scheme.”
4. Do be brave if you’re feeling dark
Darker shades like blacks, navys and dark greens are hugely trendy at the moment – which might usually be reason enough to avoid. But Adele believes these aren’t the kind of colours you’re going to hate in a couple of years if you’re brave enough to go for them now.
“I think we’re going to see dark colours for a long time yet. The negative about magazines and social media is that people are trying to live like perfect pictures, but the positive is that where before you might have suggested someone paint a wall nearly black and they would have immediately said no, but now you can show them inspirational images, and they can get it,” she says.
“People are getting more adventurous because they’ve seen more options, they’re seeing other people being braver and they’re deciding let’s do it – but they’re informed before they do it.”
5. Don’t be led by trends instead of your own style
Much like you wouldn’t wear every trend on the runway, every paint trend won’t suit your home and your space. “I firmly believe what’s on trend doesn’t suit everybody. Just because grey is in, or you love it in your friend’s house or in a hotel or in a magazine, if that one colour doesn’t suit the whole outfit, it will just ruin everything,” she says.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the colour of the year or everybody’s talking about it, it needs to suit your style and your environment. Colour defines your style as well – like a retro style will lend much more to brighter, happier colour rather than a more elegant, sophisticated style, so look to your style for inspiration.”
6. Don’t think in terms of aesthetics, and forget atmosphere
No matter what your choice colour might be, you have to consider the atmosphere you want to create for the space, or the colour may never feel right.
“Colour creates a feeling, and just by changing the paint colour alone, it can completely change how you feel in the space, so it’s a really important element to get right. We’re so influenced by trends and marketing, but really it’s about how you want the space to feel,” says Adele.
“Everyone has a different answer, and that doesn’t come down to trends, it comes down to whether you want it warm and cosy or if you want it relaxed and calm. Do you want it energetic or do you want it peaceful? It’s only when you ask that question, people realise they colours they thought they wanted aren’t what they wanted at all.”
7. Don’t choose paint before choosing furniture
While a lot of people start by choosing a wall colour and build a room around it, Adele advises the exact opposite.
“Paint is the last thing I choose for my ‘outfit’ for each room. I start with flooring, couches, fabric, everything and then I pick the perfect paint colour. Don’t pick your paint colour first, and hope to find things to match it. You’d never buy a pair of earrings in Penneys and then hope you can buy shoes and a dress to match them, you buy the dress first and then build on it.
“There are millions of paint colours, but there are probably only one or two couches that you’re going to love in the colour you want. People can cause themselves loads of work by going backwards like that,” she says.
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