Climbing the walls with colour conundrums?
If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I regularly experiment with paint colour and treat my home like a 3D canvas! I love the power of paint and the way it can totally transform the mood of a room but I fully appreciate the majority of people have absolutely no time (or desire!) to chop and change their room colours on a regular basis. I spoke to Charlotte Cropper, International Colour Consultant and wallpaper designer (@charlottecropperdesign), who kindly shared her recommendations for decorating different spaces:
Best shades for dark houses
Often in dark houses, I encourage embracing the lack of natural light and going for a dark and moody look. Choose colours with warm undertones that feel cosy yet dramatic, like rich teals, blues, greens, purples and pinks. Having said that, dark and moody isn't for everyone (me included!), in which case I love recommending soft, warm hues that can really come alive with good, layered lighting. I particularly love soft neutrals and pinks for the walls and adding accents of teal, green or terracotta in the furniture or furnishings.
A great example of this is a North facing, dark and dingy room transformation I worked on with Judith from @joelixjoelix: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY7SH8Loe9f/
Best shades for small rooms
If you have a small room that gets a lot of natural light, keep this space light and bright with whites, neutrals and soft pinks. If your room lacks light, I would steer towards dark colours as they absorb light and shadow, blurring the corners and edges of the room - think dark greens, blues, teals and rich greys with colourful undertones.
How to make a room look bigger
When it comes to making rooms appear bigger, it's all about tricking the eye. This is where colour theory comes into its own! The key is creating less contrasts to the eye, so wrapping the ceiling in the same colour as the walls or dropping your wall colour onto the skirting is a great trick and can add a contemporary twist on room decor. Consider lighter blues and green hues as these colours recede, anything too red and too bright will advance and make a space feel smaller.
Best shades for rental homes or looking to sell
When looking to rent or sell, there are definitely more options than just your 'stereotypical' neutral. Consider light hues in open plan spaces to really emphasise the sense of space and warm, cosy colours in bedrooms and smaller spaces. Beiges, soft greens, light pinks and earthy tones in general are very easy to style, so if you're a renter, you can change the decor easily and if you're selling, these colours can help people visualise how they might use a space.
Trending colours right now
It's no secret that blue is back! You've just got to look at Lucy William's gorgeous new home to see how delicious blue can be. We are also starting to see cobalt blue come through, a dose of fun that will make your interior really pop. Green is never going out of fashion...it's our connection to the outside, 'nature's neutral' as I like to call it and will always be at the forefront of our minds. Earthy colours are also popular at the moment, as we see people gravitate towards warm and cosy colours that feel cocooning and safe. During and post covid, the importance of home and creating a safe sanctuary space really hit home (excuse the pun!), and earthy colours can really help achieve this. Check out the Lick 2023 colour palette that I curated with the Lick Studio team! https://www.instagram.com/p/CkIA6Goqzbh/
From my own personal experience, it can be hard to get a realistic representation of shades on paint brand websites and social media because a lot of photos are edited or filtered. Popular colours have their own hashtags (e.g. #hagueblue) and if you search using these you’ll get to view lots of images however I can’t stress enough how much I’d recommend ordering samples so you can see a colour in your own space. If it’s a peelable sample, consider ordering a few of the same colour to give you a better vision of what it will look like in your room. Make sure you also move the samples around the room and view them at different times of day so you can see how colour looks in different light. If you pick up tester pots then why not paint on to sheets of A4 paper instead of on to the walls as this allows you to move the colours around the room and means you don’t have to live with ugly paint splodges everywhere!
Colour choices can be really difficult to get right and what looks great in one room could be a disaster in another if the lighting is different or it clashes with the furniture or carpet/ flooring. If you’re planning to stay somewhere for a while, take your time. Tempting as it is to make your mark on a new property or immediately act on a new idea, mull it over for a while… it’s amazing how quickly we can fall in and out of love with colour choices!
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Good luck!
Charlotte Cropper is an independent colour consultant and designer who is well known for her designs for Lick . For more advice and inspiration, follow Charlotte on instagram: @Charlottecropperdesign