A guide to Colour in interiors

I often love in other people’s interiors what I am too scared to do in mine. That is definitely the case with these flamboyant and vibrant looks. Using colour in interiors takes a LOT of planning. I feel that you can’t simply throw together a lot of colours without a clear plan – or you will end up with something that looks a complete mess. Throughout all of these rooms there is a scheme – whether using complementary colours OR different shades of the same colour. Whatever your taste and style, here are some tips on getting colour right in your home.

Similar hues and shades of one colour:

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In this room (above), the focus is on using yellow in varying shades and hues to create a cohesive vibrance without any gaudyness. You will also notice that although yellow is the first thing you see – only a few key items are yellow – the sofa, the lampshades and the candles. However, in addition the wood of the tables and chairs have a very yellow tone to them – which works extremely well in offsetting the rest of the features in the room.

Complementary Colours

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Now as most people know, even if only from high school art class, on the colour wheel there are complementary colours. Orange and blue, purple and yellow, red and green. When going for a bold colour scheme, using complementary colours as your palette can work really well – giving a very deep, regal elegance to a room. Use those six complementary colours as your guideline but don’t worry if you use a red orange instead of a red. A good example of this is this room (above) which uses deep red orange to complement the green. What do you think? The child in the corner is an extra touch… haha.

Triadic colour schemes

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This is my favourite type of colour scheme because I think it is a treat for the eyes and the harmony between the colours is less obvious and more thrilling than complementary or shaded colour schemes. Triad colour schemes are based around the colour wheel – normally you would pick 3 main colours that are all EVENLY spaced around the wheel. Adobe has a great free tool called Kuler - which allows you to easily create a colour scheme for an interior or for anything else. I use it for my food photography sometimes. It allows you to choose triad, complementary, compound and many others as a scheme. I HEART IT