Well-decorated houses have a few things in common, and a lot that sets them apart. Some designers lean into colour, others are more pared-back, some like to take their palette's lead from artworks, others from rugs. Each individual designer has their own rules to abide by. Some are relatively universal: rules that are bound by form, light, colour and space. Others are personal, based on preference and gut instinct. But what are these rules? We trawled our archives and asked interior designers to open up their rulebooks to find out.
On finding inspiration
Brandon Schubert
"Get yourself a colour wheel. If you’re stuck, a colour wheel can be great inspiration for unexpected colour combinations. There’s a good free one online from Adobe. Don’t feel constrained by it, but it’s a great way to start training yourself to combine colours that may not seem intuitive to most people.'
Christopher Howe
“Create your own colour references instead of relying on Pantone or paint charts. When we choose colours for our fabrics and leather, we use flowers, berries, vegetables and sheep's wool as inspiration.”
On choosing the right colour
Susan Deliss
“Experiment with light. Try paint colours at different times of the day and night and in different areas of the room. Many people paint on cards or boards to try out but I find daubing new colours on my walls more exciting. Plus then I am committed to repainting. You can always test the paints behind a picture or a curtain so they are not visible all the time.”
Edward Bulmer
“Don’t think there is a right and a wrong when you choose paint colours. There are ‘rules’ about complementary opposites and the right tonality is key to making schemes work, but these will prove to be very helpful to you. Think of paint as a backdrop and reserve your bold colours for furnishings or artwork.”
Max Rollitt
“Don’t think you can choose a wall colour remotely. You need to be standing in the room, ideally at about 11am, to really see how the colour reads on all of the different surfaces.”
On using neutrals
Rachel Chudley
“When working on the basement area of a house don’t assume the best course of action is to paint everything white. This can drown out a room with little natural light, leaving it feeling drab. When working on a Bloomsbury townhouse with a large basement, we focused on the proportions and natural light of the house, using richer colours and textiles in the darker lower ground floor to work with the cosy feeling of this area. Conversely, we worked with light-reflecting tinted whites in the upper floors, giving the impression of a never-ending wall to ceiling.”
Buchanan Studio
“Don’t be scared of white walls. They allow an amazing neutral backdrop to fill a space with colour from other things such as art, furniture, and fabrics. There is often a temptation to paint walls in colours you love which can look fantastic but is not the only answer for how to introduce colour into a room.”
Ben Pentreath
"Stay away from beige. Especially when it's a polished marble."
On pink paint
Beata Heuman
“Pink is an unbelievably flattering colour to paint your walls - it reflects beautifully on people's skin and brings out the colour in cheeks and eyes.”
Ruth Sleightholme, decoration editor at House & Garden
“I personally have a front room in Setting Plaster and adore it, but it does need a fair bit of space and light - I am just on the cusp of having enough. Given enough light it looks a confident, chic colour somewhere elusively hiding between stone and pink. Given not enough light and it looks, well, drab and fleshy, more like sticking plaster than setting plaster. Fleshy pinks are definitely colours that benefit from white ceilings and plasterwork, note this beautiful room (above) by Howe and Harding & Read. If you choose a lovely mid tone, do be brave and paint the whole room: a feature wall is such a cop-out!”
On blue paint
Octavia Dickinson
“My general tip for using blue is to make sure you bring warmth in elsewhere. Pinky reds work so well and instantly warm up a room. And never rule out a totally blue and white scheme because I really don’t think there can be anything chicer.”
Alex Glover, founder of Austin James Fine Decorating
“Light blue is a mindful colour – it's calming and mentally soothing, so it works perfectly in larger spaces such as bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms. Dark blues are more mentally stimulating; so they work perfectly on the walls in smaller spaces such as studies, utility rooms, even a bathroom if that's where you choose to ponder.”
Anna Haines
"If using blue in a smaller room, consider wrapping the paint colour around the ceiling too, which has a wonderful cocoon-like effect. Cooler light blues can have a soft and calming effect in east-facing rooms, but I would be mindful of using strident blues or blue with grey undertones in this light, as they might feel rather more dour and cold.”
On green paint
Victoria Barker of Studio Faeger
“I always pick paint colours with an earthy, natural tone to them, so that they don’t feel too primary. I think this is incredibly important when going for bolder colours as it helps them ‘sit back and relax’, despite them sometimes being quite strong in tone. Even when choosing the brightest greens, I still make sure they have an earthy undertone to them, and usually, this is achieved with a natural pigment paint. My favourite paint brands for green are Little Greene and Edward Bulmer as I find their colours always sit well with my interiors. Sometimes there’s a place for a brighter, crisper green, but I prefer this to be as more of a ‘pop’ or an accent, as opposed to an all-over wall colour.”
Nicola Harding
“In my Berkshire project, I have used ‘Chelsea Green II’ on the walls and ‘Salvia’ on woodwork (both from Paint & Paper Library). This is a great colour combination when there are low levels of natural light and the slightly clashing colours make for an interesting combination that reminds me of nostalgic 50s colour pairings.”
On being bold
Ruth Sleightholme
“I would most often use deep, dark colours in rooms that are in themselves small, without much by way of beautiful sunlight. It can be a lost cause to try to flatter what was not there in the first place- so the infamous adage does not go. Bathrooms are great for this, or little snugs. The best darker colours must be richly pigmented, velvety and deep, and feel complex. By complex I mean not just straight-up red, or black black.”
Maddux Creative
“Don't be afraid to highlight ceilings and cornices. The transition from wall to ceiling can be a poetic affair if you pick out or gild some elements of the cornice, or paint the ceiling a dusky pink, which gives the feeling of a perpetual sunset.”
Catherine Olley
“Don't choose a paint colour that you love but use it for only one or two walls for fear of over doing it. Instead, commit, be bold and use it everywhere. Adopting a one or two wall approach will have the reverse effect to 'over doing it' and will make those walls stand out, rather than a seamless space with one consistent colour - the more contrasting lines we see, the more there is to notice. You could even consider painting the ceiling in with the walls for the ultimate seamless look - great for making low ceilings disappear.”
Douglas Mackie
“The greatest tool at your disposal is colour. Enjoy it, experiment with it and do not just stick to pale shades. There is nothing more wonderful than entertaining in a deep-blood-red library with glazed walls.”
India Mahdavi
“Don't limit yourself to only one or two colours. It's like matching your socks to your tie. One should experiment with colour and pattern - a harmony can come out of the chaos.”
The original article can be found on House and Garden UK.
