SPRING GREENS

Draw inspiration from the most natural of decorating colours and use it to breathe new life into tired rooms

Draw inspiration from the most natural of decorating colours and breathe new life into tired rooms with perfect palette pairings

Was there ever a better time to go green? Think of all the qualities it evokes: nature, freshness, youth, regeneration – everything good and life-affirming. Decorate with its varying shades and you will be living among colours that manage to be both calming and invigorating at the same time: fresh in a kitchen, soothing in a bedroom, cool and inviting in a sitting room (especially one that opens onto the green of a real garden). Green often used to be dismissed as ‘institutional’, but in recent years it has been rehabilitated in a range of gloriously usable hues. Use it to evoke a period feel with mid-century pea green, Arts and Crafts olive or fern, Art Deco tones of jade and eau de Nil. For a more contemporary feel, play with checks and stripes, leaf-printed cottons and green-gold velvet – warm in texture but sunny and glowing, redolent of bright moss in a spring garden…

THE RIGHT TWIST Reconsider solidcoloured carpets, using them in a way that won’t look out of date. This pale green tone, combined with walls and cabinetry painted in a bright white, keeps it fresh. Madison Avenue twist carpet in eau de nil, The Country Living Collection at Carpetright