Why a common colour palette can help rooms flow, effortlessly
Help rooms flow effortlessly with a common colour palette that you love – you’ll find it much easier to make design decisions and shop for those key pieces, too
Does your home have its own red thread, or, as it’s known in Scandinavia, ‘röda tråden’ – a common or creative connection that holds something together? If you delve deeper into the concept, you’ll discover Theseus in Greek mythology, who escapes from a labyrinth by following a red thread; or the invisible red string of fate in Eastern mythology, which the gods tied around the ankles of people destined to meet. It seems that a red thread, if followed, is a good guide.
We’re certainly not suggesting you unravel balls of red string around your home as if on a magical treasure hunt from room to room. ‘Think of it as more of a colour flow,’ says Andrea Curtis, artist, designer and colour consultant, who runs online consultations as well workshops (andreacurtis.co.uk).
‘The red thread is a natural part of a cohesive, harmonious scheme where you’ll have a particular colour or colours that organically pop up in different parts of the house.’
‘Colour repetition is one of the most important elements of design as it can stop a house feeling disjointed,’ says interior designer Amy Jones (greta-mae.co.uk). ‘Repeating colour helps create a cohesive scheme, bringing all of the rooms together to feel like a home, rather than individual rooms leading off a hallway. It’s a fairly easy approach to take – most simplistically, look for a key colour or texture and repeat.’ Of course, it doesn’t need to be red. ‘I always like to take inspiration from nature,’ adds Amy. ‘I’m a big fan of lots of shades of white and blue-green tones – these are incredibly calming colours.’
‘I definitely use a pink-thread approach to my house, because, unsurprisingly, it’s my favourite colour,’ says Emily Murray, author of Pink House Living and writer of award-winning blog The Pink House (pinkhouse.co.uk). ‘Just seeing a flash of pink instantly lifts my spirits. That doesn’t mean I use loads of pink in each room, but I always try to work it in somewhere. My home follows a pink, blue and green colour scheme.’ Emily’s even had her own bespoke shade of pink – called Pink House – mixed by Mylands, available to buy very soon.
‘It’s so important to start with colours you actually like,’ agrees Andrea, whether that’s one shade or multiple. ‘Try getting a paint chart, pulling off the colours you are drawn to and sticking them onto a separate sheet of paper. Work instinctively and quickly, without thinking too much – you’ll begin to build up a group of colours that usually have a bit of a theme. Take out any swatches that don’t quite fit, and you’ll have the beginnings of a colour scheme.’ Amy agrees, recommending a core set of five colours: ‘Any more and your house won’t feel cohesive,’ she explains. And who hasn’t decorated that one room in isolation only to now feel it stands out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of your colour-flowing home?
‘Look at your wardrobe – your clothes are a great insight into the colours that make you feel like you,’ says Emily. ‘What colour do you wear most? That’s a good place to start when deciding on a base colour for your home. What colour do you love as an accent? That’s often a brighter shade and could be ideal for flashes of colour around your rooms.’
Having your own house palette can make it easier to decorate and accessorise your home. ‘It can help you stay focused on what you actually need to purchase for a room and not get side-tracked into buying something that’s shiny/exciting/reduced, but which doesn’t fit in anywhere within your scheme – it can ultimately save you money and time buying things that you don’t need,’ says Amy.
Common colours also allow you to be flexible, having a restyle without buying new, as Andrea explains. ‘If you have a home palette of five or more colours, these should run throughout your home in one way or another.
This keeps everything cohesive yet interesting. A home palette makes accessorising easier as long as you choose pieces that harmonise with it. The cushions on my sofa would also look okay in my bedroom, even though the rooms are different colours.
‘If you do want to use a lot of one colour, then you just have to be careful how you balance it with accent colours and different textures to make it interesting,’ continues Andrea. ‘There’s absolutely nothing wrong with painting a room completely in one colour – too often people hesitate and just go for a feature wall, which won’t create the same impact as a whole room. Bringing in different shades of one colour can create quite a calm feeling and, if done correctly, can look stunning.’
‘For a good basis, try following the 60-30-10 design rule,’ says Amy.
‘So, 60 per cent of a room should be a dominant colour; 30 per cent a secondary colour or texture, and the final 10 per cent should be colour brought in through accessories.’ And of course, you can vary the shade and prominence of your colour palette from room to room. In Emily’s living room, you’ll find dark blue walls with fuchsia pink and emerald accessories, while in her kitchen, there are more muted versions of these same colours, ‘but because I’m using the same base colours, the rooms flow together seamlessly,’ she explains.
‘It’s so important to think of your home as a whole, not on a roomby-room basis, when working with colour,’ says Amy. ‘Think about how colour flows and what the sightlines are from one room into the next.’
‘On a practical note, your hallway should be where your colour story begins,’ adds Andrea. ‘This space should set the scene in terms of colour for the rest of your house. Every time you open the front door, you should feel that sense of “home”, and that front door should be painted a colour that sets the mood for the interior.’
Inspired? Maybe it’s time we all gave our homes their own cohesive colour thread…