Using a splash of the right colour can bring your home to life, providing you with a calming atmosphere or a vibrant exciting hue.
We’ve spoken to colour expert Karen Haller, who has given us a few pointers on how to make colour work for you.
What do different colours say about our homes?
Every colour, except grey, has positive and negative psychological qualities. Depending what colours you use in your home, how you use them, the proportions are going to give a reflection of how you are feeling or how you want other people to see you.
If you’re creating a home that is for you and using colours that you love and are an expression of you, then when people come into your home they will see your personality and colour. By the same token, if you’ve created a home to try and impress other people, all you’ve done is create a reflection of someone who you would like to be. The way that you then behave in that home will be disconnected because people will be seeing the house will look one way and you behaving in a completely different way and then they will know it’s not you.
Are there any colours in our home that can have a positive effect on our moods that make us feel less stressed, happy sad?
If you want to feel uplifted or energised, maybe a splash of red. If you want to feel cheerful and happy, that could be yellow or it could be orange, all three colours have a real energy about them. If you want to feel very calm and at peace and very relaxed, you might then go for one of the more soothing greens. Not a green with a lot of yellow in it, because lime green is a very energised green, whereas a grass green, olive green, one of those more darker greens are much much more relaxing. Blues are also much more calming and soothing. A blue that has a lot of yellow in it so a turquoise is a really vibrant lively blue, which you might want to use in the bathroom to help you wake up in the morning. But you may want a very soothing and a very restful sort or a dark blue in the bedroom because that is what is going to help you sleep at night. The thing is to pick colours that resonate with you. How does the tone make you feel?
That’s perfect, you’re involved with Argos colour match – what did their research reveal?
Quite a number of interesting stats, the first one is that 75 per cent of the UK are more concerned with creating a home that others will love, rather than a home that actually reflects their personality. We are the ones who are living in our own home so it really should be about us. The other interesting stat was that 56 per cent of people chose homewares that they considered to be unadventurous. Now what that means is that they’re playing it safe because they’re more worried about getting it wrong than going with colours that they love. And if you go with a colour that you love, you can never ever get it wrong.
How can people find those colours they love?
There’s a really easy colour personality test that you can do. This will give some insights into your personality and then also some ideas of what colours you can start with.
What do you think is more important when decorating your home, style or sentimentality?
So style and sentimentality are actually two very different things. The way that I would answer this is that sentimentality is really about how you personalise your home. So I would recommend that people put character and personality in their home first and once they have all the things in there that they love, all the things that they collected from their travels, everything that is an expression of them or the colours that they love, then they move onto style.
Style could be aspirational, it could be the latest trend style. You can do that, but it’s got nothing to do with your personality. What you’re doing then is creating an interior that is a show home and for somebody else.
Do you think people lack the skill to use colour effectively or with confidence in their homes?
I don’t believe you need an expert to show you how to do your own home. There is no one else that knows your own personality more than you do. Trust your own instinct, trust who you are- you might get a gut feeling for when you see a colour. You know an interior designer is going to try and work out what it is that you like, but only you really know what that is so trust yourself, and trust your own confidence
You don’t need an expert?
You don’t need an expert, swap things in and out. Just experiment. You know you can’t get it wrong if you use the colours that you love. Look at all the colours because there are so many and I would really be shocked if someone looked at those colours and said there wasn’t something on there that didn’t sing to them because that’s what colour does, it sings to us.
