Bringing a Touch of Colour Into Your Home

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A century or more ago, the majority of people who painted their homes used white because it was considerably cheaper than coloured paint. These days, white and neutrals are a popular choice as they give your home a nice bright and clean look, I'm very much a neutrals decor fan myself but they can definitely leave a room looking a bit stark and bland if you're not careful. But the good thing about white and neutral rooms is you can bring in any colour you like, and can easily change up your colour scheme without having to completely redecorate! Here are some of the ways to bring in a touch of colour to your home. 

Develop Your Colour Scheme
First of all, you'll want to decide on which colour to use. As a general rule, white walls will compliment cooler colours and magnolia/ cream walls will look best with slightly warmer colours. You can choose the colour based on season, function (relaxing hues in bedrooms etc) or just be daring and pick a colour you love as your accent shade. If you look at something like this from Dulux it's an easy way to compare colours to find the exact shade you're after. Bringing in colour doesn't necessarily mean a bright colour, in cool toned rooms you could go for a mixture of grey and black shades and in warm toned rooms try varying neutrals like light brown and taupe. 

Use Colourful Accessories
Once you've decided on your colour palette it's time to go shopping! The easiest way to bring colour into a room is definitely with accessories. There are the obvious things like cushions, rugs, throws, curtains and lamps- but don't forget things like clocks, candles and silk flowers. Even if you fancy a complete change of colour later down the line it's easy to switch out accessories and use them in other rooms, if you think you're likely to change your colour later down the line just be sure to choose your pieces wisely. For example, a colourful lampshade can be changed for another colour if the base is neutral. The artwork in frames can be switched up, and the flowers in vases can be replaced with another colour providing the vase itself is a neutral shade.

Add Colour With Plants
Another great way to bring some colour and contrast into a room is with some living plants. The bright green of the leaves looks really nice against a plain, light backdrop and you can use colourful plant pots to tie in with your colour scheme. Something like these Dartington Crystal vases are perfect for displaying fresh flowers throughout the year, I love fresh flowers in the house and always try to make sure I have a bunch in the house. You could go with a bouquet that picks out your colour scheme- supermarkets are good for this as they tend to have bunches that are dyed all kinds of colours

Consider a Feature Wall
Putting up wallpaper is more of a commitment than simply adding accessories, but the good thing about feature walls is they're usually quite small and therefore are a lot less expensive and time consuming than completely redecorating. A feature wall will really tie your chosen colour into the rest of the room, and can add a bit of interest especially if all of the other walls are plain. Be sure to choose your feature wall well, it should be the wall your eye is naturally drawn to when you enter the room. Often they're the wall where the fireplace/ chimney breast is.

How do you bring colour into your home?