PAINT MAGIC

PAINT! Every project, every house, every room, every scheme has paint involved – it may just be a low level skirting board; it may be on a bespoke designed bookcase; it may be on large expanses of walls and it’s probably on the ceiling, but its going to be used somewhere in every room and without doubt, the core of my Interior Design business.

By now you will know that I am rather fond of a colour or two, so my collection of ever increasing paint charts gives me endless joy. I can literally spend a very happy hour just leafing through them and looking at the glorious array of colours from the soft muted tones of Farrow & Ball and Edward Bulmer to the stronger and bolder tones of companies like Designers Guild and William Yeoward. I’m such a lover of one companies paint chart annual calendar, that I framed all the prints and have them on the wall in my office – inspiration every day of the week. Secretly I design colour schemes in my head for unknown houses, hoping for the moment to one day put them into practice – such fun…for me!

However, for many the choice is endless and overwhelming and it seems that choosing paint colours is often the quickest way to get a new client on the telephone with a call for help! There is too much choice (how many shades of white can there be!) and for many it is a stumbling block.

Lots of people are a little bit scared of colour (and pattern, but that’s for another time) and will stick to the neutral shade that they know and love and there is nothing wrong with this – sometimes the simplest things can be the best. This attic conversion incorporated a shower room, a long walk through bedroom with built in cabin beds, leading to a study and upstairs sitting room at the end – with all the angles, beams, joinery and flooring it made sense to paint every surface in the same tone of white, to create a light and uniformed space. It worked brilliantly.

But some rooms just call for colour and warmth. It’s a huge misconception that cold, dark, North facing rooms should be painted white or pale to keep them ‘light’ – all it does is keep them freezing! Embrace the space and add a bold colour and it will instantly warm the room on cold grey days, but will also fill it with reflected light and warmth when lit with either a glimpse of sunshine during the day or warm lamps and candles at night.

Personally, I’m not a huge lover of ‘feature’ walls, but they do have a place and especially in large contemporary buildings, where often the paint palette throughout is neutral based. Large open plan living is often enhanced with artwork, rugs and furnishings, so the occasional pop of colour on a wall or two can really make a difference. In this contemporary seaside house, at South Milton, there is a central column running through the core of the house which is enhanced by being painted a muted sea green. With a stunning seascape and table on the entrance hall side and a glass art installation on the staircase side it helps to ground the scheme throughout the house.

South Milton, South Hams, Devon

A dramatic wall runs through the centre of this contemporary seaside build painted in Fired Earth ‘Turkish Blue’

If too much colour still unnerves you then at least look at using a bank of one colour in varying tones. Zoffany and Paint & Paper Library are the masters of this exercise. Take a colour like ‘Silver’ from Zoffany – it comes in its true tone, then half a tone lighter, a quarter tone lighter again and also a double strength version. Playing with these tones on ceilings, walls and woodwork can keep a ‘neutral’ base, but still add variation and interest. It is also a clever way of creating continuity throughout a house. In the Fowey house, which is narrow and covers four floors with many staircases and interconnecting rooms – we linked all the rooms and levels together, by using one palette. Here we used Quarter Paris on the ceilings, Half Paris on the walls and Paris on all the doors, skirtings and architraves to give a solid neutral base to work with.

Fowey, South Cornwall

I have been at many a dinner party where paint charts have been whipped out of a handbag and stuck in front of my face whilst I’m eating my soup and my standard answer is start with Zoffany Silver range and take it from there! But if you would like a more considered and thoughtful process to make paint work in your home, then yes, my advice is to call me, ask for my advice and let me help you bring the right paint magic into your home.

Paint companies you may, or may not know:

Argile • Atelier Ellis • Designers Guild • Designers Guild Earth Tones • Dulux Heritage Colours • Edward Bulmer • Farrow & Ball • Fired Earth • Little Greene • Morris & Co • Mylands • Paint & Paper Library • Sanderson • William Yeoward • Zoffany