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Colour

Bright and Beautiful

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Posted by Niki Fulton at 09:00 AM in Colour

It is mid summer and you are surrounded by a multi coloured natural world. Even the fragile looking wild flowers display striking colours. Take their lead and have fun with colour in your house.

There are many well know artists who use a riot of colours in their work so visit a gallery and look at their palettes. Take for example Matisse's "Creole Dancer" or Terry Frost's "Orchard" to inspire you. Look at photographs, books, packaging to discover what attracts you. The photograph above was taken taken by Cameron Mills at Kerala beach in India and demonstrates perfectly the ability strong colours have to create the most surprisingly sophisticated palettes when placed together. Our brains compute colour in interesting ways and often by placing two or even three strong colours together can actually make them appear less intense and more pleasing.

Remember different paint finishes will also change the perceived colour. Glossy colours will appear a touch lighter than their matt counterparts as they reflect more light. You may even use a textured finish like our "Tunto" paint which will make the colour look a little darker due to the tiny shadows which are cast from its rough surface. Try experimenting with one glossy wall with the rest in a matt finish. You might like our "Taika" paint, available in gold or silver opaque tinted with a colour or used as a glaze. This can look very effective as a feature wall adjacent to a rich flat matt.

When choosing your colours remember red appears to "come forward" in a room thus making the space appear smaller while blue tends to "recede" create a sense of space. You may also want to "anchor" or "tie" your bold colours down with warm greys, whites & creams on some of the walls, leaving your bold colours to highlight specific areas. The pale grey-blue sea in the Kerala photograph does exactly this job.

Have fun but remember to try tester pots first!

Many thanks to Cameron Mills for the Photograph.

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