Decorating your home can be a stressful time.
First, you need to decide exactly what furniture you want, how you want it arranged, what curtains and carpets you'd like and most importantly, what colour scheme you want to follow.
As soon as you've decided how you want it, you then need to visit stores and trawl the web for your perfect décor at a price to suit your budget.
Then, when you do get around to actually starting, it's a case of clearing the room, sorting your belongings ready to store away, find places for items you want to keep but don't want in that particular room anymore and set aside a few days to get the whole thing sorted.
Sounds stressful, doesn't it?
It doesn't have to be! With our top tips for adding colour to your room, you can overhaul your home with minimal stress...
Deciding what colour scheme you want to go with can be the most difficult decision, especially if you've just moved into a new home and have every room to put your stamp on, or you've not redecorated in a good few years and everywhere needs a little face lift.
The colours you use in your home can often reflect your personality and traits.
- If you like a minimal look, clean lines and no clutter, it could mean that you're level headed, organised and practical. Colours like beige, ivory, brown, grey and cream are usually your choices when it comes to décor, but you may like to add pops of colour to your neutral backdrop that you can interchange. If you don't like colour, choosing different textures and tones can still make it interesting.
If you have a dark sofa, a selection of cream cushions in different textures can make an attractive feature of the main focal point in your living room. Still in keeping with your neutral theme, the texture of this Fluffy Faux Fur Cushion Cover will add an interest amongst your plain cushions.
- If you like soft warm shades such as orange, yellow, pink and peach, you're a cheerful, welcoming person who loves to have people over. If you like these hues but are worried about them in your home, mix in grey and green furnishings.
A great way to add a splash of colour to your bathroom easily is with a bath mat.
This Cotton Twist 100% Cotton Luxury Bath Mat Set in Orange is perfect for adding a splash of colour to an otherwise neutral room. Add accessories such as a soap dispenser, candles, plants and toothbrush holder in the same colour to transform a room and bring everything together.
- If you go for soft, cool hues such as pale blues, lavender and green, these represent endless sky, deep water and open fields – elements we perceive as being tranquil and soothing. You like to stay calm in situations, and have a place where you can really relax after a hard day. You probably see your house as the calm within a hectic world.
Duck Egg blue is a gorgeous soft tone that would work well in any part of the home, including in the bedroom where you probably go for calm and soothing colours more than anywhere else. This Duck Egg Hearts Thermal Flannelette Duvet Cover Set would add an eye catching print to an otherwise plain room.
- A fan of jewel tones? You probably thrive off colour! If you love ruby, emerald, sapphire, amethyst and topaz in your home, you are outgoing, confident, modern and creative. Using these tones, you can make a room seem glamorous and cosy, even if it is bare and has no architectural focal points.
If you'd love to add just a splash of rich jewel tone to your room, why not invest in a pair of curtains in one of your favourite colours? These purple Cali Eyelet Ring Top Thermal Blackout Curtains are lined to provide insulation and reduce heat loss, and have a dense, high quality thermal lining meaning then light won't wake you up early in the morning during the summer months. These are also particularly handy if you are a shift worker. They drape well and have a supersoft touch, meaning they make a real focal point in a neutral room, or alongside other jewel toned items.
Picking a colour scheme is the hardest part of decoration because you then need to choose and arrange the rest of the items around it. If you want to choose neutral paint and wallpaper, you can add splashes of colour using your furnishings and accessories easily and mix them up as the seasons change, which brings us on to our next tip...
Having a blank canvas in your home with cream or white walls and neutral furniture is the perfect way to inject different styles throughout the year to reflect different events, festivities and seasons. If you are the type of person that gets bored easily, you can refresh your décor using furnishings and accessories without breaking the bank. Keep your
If you love Christmas, you probably already deck your halls and adorn your home with fairy lights and decorated trees, but you can inject reds and tartan prints into your home to create a winter wonderland during the winter months. These Birkdale Check Lined Eyelet Curtains are a great way to add a pop of colour to your room.
During the spring months, you may like to embrace the floral themes that are prominent in both clothing and home accessories trends as the weather changes to warmer temperatures and sunny spells.
Your kitchen is a place where you cook up a host of treats, entertain your guests and socialise with your family, so why not inject a slice of the season in to the room with this Floral Red Plastic Tablecloth Wipe Clean PVC Vinyl. The soft fleece backing makes the cloth not slip off the table which is useful if you have young kids and the print is the perfect addition to your kitchen, no matter what your décor and units are like.
In the Autumn, you may like to embrace the orange and brown tones that represent the trees outside and the colder weather, as well as the events that we look forward to during October and November – Halloween and Bonfire Night. This 100% Cotton Opus Throw in Burnt Orange is perfect for the season as it will make a great feature on your sofa or bed, as well as providing that extra bit of warmth when you're snuggled up on a chilly autumn evening.
Summer is by far our favourite season, and adding a few textiles to your home to brighten up dull corners will reflect the weather outside. A bright duvet cover is a perfect way to bring a new look into your bedroom. This Palm Tree Photographic Duvet Cover Set will have you dreaming of hot beaches and cocktails, or will be a reminder of your summer holiday if you've just got back from the trip of a lifetime.
Speaking of summer beds, you may also want to invest in a thinner quilt if you find it difficult to sleep when the weather warms up. This 10.5 Tog Hollowfibre Duvet will be a lot more comfortable than your thick winter quilt.
Colour schemes can come in so many varieties and your individual taste will come into play a lot. If you like different prints, one of the hottest trends in home décor this year is mixing prints to create a unique effect in your home.
You can simplify the process by using a colour wheel to decide which colours compliment or contrast each other. Both techniques create a stunning effect using colour in your home.
Let's look at some colour combinations...
Complementary Colours
Complimentary colours are those that are opposite each other in the colour wheel. These are colours that when combined, cancel each other out. They don't mix to create any other colour, only a grey-scale colour, a brown, white or black.
Rooms decorated with a complementary colour scheme tend to have a clear separation of colours and are more formal and visually challenging, so are often used in more formal areas of the home such as the living room and the dining room.
Analogous Colours
These colours are next to each other on the colour wheel. These include:
Rooms decorated this way are usually more restful, casual and muted. Rooms that are informal areas such as family rooms and bedrooms are best decorated in this way as they are calming and perfect for places where you'd like to rest.
Contrasting Colours
Colours that are very contrasting come in two sections:
High contrast colours enhance the formality of a room, whereas low contrast colours are soothing and calmer.
Black and white are different to normal colours in the sense that they are actually spectrums of light rather than a colour. Teamed together, they create a formal appearance yet adding grey into your scheme creates a restful place, due to it's low key nature.
A rule that many interior designers and magazines follow in their work is the 60-30-10 rule. Decorating a room with colour should be done so using this rule for the best results.
60% is a dominant colour
30% is a secondary colour
10% is an accent colour
The 60% is the overall theme of the room, whereas the 30% provides visual interest and the 10% provides that little spark. For example, in a living room the colour on the walls is the 60%, the upholstery is the 30% and an accent or focal point such as bright cushions, a floral display or a small, quirky piece of furniture is the 10%.
Breaking your room down into smaller sections can help with your overall planning when decorating your rooms and deciding on new pieces to make an attractive overall theme in each space.
Do you have any tips for decorating? Let us know in the comments below!
|
4.9/5
|
Service Rating
|
|
27136 reviews
|
|
|
