Most people believe that living with bright colours is a hard thing to achieve – bright and bold is daring and not all of you will be ready to take the plunge! However, being brave and using bright colours does not have to be as intimidating as you first thought – not with our useful tips and advice on how it is done to best effect.
Bright colours remind us of countries such as India, the middle East and Northern Africa where their love of spice and rich tones of colour are more than evident both in homes and public spaces such as the busy market stalls. The overall feeling we get is one of liveliness and a joy for experimenting with colours. Bright colours can be playful and show the not so serious side of us – so stop hiding your personality behind neutrals!
The best way to approach using bright colours in the home is to be open-minded and just experiment in the way that children would with their crayon sets (although a little planning wouldn’t go a miss before you splash the paintbrush around). We do want our colour choices to match existing architecture and even furnitures that are either too sentimental or expensive to simply change. Learn something too about how colours can effect moods and create certain atmospheres in different rooms of the house and all the while, if you see a colour that makes you go ‘wow’ – don’t hesitate to incorporate it in your interiors.
Bright colours will not be everyone’s cup of tea and the purpose of this article is not to reinforce an era of psychedelia. How much you use bright colours will depend greatly on how you like to feel in your home. For example, someone who works long hours in the office and wants to return home to completely relax and unwind from their day will not find a very bright and bold room soothing. On the other hand, if you need to be creatively stimulated whilst at home then creating a space with colour could do wonders for your though processes. This can vary from room to room too – if you want your bedroom to be a place of creative thought or energy then choose bedspreads in a hot pink or bright yellow or duvet covers with a bright bold pattern.
Rooms that call for activity and are generally busy and even fun spaces will appreciate the addition of a punch of bright colour – the dining room and children’s playrooms are perfect examples. If you are still fretting about the boldness of brights then you can always begin with splashes in accessories such as cushions on a white sofa, a few pieces of artwork on magnolia walls or brightly coloured childrens curtains.
A final thought on the use of bright colours in the home is the use of light – you will benefit from lots of natural light or a good arrangement of lighting to pick up on the colour. A dark room will struggle greatly to show those sunflower yellows and jade greens to a positive effect.
