interior design
Turn Your Home Technicolour
Colour-phobic and clinging to neutrals like a
comfort blanket? Gabrielle Fagan discovers how to fight fear and brave bold decoration at home.
WRITTEN BY GABRIELLE FAGAN C
olour’s officially cool - according to the decor experts - but it takes guts to plunge
into the palette and experiment. Banish the fear and do it anyway, declares Emily Henson, interiors stylist and author of the aptly named, Be Bold: Interiors For Te Brave Of Heart, which is a celebration of homes with “joyful patterns, gutsy colour choices and exhilarating paint treatments”. Teir owners, she says, enjoy homes which contain daring explosions of colour, pattern, humour and originality, where “boldness is a way of life”. Some make a statement “with vivid paint on every surface and neon signs on the walls”, while others have “leopard print and folksy embroidered cushions clashing on a pink sofa, or window frames painted yellow in an otherwise white wall”. Whatever, she notes, bold really is beautiful. It’s certainly a world away from the bland, and Henson gleefully sums up the philosophy as ‘decorate like nobody’s watching’.
WAKE UP A WALL... A vibrant blue shade on a wall brilliantly brings shop owner Zoe Anderson’s dining area to life, with simple, modern furniture - including a gleaming Tom Dixon copper pendant light - to provide balance. “Kitchens are oſten painted in neutral colours as a safe option, but Zoe went all-out bold with an electric blue paint,” explains Henson. “Te walls are a vibrant backdrop for the family’s art collection, including children’s drawings and keepsakes from travels. Emily’s Decor Tip: Make a statement with a sofa or a chair in a daring or unusual shade, to show-off your ‘adventurous’ colour spirit, says Henson. Bold doesn’t always have to mean bright, she points out, as paler shades can be just as effective. Tink pink, sage green, or aquamarine - anything but the obvious.
A COCKTAIL OF SHADES Anything goes in the apartment of Spanish designer Patricia Bustos, who ignores outdated rules and injects a fresh quirkiness into all her schemes. She’s created an entertainment ‘zone’ with a bamboo tiki bar, Eighties Terje Ekstrom chairs upholstered in mustard wool, and for the perfect finishing touch, designed her own ‘Oh La La’ neon sign. “For Patricia, being bold means combining different eras, ignoring outdated rules about pattern and colour matching, and injecting humour and quirkiness into everything she designs. Her home is a joyful expression of what’s in her head, and it’s fabulous,” says Henson. “It’s all fabulously OTT. What makes it work? A limited colour palette and the guts to own the look.” Emily’s Decor Tip: Stylists oſten create ‘fake walls’ - large pieces of plywood covered in wallpaper - for photographic shoots. Tese can be used as a flexible, movable expanse of pattern, which can be leaned against a wall for a playful focal point, or used as a great way to test out your enthusiasm for a particular pattern or colour, before committing to it. >>
“HER HOME IS A JOYFUL
EXPRESSION OF WHAT’S IN HER HEAD, AND IT’S FABULOUS”
PROPERTYMAIL / 25
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