Thinking about bringing that summer feel into your home? What better than picking bright natural colours outside and using them in your interiors. Look in the garden and select colours from your favourite blooms. Summer flowers offer a plethora of colour selections — fuchsia impatiens, purple pansies, pink hydrangeas, and lavender lilacs are just the beginning of the cool floral rainbow.
An abundance of colours that will help you think cool are also to be found in seasonal fruits and vegetables. A splash of lime green or boysenberry blue can cool down the warmest room’s colour scheme instantly. Here are a few tips on how to use those vibrant summer colours:
Energising green
Lime and apple green are energising hues that evoke positive, forthright, self-investigation. These powerful colours will help you better understand what’s missing in your life. Using these greens also makes you more assertive.
Add a little white to lime green and you get spring and celery greens, two colours that generate the spark needed to help you seek out different environments and get a fresh perspective on the inner you. Using these colours encourages you to make new friends and gain inner peace.
Va-va-voom
hot pink
Hot pink on the walls takes a leap of faith, yet the effect is dazzling. If you like hot pink, you’re constantly thinking about exciting things to do. Through your body language and appearance, without even being aware, you’re sending out enticing messages. Designing with magenta creates adventurous conversations and situations. It makes you and others less sceptical and more enthusiastic. Use this colour to turn dull into exciting. Think party room!
Pink and... orange?
Perhaps one of the last colour combinations you might consider for pink would be orange. Yet it is a colourful possibility, especially when strong pink is used as an accent in accessories and ties. One of the hottest combination of the year.
Orange punch
Orange may be the year's hottest colour. Perhaps it’s time to give your home a dash of this hue's fresh appeal. Think orange is a bold choice? It can be, yet pass through spaces like hallways may be a perfect place to add a punch of colour. With less time spent in these areas, striking colours can enliven and refresh and relate to accents used in adjoining rooms.
Sweet lavender
If you like lavender pink, you’re seeking to be more inventive. By constantly examining possible practical applications, you create new things, new ideas. Using this purple-pink shade in room design is empowering. You and others will become more determined and self-constructive in a lavender pink office or library. Because it invites warm, exciting, conversations, it is perfect for dining or living rooms. Guests will feel welcomed.
Happy yellows
The latest colour trend to come straight off the catwalk is bold, bright, and guaranteed to bring a little sunshine into your life. But as fabulous as it is, not many of us can carry off the colour yellow. Lucky then that this trend has filtered down into home interiors — after all, a home can wear any colour well.
This year’s top yellow is an in-your-face acid lemon drop shade evoking a more modern, punky, pop-art look. However strong or subtle you go, whether it's banana, lemon, mustard or custard, yellow makes for a happy home. It's no coincidence that the 70s happy face logo is yellow.
Adding one or more colours to the mix can change the look dramatically. For instance, cobalt blue and emerald green make for a Mediterranean rustic charm (add plenty of Provençal paisley to the mix ) while red and cobalt blue again mimic Andy Warhol's famous pop art style.
Laurent Billiet
La Maison Chic
(086 ) 2242328
Member of the Irish Association of Interior Designers.
