Bold colour is one of the most rewarding things you can do to a room, and one of the most nerve-racking. This guide walks through how to choose a strong shade you will still love, where to put it, and how to use wallpaper, fabric and accessories to make it feel deliberate rather than overwhelming.
Start with a colour you already love
The safest bold colour is one you are already drawn to. Look around your home and your wardrobe: the jacket you always reach for, a favourite painting, a ceramic bowl you bought on holiday. If a colour keeps turning up, you are unlikely to tire of it.
Next, look closely at the shade itself. Strong colours with a little depth, such as a deep teal rather than a bright turquoise, or a mustard rather than a lemon yellow, tend to feel richer and are easier to live with. Always test in the room itself. Light changes everything: a north-facing room will make blues and greens look cooler and greyer, while a south-facing room will warm them up.
Decide how much colour the room can take
There are three broad approaches, and each suits different rooms.
- One feature wall. Ideal if you are cautious. Choose the wall your eye lands on as you walk in, usually behind the sofa or the bed, rather than the wall with the door.
- The whole room. Painting or papering every wall, and sometimes the woodwork and ceiling too, in the same strong colour can feel surprisingly calm because there are no hard edges between colours.
- A small room. Cloakrooms, hallways and box rooms are perfect for experimenting. You pass through them rather than sit in them for hours, so a vivid shade feels fun rather than tiring.
Let wallpaper and fabric do the work
A patterned wallpaper is often an easier way into bold colour than a block of paint, because the pattern breaks the colour up and adds a second or third shade that you can borrow elsewhere. Browse our wallpaper collection and you will find designs where a strong ground colour is softened by a lighter motif, which is a good halfway house.
Once the walls are decided, pick out one of the secondary colours in the paper for curtains, a blind or an upholstered chair. Our fabric range is the place to look for a plain or coordinating print in that shade. Using the same colour in two or three places around a room is what makes a bold scheme feel planned.
Use accessories for low-commitment colour
If you are not ready to repaint, accessories are the easiest way to test a strong colour. A pile of cushions and throws in saturated shades on a neutral sofa will change the whole feel of a room, and you can swap them seasonally. Two or three cushions in the same colour family, in different textures and patterns, look richer than a matching set.
A rug is the next step up. A bold one from our rug collection anchors a seating area and brings colour in at floor level, where it balances strong walls or stands in for them. Finish with smaller pieces from our home decor range: a vase, a lamp base or a print that repeats the main colour at eye level.
Keep it balanced
Bold rooms still need somewhere for the eye to rest. Pair strong colour with a calmer partner: a soft white or warm neutral on the ceiling, natural wood, or plenty of texture in linen and wool. Two strong colours can work beautifully together, but let one lead and use the other in smaller amounts.
Finally, think about how the colour looks at night. Warm lamplight flatters deep greens, blues, reds and ochres, so plan for table and floor lamps rather than relying on a single overhead light.
Ready to be braver with colour? Start by browsing our wallpaper and cushions for a shade that speaks to you, or visit the shop in Somerset and the team will help you put a bold scheme together.
