Styling with Bold Colours

Using Bold Colours in Your Space
While Scandi-design still makes our hearts flutter, we also have a soft spot for homes that embrace bold, rich colours while keeping their space cohesive and sophisticated. Colour plays an important role in our lives—and interior design. It is a visual language understood all over the world. What colours we choose have significant effects on our mood and mind. 

We know, adding colour can be scary. Visions of decor mishaps from the ‘80s quickly come to mind when thinking about straying too far away from our beloved neutrals. But fear not! When done strategically and with purpose, bold colours can add interest, intrigue, and life to any space. 

Here are our tips for embracing brighter shades in your home.

Start Small
You have to walk before you can run, so start small when injecting colour into your space. Odds are, you likely have a neutral sofa and paint colour, which are a great base to work with. From there, pick a few hues that you’re excited about and add them as accent pieces in your space – like a pillow, piece of art, or vase. Once you have introduced these accents, you’ll have a better idea of what colours you like and can then begin introducing them in bigger ways.

Bring in Complementary Colours
Every Chandler Bing needs their Joey Tribbiani – their perfect counterpart. When decorating with bold colour, you need to diversify a bit – a beautiful, punchy red sort of loses its impact when the whole room is covered in it. This is where the golden rule comes in: choose one colour (usually the most neutral) to be the primary colour for the space. Then select your secondary shade (slightly bolder than the primary colour), and then add your accent colour. Keep in mind that the colours you choose shouldn’t compete against each other, but rather bring out the best in each other. Typically, colours close together on the colour wheel make great primary and secondary colours, and a shade opposite the primary colour on the wheel is a great accent. 

Don’t Forget About Pattern
We know, colour and pattern together can be overwhelming, but stay with us. 

Introducing patterns into your space not only adds interest, it’s also an easy way to bring all the colours in your space together in a cohesive way. If you’re feeling stuck about which bold colours to pair together, starting with a pattern is a great base. From there, pull different shades from the pattern to act as accent pieces! Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Take Your Time
The beautiful thing about home design is that it is constantly changing and evolving with you – so don’t stress if your space doesn’t look exactly like how you want it to immediately. Fill your room with accessories organically as you find them. As long as you keep in mind the style you want your room to be, it will get there.

Feel like you’ve mastered the art of bold colours? Try your hand at maximalis​m​.