How to add colour to those daunting white walls.

How to add colour to those daunting white walls.

By Emma Bestley on

Often, family homes tend to be a compromise of style and tastes. White, the most neutral colour on the palette, is sometimes what is agreed on. Imagine you love colour, but your partner doesn't. Then what do you do?

Paint your walls white! There is nothing wrong with having a white canvas of a home. Actually, it’s even easier to add colour and to slowly and gradually build up the family nest into a home rather than a compromise.

Everything goes with white which is the absolute beauty of having that as your base. Not only can you include any colour furnishings but you can also have so much fun with up-cycling projects.

Bannisters or even stairs are a great way to start. Depending on what your layout is, if you have some wooden stairs, paint them. Paint them any colour of the rainbow or paint them white to go with the walls, and then add stripes or polka dots, zig zags or even a block colour on the top and then white at the bottom. Bannisters can then be painted to match the stair colour. Bingo! You’ve already created a gorgeous section of vibrancy, but without changing the neutral theme in the main walls of the home.

Furniture is also a great way to create colour, but always subtly. Any wooden chest of drawers, cabinets, tables etc, can be painted using any of our water based paints. The colour choice is quite literally your oyster, but with white walls always try and go towards a colour that will look great with your furnishings. If you have a velvet pink sofa for example, try a Joyful Green colour for your coffee table or if you have a bright orange sofa then a Passionate Pink or even a Calming Blue would work beautifully.

Kitchen cabinets can really transform a home. However big or small your family hub may be, sprucing up the cupboards is relatively easy and quick and can change the whole image of your home. So imagine, white walls, white cupboards…nah, imagine again, white walls, Serene Pink cupboards. Still so neutral and soft, meaning it shouldn’t upset the ‘White’ lover, but enough to give the room energy and flair.

Bathrooms are also a perfect way to create the right colour balance throughout the home. If your bathroom is white tiled and walled and the fixtures are all white, accessorise it with some fab indoor plants, towels and accessories of your colour choice and a mega bath mat with a great pattern or slogan on it.

Front doors are your moment to shine. And if your front is all white, then this is where you are so very lucky as absolutely anything goes. We adore our Electric Yellow and our Friendly Pink for the more daring look or our Fresh Aqua or Loving Grey for the more subdued, stealth look.

As always, there are no rules apart from one… have fun!