Hey Reader,
Last week, I mentioned I’d share how we’re testing colours on a current project and why we didn’t start with paint at all.
Because this is something I see all the time. People begin with colour.
“What colour should we paint the walls?” “What palette should we choose?”
And it makes sense…it feels like the obvious place to start.
But in reality, it’s usually the wrong place. And here’s why…(which is also a nice segment into my new series ‘looks good on paper but…’)
Looks Good on Paper, but...
Starting with paint colours
On paper, it sounds logical.
Pick a colour you like. Build the room around it. Job done.
But in reality? This is where things start to unravel.
Because paint is one of the most flexible elements in a space.
It’s easy to change. It reacts to light. And it sits alongside everything else - flooring, furniture, joinery, finishes.
So when you choose it first, you’re often forcing everything else to fit around it.
And that’s when spaces start to feel slightly off, even if you can’t quite put your finger on why.
What I do instead
We start with the things that matter most.
The pieces my client loves. The furniture they want to live with every day. The materials that will anchor the space.
Once those are in place, the colour becomes much easier to define.
Because instead of guessing, we’re responding.
We’re testing colours on site, against real materials, in real light and not just picking from a swatch book and hoping for the best.
And the difference is huge.
The scheme feels more natural. More connected. Like everything belongs.
This is exactly how we’ve approached our current project.
We’ve built the scheme around the key pieces first and now we’re layering in colour in a way that supports everything else, rather than competing with it.
Because good design isn’t about starting with the easiest decision. It’s about starting in the right place.
If you’re trying to pull a scheme together and want to get it right from the start, this is exactly the kind of thing we cover in my Designer Half Day.
It gives us the time to properly look at your space, your layout, your key pieces and build a colour scheme that actually works with it all.
You can find more details here, or feel free to reply to this email if you have questions, I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading, speak soon,
