The Sunday News
Yoliswa Dube
MOST people are too scared to try out new things let alone bright colours in their homes.
They prefer the traditional white and creams but that can be boring.
If you’re too chicken to experiment with colour, make less permanent changes as opposed to painting your walls orange or buying a pink couch.
Use colour to bring out your inner party animal. Just as many nocturnal insects are attracted to bright light, many extroverts are drawn to bright colours.
Saturated colours create a festive atmosphere just right for informal gatherings.
Play a little musical chairs with your dishes, mixing rather than matching the salad and dinner plates and add a variety of napkins, for that extra special touch of colour.
A plain white bed is like a blank canvas — colour-block by adding two different solid-coloured pillowcases, draping a throw across the bottom, and fitting the bed with a bright sheet.
Colour-blocking in the living room can be as daring as adding a striking rug and curtains or as simple as lining the sofa with a trio of bolster pillows in different hues.
Add one or two bold colours to your neutral environment and suddenly everything will look different.
That plain bookcase is just calling out to be colour-blocked — after all, the shelves have already done the “blocking” for you.
Paint the levels in different hues, but — as is often the rule with colour-blocking — limit yourself to three colours to keep the look from getting cartoonish.
Books, boxes, and photo mats offer other opportunities to colour-block. Mixing two tones in close colour families (orange and fuchsia) with an outsider (turquoise) brings an unexpected punch.
A vibrant sofa works well against neutral walls, such as white or dark grey. If your walls are a bold colour, a bright yellow sofa may overwhelm the space.
Look around your home and see where you can add some colour for that extra special touch. Re-decorating doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg — a slight addition of colour can be all the change you need.
