We spend a lot of time worrying about colour. I know I do. I’ve worked with colour for more than 25 years, and I can still spend far too long moving a paint sample from one wall to another, looking at it in the morning and then again when the lights are on.
But the more I’ve worked with sensory design, the less interested I’ve become in asking what colour looks good. I’m much more interested in asking: how does this colour make the room feel?
I ask this at the beginning of most projects now. How does the room need to feel? What are we going to use it for? Who is going to spend time in it, and what do they need from it?
Once you start there, you look at colour slightly differently.
Start with what you need from the room
Think about a bedroom. We generally want it to help us wind down and sleep, so it makes sense that the colour shouldn’t be fighting for our attention when we’re trying to switch off.
A workspace has a different job. We might want to feel alert and able to focus, but that doesn’t mean the room needs to be bright or stimulating. Personally, I find too much visual information distracting, so I tend to use colour more quietly.
Then there are the rooms where we spend time together. Kitchens, dining rooms and living spaces might need to feel warmer and more sociable.
No single colour will magically make you feel calm, focused, or happy. We’re all different, and our responses to colour are different too.
This is where I think we need to move away from some of the usual rules around colour psychology. Red doesn’t automatically make everyone feel one way and blue another.
You have to notice your own response.
Colour never sits on its own
This is one of the biggest things I’ve learnt from working with colour.
You can fall in love with a paint colour on a tiny card and then put it on your wall and wonder what on earth happened.
Light plays a huge role. A colour can look completely different in a north-facing room compared with a sunny south-facing space. Then switch the lamps on in the evening, and it changes again.
Everything else in the room matters too. The flooring, curtains, furniture, artwork, pattern and even what’s happening outside the window all become part of what we see.
If you’ve already got a patterned rug, lots of artwork, open shelving and plenty of objects on display, adding a very strong wall colour could be one sensory layer too many.
That doesn’t mean getting rid of everything or painting your house beige. Far from it.
It’s about balance.
Why I tend to use softer colours
I’m naturally drawn to lower-saturation colours. By that, I mean colours with some of the intensity taken out of them.
I find them easier to live with because they give you colour without shouting.
This became really important when I developed The Sensory Home paint collection with Graham & Brown. I wanted the colours to have soft grey undertones because I felt they sat more quietly in a room and gave other sensory layers — texture, lighting, furniture, and the people actually living there — some space too.
We also didn’t start by saying, ” We need a blue, a green, a pink and a neutral”.
Instead, I thought about what we need from our homes.
That became Rest, Focus, Gather, Nook and Create.
Rest is about switching off. Focus is about concentration. Gather is for the places where we come together; Nook is about those smaller spaces where we might want to retreat and feel a little more cocooned. Create is for when we need subtle energy in the home without the overwhelm.
For me, this is a much more useful way to think about colour.
Don’t let trends make the decision for you
I love looking at colour trends. It’s part of my job, and I’ve spent years working with them.
But your home has to work for you long after a particular colour has disappeared from Instagram.
If you love a colour, use it. But before covering all four walls, live with a sample for a while.
I move samples around a room rather than leaving them in one place. Look at them first thing in the morning. Look again on a grey day. Then turn on your lamps in the evening and see what happens.
And don’t just ask yourself whether you still like the colour.
Ask yourself how you feel around it.
Does the room feel restful? Does the colour suddenly dominate everything? Does it make the space feel warmer? Does it sit comfortably with the other things you already own?
Your response is more useful than any colour rule I can give you.
The Sensory Home® Checklist
Before choosing a colour, ask yourself:
How do I want to feel in this room?
What do I actually need from the space?
Who else uses it and what do they need?
How much colour and pattern is already in the room?
What happens to the colour as the light changes?
And finally, how does it make me feel?
We can get so caught up in choosing the right colour that we forget we’re the ones who have to live with it.
So next time you’re standing in front of hundreds of paint cards, don’t start with what’s fashionable or even what you think looks nicest.
Start with how you want your home to feel.
