Many people feel they know their decor style and spend a lot of time defining it.
The problem is that once they are happy with their decor style, they stop evolving it — it’s like people who keep a successful hairstyle or pantsuit for way too long. Like fashion, colours come and go, but most importantly, they evolve.
Brown colours might always be popular, but our favourite version of brown during the 1970s is very different from what was popular in the ’80s, ’90s or just last year.
About eight years ago I helped a friend choose paint colours for her home.
It is now time to repaint her house and she’s hoping to ‘freshen things up’ but wants to repeat all the old colours. But it’s time to evolve her colour scheme and create some new decor memories going forward.
Here’s a paint colour update to help you refresh your home without having to change your furnishings and accessories. These new colours will update your space and complement most everything you originally co-ordinated with your old wall colours.
Golden walls
Anyone that decorates with gold tones usually has a rich, luxurious-style and an over the top decor scheme.
Gold works well with elegant cream upholstery fabrics, shiny gold-gilt pictures frames and dramatic decor touches like marble columns or glass topped dining tables.
Try a new colour: Bone
(Cornforth White #228, Farrow and Ball Paints).
Attached to navy walls?
If you decorate with the colour navy then you are a trusted soul in decorating. Every room with navy usually has touches or brown, some version of red and burnished metal finishes.
Try a new colour:?Bronze
(Benjamin Moore’s Meditation AF-395).
In a hunter green time warp?
Welcome to the hunt club — I bet you there are lots of burgundy and gold-coloured accessories in your rooms. Hunter Green is the prestige colour of the mid 1980s.
Try a new colour:?Brick
(Para Paint’s Clay SR37)
Confined to burgundy?
Rich burgundy walls adorning bedroom and dining room walls have been popular for a long time. Red has not seen popularity in growth for one reason: brown has been so popular and brown with red is not a favourite scheme for many.
Try a new colour: Plum
(Benjamin Moore’s Plum Perfect 1371)
Still love those dusty rose walls?
That very soft, elegant dusty rose — usually blended with grey (for a modern feel) or with warm champagne (for an elegant look) seems to never go away.
Updating the old dusty rose is not difficult as another classic has emerged.
Try a new colour: Mulberry
(Benjamin Moore’s Bonne Nuit AF-635).
The steely grey daze
If you had/remember steely, cold grey from the 1980s then you must also remember black lacquered coffee tables (with brassy trims) and black leather furniture. The easy update to this modern look was to paint the walls white and proclaim your modern life but now we are warming the world up again.
Try a new colour:? Driftwood
(Farrow and Ball’s Light Gray#17).
Stuck in the brown mud?
That bold, 1970s wall colour quickly went from brown to rust to orange (could we shock the in-laws any more?) and most often stayed a version of orangey rust. Why not throw the in-laws for a loop again?
Try a new colour:? Citron
(Para Paints Bean Bag Toss, P5049-42).
