30 Oct 17

My living room and why I love autumn interiors

Isn’t it just the most splendid time of year?! I’m totally in love with Autumn, the light is just magical and all the colours looks so intense, from the fresh blue skies, nut brown conkers to our recent haul of livid green cooking apples. We’ve had an exceptionally warm October but the frost kicked in this morning and I’m delighted that our wood burner will be all systems go from now on.

So while it’s closing in outside my attentions are turning inside and well, in a nutshell my house is hideous. We’ve been here over a year and I’ve really not tackled the interior decoration. Partly because we’ve been focussing on the garden and partly because I’ve not had the money to just throw at it. Only today I parted with over £3k to have the oil tank relocated. Funnily enough Mum wasn’t happy with it directly outside her kitchen window!

BEFORE: The living room is a good size but not too sunny. The inglenook fireplace is the real focal point.

But I’ve given myself until Christmas to tackle the living room, as it’s a seriously depressing space. I don’t even have curtains! So the big debate was whether to go light or dark with the wall colour and for the first time I must admit I felt torn. I’ve always been a lover of dark walls as it really allows my love of insanely bright accessories to pop but it’s been 10 years decorating on the dark side and I was up for a change. However the room is rather lacking in sunlight and there is always that danger that if you paint a dark room pale, it just looks disappointing. So over on Instgram stories I opened it up to vote. And just like brexit, it split the country in half. But there were a few more for votes urging me to Leave the darkside.

So I took it back to the drawing board. How did I want the room to feel? I made some notes:

Cosy, snug, dramatic, enchanting, nostalgic, established, sociable, relaxing, fabulous, country, rustic, warm.

It’s also a good idea to think about what you use the room for. It’s certainly a room we use the most in the evenings, to watch TV and films and enjoy the fire. In the daytime I’m either in the kitchen or favour the conservatory, or my upcoming home office (so much to do!). So it’s significant to know it’s a room mainly used in the evening.

You can quickly create a vision board for a room scheme using swatches, print outs from Pinterest and some paint chips.

So when you consider how I want to the room to feel, and what we use it for, combined with the fact that its not the sunniest of rooms, all points towards decorating in a combination of rich and intense colours. In terms of colour psychology this is the autumn personality to a tea. When you are considering an autumn scheme the palette is rich, warm and intense. The style suits anything with a nod to heritage so is in tune with the country vibe that I’m channeling. And as for styling Autumn loves lots of stuff so the enchanting feeling that I want to create will come with the arrangements and tableaux’s I create. The textures and fabrics that I am drawn too are also very autumn. Rich velvets next to super soft wools and well-worn wood, all help to create that nesty vibe I’m after. If you’re liking the sound of all this you can read more about the Autumn personality on my blog post here.

The Snug at the Garden house inside the Beaverbrook Estate is a major inspiration. I have a bit of a girl crush on the interior designer Nicola Harding, as her colour schemes are just perfection!

So after over a year deliberating how to decorate my living room, I nail it in a morning with the help of Pinterest, my colour printer and a little help from Colour Psychology to give me that framework. I love the way it makes the design process so much easier and faster. Helping to keep you focused it stops you veering off on a tangent or down another Pinterest rabbit hole.

This manor house in Wiltshire, designed by interior designer Ben Pentreath features the most amazing crimson wallpaper. Could I get the other half to go for this?

If you run a design business and want to learn more about colour psychology and how it can totally up your game then we have just a couple of spaces left on the Colour Psychology course for interior designers coming up in just two weeks time that I am running with Fiona The Brand Stylist. You can learn more about the day here. Meanwhile, watch this space!