10 Mar 17

My Colour workshop

Last weekend I was thrilled to host my new look Colour workshop, in my hometown of Brighton at the gorgeous Artists Residence that sits atop the majestic Regency Square overlooking the sea. The sun came out and there were just nine of us all huddled together in the venues Ping-Pong room to discover and celebrate our love of colour. These types of days are my absolute favourite as I get to mingle with like-minded folk and pour over drool worthy images and lust over sexy interior design porn. It’s total heaven I’m telling you!

I structured the day so the morning kicked off with some collage work. I asked everyone to just simply grab the coloured pieces of paper they were drawn to. The aim was to try and not too visualise how these colours might be used in a room, just empty the brain of all pre conceived ideas and let your eye glance across the hues and pick the colours that you are drawn to. Then the task was to make a simple composition, thinking about how the colours sit next to one another and the balance of proportion. I think I had over 100 different colours of paper but It made me realise I need more! It’s an incredible thing the colour spectrum and the little nuances from the softest grey to the boldest pink are just so important when placing your own palette together. And better still, it felt good to be simply sticking and gluing in a pure Blue Peter style. It was wonderful to see the results which were like little works of art in their own right. So simple but such an effective way to get us playing with colour. I think this playfulness is essential to concocting winning room schemes.

After a short coffee break it was time to settle back and relax while I did all the hard work and delivered an hours presentation on how I use colour in my interior design schemes. Lots of drool worthy images to look at as I bombarded people with ideas and colour inspiration. But at the end of the day for me, its all about knowing the rules, and then breaking them. I hate to get too scientific about deisgn but a little theory can sometimes be that light bulb moment to get you out of a rut.

After a leisurely lunch it was time to get out the glue and scissors again and tackle making comprehensive mood board for a room, be it a real project in their homes or an imaginary room. Or a mood board that simply summed up a colour style. This is the part I love the most as everyone’s boards are just so different and eclectic and it shows me time and time again that interior design is so deliciously diverse. The aim for me is to never dictate but to encourage people to explore their own colour preferences. Then I’m always on hand to guide what finishes or colours might make a balanced room scheme within those ideas. For example if you fall in love with a wallpaper, then what would be the complimentary paint for the walls, woodwork and flooring.

The event finished, like all good doo’s in the bar sampling some of the best cocktails I’ve ever tasted! Lots of chat about interior design, careers, motherhood and some great friendships made.

If you’d be interested in one of my Colour workshops, I plan to host some more this year, I’m just on the search for the perfect venue. So in the mean time subscribe to my free newsletter and I can let you know what’s coming up

Susie was working on a board that would work in her open plan space that moved from kitchen extension, to dining room and then into the living room area. She wanted a scheme that united the three spaces without them all being the same. Oh and it had to work with her orange chairs

Aisling’s mood board very much worked with her love of emerald green and pale pinks. She has a new house that is being stripped to the bare bones and so she is starting from scratch. She found this exercise a great way to produce something visual in order to convince her husband!

Becky loves mood boarding and has a great visual eye. After taking time out from her career aspirations to be a mother, she was looking to get some clarity. She produced this mouthwatering colourscheme for a room in her own home

Hannah wanted to produce a colourful scheme for her guest bedroom, that would incorporate the existing bright red curtains. She came up with this mouthwatering colour scheme using bright jewel hues