Since we did our photoshoot for our new Chinoiserie After Dark, I’ve become a little bit obsessed with moody, smoky tones, to the point where I almost made my husband paint our very light, bright mid-century sitting room in Little Greene colour Livid. This absolutely wouldn’t have worked in the room so I’ve settled for painting the fireplace instead. I couldn’t let my obsession lie dormant though and he’s going to paint the snug instead. Watch this space for some before and after pics, later in the year.
Anyway, once I started looking at these lovely colours - think Farrow & Ball Inchyra Blue and De Nimes, Little Greene Livid, Hicks Blue and Lead. I started seeing them everywhere I looked! I’ve been saving the images I like onto a Pinterest board which you can follow here. and I’ve put together a little moodboard of pics below for you. All images are from my Pinterest board moody tones, where you can link back to original sources.
I went to a couple of really interesting talks while I was at Decorex this year. Normally, I am on my stand but this year I had a year off and went to three fab lectures. The three stand out speakers for me were Bunny Turner from Turner Pocock (one of my favourite Interior Design companies) - they are brilliant at colour and space planning and creating rooms, with both personality and longevity in design), Emma Sims Hilditch - creator of fabulous, timeless, elegant, yet liveable interiors and Joa Studholme the colour wonder who creates the magic for Farrow & Ball. These three ladies stopped me making a mistake and painting my sitting room a colour that is too dark even though I love it. They all said paint a light room light and if you have a small dark room don’t try and make it light because it will just feel more gloomy, paint it dark so it feels cocooning and it will become a joy to be in and you will use it far more. This was a bit of a light bulb moment and has now led to a bigger painting project than planned - (Lucky old Mr H!) I’m going to share some more of the insights garnered from these talented ladies in a later post.
If you like the idea of using some darker moody tones but don’t want to commit to a whole room you can use colour as a feature. I m really keen on panelling at the moment - I love the range by the English panelling company (We have used this in our photoshoot- you can see it in the pictures above ). In our sitting room, I’ve used it behind my Woodburner on some fireboard. You can also use a dark colour to paint a piece of furniture to add a statement piece to a room. I like to look at miss mustard seed - a USA based company, for inspiration on painted furniture - she also has some wonderfully inspiring Pinterest boards.
Happy painting!