Colour in action - the music room

Colour in Action - The Music Room

A lovely old grand piano in an unusual satin wood case is the hero of this room, and sharpened the focus of what I wanted to achieve in the scheme.

• The piano helped to establish the atmosphere I wanted to create - one of comfort that was smart enough to entertain in, while still feeling fairly feminine and light.
• The room receives a lot of light from the south facing full length french windows and the east facing windows, which greatly reduces the need for artificial light during the day.
• I decided to cover all the walls in 18th century style panelling, replicating a design from another room, and chose to paint it in a pale green. A complementary contrast was created by including tones of pink.
• The doors and shutters were left in unpainted oak to create a dialogue with the rest of the house.
• The rug is a great example of how the colour wheel can be used to combine colour effectively and beautifully. It's important to observe the underlying tonality of all materials within the room. For example, I opted for a pink toned oak for the floor, and a pink toned leather for the upholstery.
• With a base of muted colours established, you can introduce some high notes for interest, such as the rich velvet green armchair or strong red in cushions.
• Panelling offers an opportunity to create hidden storage if you have space behind it. With in-built storage, it can be nice to paint the inside of the cupboards in a colour that works with your scheme so that it becomes part of the room when in use.
• To pull off pink, you actually need a paint with very little pigment - and a more successful pink is one that relies on earth pigments to ground it.
• When using colour in a room, I'm not just thinking about it in an aesthetic sense, I'm also responding to the architecture and how any furniture or artwork will interact with it.
• Classical architecture is underpinned by a system of rules based on proportions. While this doesn't necessarily directly apply to the modern day, much of the thinking surrounding symmetry still remains.
• The centre of a wall needing to have a gap or a focal point derives from this ancient logic, and it's why we often hang pictures or mirrors here naturally and almost unthinkingly.
• We're not just decorating for the aesthetic, we're also creating comfort and practicality - and this balance is fundamental to the success of any scheme.