Geraldine James’s new book, A Pop of Colour, is aimed at “anyone who has ever stood in the middle of a paint store bemused by the colour choice and thought, ‘Help — where do I begin?’ ”
She had the idea for the book just before lockdown. “It was an instinctive thing,” she says. “I’ve always been massively into monochrome, but I was feeling a desire to bring colour into my home. I bought some cushions in burnt orange and began a colour journey.”
The author of #shelfie, Creative Homes, Flea Market Secrets and Creative Walls, James developed a keen nose for incoming trends as the home buying manager at Selfridges for many years. And sure enough, her instinct has proved correct. Since the beginning of the pandemic, colour has captured homeowners’ imaginations. The book features simple ideas to bring colour into interiors, using not just paints, but also wallpaper, plants, cushions and throws. Her own small projects, in her home in Putney, southwest London, demonstrate how the most inexpensive tricks can have a big impact. “I’ve not bought anything new, I’ve just rearranged everything. One thing I did was tear pictures out of magazines and put them in frames. You can buy really great frames in Wilko. I’m big on restyling rather than big on redecorating.”
Bold blue sofa
The dark blue velvet sofa is absolutely gorgeous. People are often more comfortable choosing neutral sofas, but a sofa in a rich colour, a blue or green or a burnt orange, doesn’t hold you back — it gives you opportunities. Once you’ve made a decision to invest in something like a sofa, which is a big investment for everybody, you can plan your colour scheme around it. You can go for a tonal palette or contrasting colours. The clever thing here is the light blue rug, table and vase — the tones of blue work so well — picked up in the artwork on the wall and the paler blue round cushion and blue striped pillow. With this foundation, you can start to experiment and add in more colours. Here the orange painting, red pouffe and ochre velvet cushion are another layer that works harmoniously and balances very well. In summer you could completely change the mood by adding white cushions to the blues. Suddenly you have a beachside vibe.
Shades of pink
This corner of a kitchen diner has lots of natural light and a pleasant shabby chic feel about it. With the white painted wooden floor and wall, it’s a practical family room, but it’s also very pretty. The combination of white and pastels works well in bright sunlight. The rule is that a white backdrop makes colours more muted. Put a dark colour on the wall, and all the paintings pop out much more strongly. If you count up, you probably have four or five shades of pink here. It’s real a commitment to one particular colour group, and that repetition is very effective. Adding in the lilac flowers gives it a fresh feminine feeling.
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Gorgeous greens
In nature you have many shades of green together and nobody thinks they clash. And that’s how this room works, all the different greens on the painted cupboard, the pots and the plants, layering harmoniously. The green is so brave and so impactful. The space itself was previously a light industrial space, with huge factory windows, so there is masses of light. This effect might feel overpowering in a darker room. If you got up in the morning and went into a kitchen like this you’d feel enlivened. It is actually quite an easy process if you want to achieve something similar. Paint some furniture, and every time you go to the supermarket pick up another plant. Have them trailing down from the tops of cupboards, put them on your windowsill and on the shelves. The overall effect is of living in a greenhouse — one can hardly tell where the inside stops and the outside begins.
Colour-clash kitchen
The kitchen is in a seaside house in Margate, and the owner, a set designer, handpainted the eye-popping mural, painstakingly taping off each area and alternating between stripes, leopard spots and solids. I always say [about colour] take it little by little, gently does it, and if you don’t like it, you can change it — but this is a room where she has gone for it big time. I love it. Not everyone can create a mural like this, but the detail for most people to take away is the way she has done the shelf. Against the backdrop of the apple green wall, the fuchsia shelf clashes wonderfully, the green makes the pink sing, and then what is on the shelf is another opportunity to add colour and personality. Another idea is to paint the wall in a darker colour, and use the shelf for multicoloured glassware. The dark wall will make the colours of the glass pop.
A Pop of Colour by Geraldine James, published by CICO Books (£23)
