Before I kick off today’s post we are on SALE for four days only – celebrating the long weekend with some fab discounts off the entire range. Nice no? I can’t actually believe it’s nearly September. There is a ton happening here at AA (more about that next week) plus my new range for Debenhams should be hitting all their 148 stores by early September which I am super excited about!
Gem is due here any min, 6am meetings are becoming quite regular these days trying to fit everything in. Not sure how I feel about that! But before I sit down with her let’s talk about light, more specifically natural light.
The thing about decorating with natural light is not to get too hung up on whether your pad receives indirect northern light or bright southern beams, or faces east or west. I know everyone will tell you otherwise but I didn’t get where I am today by following those boring rules! It’s actually how you utilise the light that counts.
Rooms that receive northern light are beloved by artists because the light is pretty consistent, with fewer shadows and less contrast. If your pad faces north the trick in elevating such rooms is to accent with a few shimmery surfaces and metallics – they will bounce the light around beautifully. I have successfully painted north facing rooms in dark colours and cool tones and they’ve looked amazing because I’ve accented with some shots of warmer tones. Ignore all that mumbo jumbo that you can’t paint a north facing room in a cool colour – seriously irritates me that rule! You can! The trick is to accent with some shots of pink, coral, saffron, burnt orange, invigorating greens – warm tones in other words. Same rule applies conversely for rooms facing south – seriously the orientation of a room is totally irrelevant to how I decorate and how anyone should decorate.
One trick I’ve done here is to remove all the internal doors (except on bedrooms and bathrooms obviously) to allow the natural light to flow through. It’s so transformative. Plus I get more wall space which is music to my ears, plus I hate doors… I can’t stand that being shut in feeling and I always want to look beyond the door. Personal obviously but that is how I roll.
Whether your rooms face north, east, west or south, I’d recommend a plethora of warm and cool tones in each because I love the friction it creates. As I am forever banging on about, the more friction you create in a space the more interesting it will be. Short of knocking down walls, building an entire wall of glass or adding skylights there isn’t much you can do. Instead work with what you’ve got and either maximise it or tone it down. Simple as!
Happy Thursday