A home is usually one of the biggest and most important places in your life. It’s also the space that you’ll probably spend the most time in. It makes sense that you’d want to feel comfortable and happy every time you come home.
That’s why we’ve partnered up with Sophie Robinson, a popular personality in the interior design industry who has a special knack for transforming homes with colour. With over 20 years of experience, Sophie’s worked across TV, magazines, and retailers. She even most recently starred in the BBC’s The Great Interior Design Challenge 2023 as a guest judge.
Sophie’s passion for interior design and introducing colour into people’s lives has led her straight to Taskrabbit!
It’s High Time To Ban Beige
Talk of “sad beige” and “beige flags” is all over the place, especially TikTok. However, at the same time, people are pushing back against the realms of identikit homes on social media. Many do want to experiment with colour in their homes, they just don’t know how.
To get a sense of fast and affordable ways you can embrace colour in your home, we asked Sophie to share her top tips.
1. Go with your favourite colour
When it comes to making confident colour choices for your décor, it’s worth enquiring into what colours you love that make you feel happy. It might be a colour you wear that helps you feel confident or a favourite gemstone. I love to look to nature; a favourite flower or landscape is a great place to look for colour inspiration. I have even had clients want to paint a room in their favourite football teams’ colour, and if it makes them happy I give them full permission to go for it. Honestly, anything goes!
2. Accessories that make a splash
You don’t have to drench all the walls in bold colour to get a positive effect. Adding in some colourful cushions, rolling out a bold new rug, or switching beige lampshades for colourful ones are effective ways to punctuate your room with bold colour. Better still you can do this slowly over time, so enjoy collecting your favourite colourful pieces.
3. Say it with paint
Having said that, paint is undoubtedly the way to get the biggest transformation for the least amount of money. Rolling out a new hue across all the walls is thrilling but don’t overlook the smaller details. Using a small tin of paint to pick out your window frames in a bold new hue or a bit of fresh colour to a tired piece of furniture are quick and easy ways to instantly update a room.
4. Pick your palette
When starting a colour scheme from scratch, a great hack is to use a swatch of fabric or wallpaper as your jumping off point. They will present you with a palette of colours that you can be sure sit beautifully together, and from this you can select a colour for walls, floors, furniture, and accessories that will blend harmoniously.
5. Dress the walls
Artists are masters of colour and I’m often inspired by the colour combinations they use. Hanging art is an integral part of a successful room scheme so pick a picture that enhances your overall scheme or the mood you are trying to create. I’d advise investing in one statement piece or building up a gallery wall of graphic pictures. There are plenty of tutorials on social media on how to paint your own simple murals and wall art which helps keep things creative, personal and, above all, affordable.
6. Don’t let people’s judgement hold you back
Taskrabbit found that people are nervous about embracing colour in their home as they’re worried what people will make of it and that it may impact them when they go to move. Worrying about what other people will think of your interiors is “insanity,” and my biggest piece of advice is to “go with your gut.” It’s impossible for everyone to like everything you do anyway because we all have different tastes. Do what you want in your own house and enjoy it. You’ll only be disappointed if you don’t!
7. Think in threes
I find that three is a magic number when pulling a scheme together, with the hero colour being around 60-70% of the scheme (think walls, floors, or large pieces of furniture), then the secondary colour being around 20-30% (for example soft furnishings), and the final accent colour around 10-15% (that’s cushions, artwork, and vases). You can add neutrals in with this, I call them a free colour, and can be found in wood flooring and furniture for example.
8. Get a helping hand
If you’re embracing a bold colour, you want to get it right. If you’re nervous about taking on a DIY job or you just want someone to take the pressure off you, bring in a helping hand. Whether that is an interior designer who can advise on the best colour combos or a handy person who can come in and get the job done in a flash, remember you don’t have to take it all on yourself. Taskrabbit has a large network of skilled Taskers on the platform who are there to help get the job done whether that is painting walls, helping mount a gallery wall, or hanging some new colourful curtains.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
After evaluating platform bookings and conducting a national survey* on those who may be interested in redesigning their home in the future, we discovered these results:
Respondents described a house being decorated in one colour scheme as:
- Simple – 36%
- Clean – 30%
- Calming – 21%
- Basic – 19%
However, the mood changed when respondents were asked what they thought about houses that were more colourful:
- Cheerful – 36%
- Fun – 36%
- Bold – 31%
- Uplifting – 25%
Adding colour to your home can be scary. 31% of our respondents said their homes were decorated in the same colour scheme—white. 27% thought that neutral colours were more practical, 18% said they were not brave enough to commit to colour, and 17% weren’t sure the colours they chose wouldn’t clash.
If any of these things are stopping you from adding more colour into your home’s interior, book a local Tasker to put these tips into action and help steer you in the right direction!
*This survey was conducted 9th June – 11th June 2023 with 1,000 respondents.
