Design writer and author Kate Watson-Smyth has renovated six houses, the latest being a historic villa in northern Italy with a bold green sitting room. Here, she shares advice on how to find the right green for each room in your home.
Every few years, a particular colour is declared the ‘new neutral’. First it was grey, then plaster pink, and now it’s green’s turn. And what a palette we have to play with: there truly is a shade of green for every wall and taste.
The first thing you need to do is decide on how you want to feel in the room and match the shade to the mood. So, if a bright emerald makes you feel alive and full of creative spirit, don’t put it in the bedroom. Save it for the office or the kitchen and look, instead, at a calmer sage to help you wind down in the evening.
Once you have worked out how you want to feel, you can start to look at the colour cards in more detail. Green is very easily influenced by the light around it, so you need to put your testers in dark corners as well as directly opposite windows. A north-facing room tends to have a steady bluish light which will keep your chosen shade at its truest, whereas as windows looking south will cast an orange glow and can make an olive appear muddy. Check colours in natural and electric light too, as they read differently according to the time of day.
Now, while that might sound complicated, it’s actually just about taking a few minutes to think about the effect you want and a few more to paint a patch on the wall and see how you feel about it over a couple of days.
Generally, paler tones work well in bedrooms and bathrooms while the stronger forests and nettles (look out for Nettle, the newest green to the Neptune colour card) are better in sitting rooms and olive can be gorgeous on kitchen cupboards with a warm cream such as Old Chalk on the walls.
And that is the next thing – what are you going to pair with your chosen green? One of the easiest, and most obvious, ways to plan your green scheme is to look to nature. Find a leaf that matches your chosen shade and see what colour flowers it has. Silvery greens love lavender, and eucalyptus look gorgeous with shades of purple and lilac, while olive suits all shades of pink. Rhubarb and Potter’s Pink both love the new Nettle shade, a warm green with a hint of black. As does Polenta, a soft, warm yellow shade (whereas a stronger yellow can be a little too intense with bright green).
Finally, you need to decide how much green you want to use. While feature walls have been much mocked, there are ways to get them right – do one wall and all four skirting boards to introduce your shade to the rest of the room and pull it all together.
If you are going for the full drench (using the same shade on woodwork, walls and ceiling), make sure it’s a colour you truly love. And check your complexion. I once bought a house where one of the bedrooms had been drenched in a minty, arsenic sort of shade. It made everyone look bilious and was immediately replaced with a soft pink that flatters every shade of skin.
Of course, you don’t have to stick to paint on walls. If you have fallen in love with a strong shade, then it can look great on furniture and create a real focal point. The only question left is: which shade will you choose?