After five long months of renovations at our little London flat, the time eventually came to start putting paint on the walls. The moment I had eagerly awaited quickly became one of dread when I realised I didn’t have an ounce of energy to look at paint charts. Let alone an idea of how I should choose a tone to counteract the cool light of the north-facing sitting room. Did the fact I liked the colour of the raw plaster on the bedroom walls really mean that I should opt for the ever so trendy dusty pink? Or was that a lazy choice? What about the woodwork? And what would I do about the fact the painters were booked in and I hadn’t made a single decision? This didn’t feel like the kind of muddle that I should really be in, having worked at House & Garden magazine for the best part of ten years.
It was at this moment that I realised why colour consultants are all the rage. It is something that many paint brands – Farrow & Ball, Edward Bulmer, Little Greene to name a few – offer. Prices start at around £200 and you can generally opt for at-home, in-store or virtual consultations. Not only can colour consultants be a sounding board, but they also have a deep understanding of colour, what works and the rules that you should – and sometimes shouldn’t – follow. ‘It’s a good place to start if you don’t have the budget for an interior decorator, but want to be guided in the right direction,’ explains Farrow & Ball’s International Brand Ambassador, Paddy O’Donnell. As his own 1930s house proves, he is no shrinking violet when it comes to colour and, as I experienced first-hand, he is the kind of man who can take one look at a photograph of a room and, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Farrow & Ball’s current and archive colours, point you in the direction of the perfect colour. ‘Choosing colour can be daunting, so our job is to take into consideration existing features, flooring and artwork to help you choose colours that are appropriate for your surroundings,’ explains Paddy, who runs regular colour consultancies, along with a team at Farrow & Ball, with prices starting from £140 an hour.
And so it was that I booked in for a 60-minute showroom session at Edward Bulmer Natural Paint on Ebury Street. I immediately realised the benefit of being in a showroom: there is plenty of paint on walls and woodwork, which not only provides good inspiration, but also a visual aid if you’re struggling to articulate exactly what you’re after. Emma Perry, the store’s manager, started off by asking me about our flat and looking at pictures of each room on my phone. ‘It’s all about using paint to create a flow between the rooms,’ she explains. She also made another excellent point, which is worth remembering when it feels like all you can think about is paint colours: ‘paint should provide a backdrop and the art, furniture and curtains are what should be doing the talking.’ Once Emma had got an idea of what I was after – elegant, but with a bit of earthy richness – she started pulling out A5 colour cards to show me how certain colours might work together. ‘The paints on a paint chart will often appear darker than they do when they’re up on the wall,’ she explains, proving her point by pointing out the ‘Wainscoat’ tone that has been used for some of the woodwork in the shop and looks entirely different to its little tile on a paint chart.
The session gave me a clear sense of the colours that may work and I left with A5 card samples for each colour and a few sample pots. For the kitchen-living area, a space that we felt would take an off-white well, Emma suggested going for something that has a bit of warmth or red or yellow in it. ‘Something like ‘Milk White’ or ‘Spanish White’ should feel elegant but warm in the north-facing light,’ she explained. My idea of a pink for the bedroom wasn’t a bad one it turns out and Emma suggested ‘Jonquil’ or ‘Lilac Pink’ could work well. She suggests that I may want to benefit from the fact they offer shades in different intensities (60%, 40% and 20%), which I’d seen on their website, but didn’t quite understand until I saw them painted out side by side on the walls. Another benefit of going into a showroom.
That’s the thing, as much as consultations like this are about colour, they are also about tips and tricks. ‘You could use the same colour in different intensities for the walls and woodwork if you wanted to really embrace a particular colour,’ she explained. ‘Or if your skirting boards aren’t particularly special, it might be a good idea to just paint them the same colour as your walls rather than draw attention to them,’ she adds. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really contemplated anything other than off-white skirting, so this felt like an exciting option. Another good suggestion was to just paint the ceilings the same colour as the walls, since we didn’t have a cornice providing a neat divide. Another added benefit of having a consultancy session with a paint brand is that they truly understand their paints and finishes and can provide lots of useful tips that you in turn can pass onto your decorator (or follow yourself if you’re DIYing).
Of course, the downside of a colour consultancy with a particular brand is that you are only ever going to see their colours, so I decided to book a session with independent colour consultant Harriet Slaughter, a former-florist-turned colour consultant, who offers both online (from £250) and in-home consultations (from £300 in London). She cut her teeth working for Farrow & Ball, before setting up on her own in 2022. I opted for an in-home appointment, before which Harriet sent out a questionnaire asking everything from the age of the flat, to the colours I gravitated towards and the places that I found inspiration, plus a request for any drawings of the spaces and pictures of interiors that I liked. When we then met in the flat, she turned up with a moodboard of pictures showing interiors in the sorts of colours that she thought I may like, and she got it totally spot on. I was blown away by how much she’d gleaned from my answers: not only did she have a really strong idea of what could be achieved and how we could pull it all together, but she came with a list of paint colours that we might like to consider – muddy browns, such as Little Greene’s ‘Light Bronze Green’ or Farrow & Ball’s ‘Salon Drab’ and rusty reds like ‘Sang de Boeuf’ by Edward Bulmer or ‘Marco’s Terracotta’ by Francesca’s Paints. ‘It’s my aim to create balance and flow, alongside sharing ways to use colour to achieve the desired mood in a space,’ Harriet explained.
She came with a suitcase of A5 painted samples, which were ideal to stick up on the walls once we’d established a rough palette for each room. She still suggested ordering sample pots and putting big patches up on the walls, but seeing these paper samples really helped whittle down colours. I was unbelievably impressed by her knowledge of paints and an overwhelming positive was that she had creative freedom to pick paints from every brand, depending on which colours she thought would work best. Little Greene’s ‘Clay’ or Edward Bulmer’s ‘Milk White’ quickly became woodwork potentials and she had great answers to my brief for it to be elegant and pared back, while also rich. While the walls of the living area could be an off-white, she suggested that we could bring a lovely earthy tone – say a red, green or yellow – in through the kitchen cabinets. She also suggested that a darker tone might work for the small windowless bathroom – something that I was initially scared of, but in fact makes total sense. All of this was discussed in our meeting and she then followed up with a beautifully presented paint specification, detailing finishes and options. Ultimately, what she gave me was clarity and confidence – and thanks to Harriet, I can now say that I’m the proud owner of a little bathroom painted top-to-toe in Edward Bulmer’s ‘Drab Green’.
Colour consultants can play a pivotal role when it comes to getting painting your house – and at the fraction of the cost of an interior designer. ‘Working with a colour consultant is also a great way to gather inspiration, regain momentum and come to decisions, without the commitment of hiring a full-service interior designer,’ explains Harriet Slaughter. I think they’re perfect if, like me, you have a sense of what you might like, but need a little encouragement and inspiration. Paddy O’Donnell refers to it as ‘hand holding’ and that’s exactly what it is. ‘I often say that I’d love to hire a colour consultant myself just to chat through all the crazy little ideas I have for my own house,’ jokes Harriet. ‘It’s like having someone dedicated entirely to your project, so you don’t have to bore your friends. Together we can dive into the details, solve design problems and refine our vision.’ What more could you want? I’m certainly sold.
