Five easy decor ideas to add colour to your home

While we often think of blue as a soothing and calming interior decorating colour, adding just a touch of brighter, bolder electric blue to your room's colour scheme can stimulate the senses and give you a shot of energy.

Adding an accent of bold blue into your existing space is easy – this hue goes with almost every colour, especially neutrals like white and grey. Why not try adding small pops of rich blue through soft furnishings or accessories, such as a cobalt rug, an aquamarine feature lamp or a couple of electric blue cushions.

Introducing bright shades of red, such as scarlet, crimson and berry into your colour palette will add a feeling of energy and excitement to your space, while dark, muted reds like burgundy and maroon will evoke a feeling of luxury and warmth.

Bright red can be difficult to get right in large spaces – a clever way of painting with this hue without overwhelming the room, is to use it in small, unexpected places, such as inside an alcove, on shelves or inside cabinetry.

Darker reds make for a fabulous feature wall colour, especially when paired with cool neutrals, such as white (all shades), pale pink-greys and soft, natural browns.

If you’re looking to uplift your interior design, yellow is the perfect colour. Bright, acidic yellows like lemon and chartreuse work wonders to help break up the neutrals in a room, especially when painting unexpected spaces, like on the window trim, door frames and inside shelves and bookcases.

Darker yellows, like mustard and gold, are softer on the eye than vivid yellow but just as warm. Colour combinations of these rich hues with charcoal grey really pop, and they look crisp and fresh when paired with bright white.

For a fresh and invigorating home all year round, try adding touches of deep, dark green – such as fern, forest and teal – to your neutral colour scheme. Bold but subtle, these hues are perfect for creating a feeling of calm to bedroom decor, sitting rooms and nurseries.

For busier spaces like the kitchen where energy levels run high, look to adding a dollop or two of a brighter shade of green. For crisp, modern kitchen designs, mix splashes of emerald with off-white, or create a softer finish with a colour palette of different shades of green in varying hues, such as a pale, sea green for the walls and a richer teal for accents and accessories.

Gutsy, vibrant and uplifting, orange is a bold colour that brings positive energy to your interior design. When using it as an accent, bright orange works best when combined with a colour scheme of warm off-whites such as ivory, camel or cream, or darker neutrals such as chocolate, slate or mid-grey.

If bold home decor ideas appeal to you, why not try combining bright orange with shimmering gold to create a daring and dramatic colour-blocked effect? It also looks fabulous when paired with lots of white and warm wood tones, like oak and timber.