By Shaynna Blaze

Earlier this year, Radiant Orchid was named as the 2014 Pantone Colour of the Year and it certainly ruffled some feathers with many (including Interiors Addict’s Jen!) questioning the bold choice of colour. Whether you love it, or are yet to be convinced, here are my tips for confidently incorporating the bold shades of purple into your interior colour scheme.

Purple has always been a colour of contention as some love it and others really don’t. I’ve heard a lot of talk of people fearing this new colour direction or being lost for how to make this work in their home. With any new trend it takes a while for people to embrace it, so in the spirit of embracing change, here are some of my suggestions for how to incorporate the purple jewel tones into your interior palette.

Recently, I have been talking a lot about using ‘grown up’ pastels in interior colour schemes and purple provides the depth of colour required for such a scheme, as it’s dramatic and rich, which adds punch.

There are two ways to incorporate such a bold colour into your home. You can either use it as an accent/feature colour in a room or be brave and use it on your walls as a bold statement. I’ll demonstrate this by looking at the same room but using the colour in two different ways:

As an accent colour:

The introduction of a new trend colour doesn’t mean you have to redecorate a room from scratch. You can alter the look of a room by adding accessories in various purple colours. As you can see in the picture, the bottles and accents on the cushions are a purple colour, beautifully accompanying Taubmans Endure Bald Mountain on the walls. This is an easy way of leaning gently into a new trend.

As a bold wall colour:

If you’re feeling bold you can paint your walls in Taubmans Balloon Pop. The use of neutral white, black and charcoal in the furnishings such as the couch, rug and mirrored tables allows you to be more adventurous with your wall colour and accessories. With this bold wall colour, you may choose to remove the bottles and instead have a small vase of flowers and replace the patterned cushions for textured ones in more neutral tones.

In order to embrace a bold colour, you need to know which colours it complements. There are two ways to approach it:

Select colours of a similar hue:

The first way is to select a colour that is in a similar tone to your starting colour, such as Taubmans Ellie May Rose, Taubmans Leaden Sky and Taubmans Spring Mauve. Using these colours in a lower intensity makes them blend together, creating a more harmonious look.

Choose a cool colour:

For a more dramatic look, you can choose a cool colour like Taubmans Grand Gusto and Taubmans Blueberry Bush with accents in Taubmans Crisp White. This colour palette creates a fresh and impactful colour scheme for your interior.

When using complementary colours, the key to creating the perfect look is to use the colours in different proportions, so one colour is dominant and the other is an accent. For example, you may decide to have your walls in Taubmans Leaden Sky and then introduce the trend colour through painting a chair in Taubmans Balloon Pop.

For those who love a crisp look, you can paint your walls in Taubmans Crisp White and accent the room with artwork and cushions in different shades of purple.

The most important thing to remember is that trend colours are supposed to be a starting point for inspiration to bring to life your perfect interior scheme, not to create colour stress. Embrace it!

For more tips for using colour in your home visit Taubmans. Interior designer Shaynna is a judge on The Block, host of Selling Houses Australia and creative director for Taubmans.