Home renovation tips and ideas for adding colour to your new space

A little colour goes a long way to brightening up your house, and can be just the thing to inject some life into a dull room or a corner that’s lacking. If home renovations are on the cards, it’s a great opportunity to get thinking about the hues you love most and how to incorporate them into your home-renovation project. Here are a few tips and ideas for splashing some colour into an otherwise neutral palette. 

Colour choices: Before you rush into creating a colour fusion, think about the reason you’re home renovating (to improve your home for yourself, to modernise to sell, to create a certain theme/style) as this will impact on the colour choices you make. If your Melbourne home renovation is all about getting your house market-ready for sale, then a neutral colour code is your best bet. Anything too extravagant could create a negative or lasting-for-the-wrong-reasons impression for potential buyers. But clever use of colour will do the opposite, showing freshness and a little flair to give your house that something extra. Opting for the blank-canvas colours of white or off-white can bring an airy, spacious and fresh feel to your home renovations, with subtle complimentary hues added to the mix, and bold statement colour limited to styling via accessories.

Stick to your style: Although tempting to go with the latest on-trend colours, it’s best to first look at the colours you love and those that will be practical in your home renovation.  For a seamless look and continuity, try to continue the same colour themes throughout your home renovation. Or stick to different shades of the same palette. If you want to incorporate bursts of a bright hue, look to your wardrobe for inspiration. You’ll want to select colour that you’ll be happy looking at day after day after day. 

Expert advice: If you want to mix up your colour palette and use some bright and bold hues on walls, splashbacks, wallpaper etc, seeking expert advice is often a good idea. A home-renovation colour expert can help with colour selection, as well as matching colours and identifying the best areas of your home to add colour and contrast to. They can offer handy hints too, such as the emotions certain colours can convey, as well as the effect of different colour combinations in different rooms to make the space appear deeper, shorter, smaller, broader etc.

Decor difference: One of the easiest, affordable and most practical ways to add colour to your Melbourne home renovation is via accessories – artworks, vases, bowls, lamps, cushions, rugs. It’s also a great way to add a little of what’s on-trend each season and mix and match colours and styles you love. For those who keep their home a neutral-colour canvas, this is an easy way to bring hints of the seasonal colours into your home without having to do extra minor home renovations in changing paint colour, feature wallpaper or tiling etc.

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• Melbourne clients seeking advice on their home renovation project can phone The Makeover Group on 1300 768 464 or see www.themakeovergroup.com.au

Richard Armstrong is a Director of Melbourne firm The Makeover Group. With more than a decade of home-renovation experience, Richard has helped thousands of Melbourne clients undertake renovations to modernise their homes.