Fearne Cotton's colour tips for creating a happier home

I’m a pretty sensitive person. I’m affected by the people I’m with, the words spoken and energetically what's going around me. Luckily in the home we can manipulate the feel and energy with colour and print. With a simple brush stroke of paint or newly upholstered chair we can create totally new atmospheres and choose how we want that room to make us feel. 

When we moved into our family home nearly eight years ago I felt mentally overwhelmed with the prospect of a wedding a month away (what were we thinking?) and an 18 month old in tow. My brain overload led to a rather neutral pallet in the home in an attempt to quell the chaos. I imagined white walls and bare wooden floors would help calm my rattled nervous system. It may have helped a little but over the years I’ve realised that colour and pattern can also create a heavenly tranquility, too.

As time whizzed by the rooms in our home have incrementally been peppered with colour and print. From our floral wallpapered front-room in pink and green that gives you the feeling of a country garden, to our conservatory which has its wooden panels handsomely painted in deep midnight blue with light, powdery pink walls nearby. Pink features heavily in our home as I’ve learned it’s a colour that makes me feel relaxed and cosy, so much so that two years ago I painted our bedroom a deep petal pink which looks fresh and chic in the daytime yet envelopes you in comfort as the night draws in. 

Sophie Robinson has also been responsible for much of my experimenting with colour – her Instagram is a buffet for the colour deprived. I’m inspired by her clashing prints and sumptuous colour combinations. She once told me that she’d given her son a colour chart so he could pick the colour of his bedroom walls. Knowing how much colour affects me I realised I needed to give my kids the same opportunity to choose their own environment. Rex instantly pointed to an ocean coloured swatch for his walls due to his sea life obsession. His room is now a cool, cosy cave of aquatic glory.

My house has little fluidity from room to room. There is no cohesion of colour or print. Each room has its own style and atmosphere created with colour block walls and a mix match of pillows. My downstairs loo is quite literally it’s own little world! I tend to think bathrooms or downstairs toilets can be a fun playground of pattern and colour where anything goes. Our loo is one of my favourite spots in the house with wisteria wallpaper in pink and bright emerald tiles on the floor. It’s a tiny glamorous shrine that everyone loves visiting. 

Whether it’s floral prints to energise, tones of blue to calm or green to bring the outside in, resist following the trends which will inevitably come and go, and instead work with colours and prints that make you feel good.