The Ultimate Paint Colour Guide

On all the colours I used in my home

The most asked question I get is; “what is that colour?”. So here it is my ultimate colour guide with all the colours in my home, tips, guides and links.

Before You Start

A little introduction to painting

Always start with a colour palette before starting to pick out paints. What I often do, for myself and for clients, is working from a fabric or a wallpaper swatch that I love. I initially worked with the discontinued Cath Kidston Birds & Roses wallpaper for my own home. I pick about 4 colours to work with; white, pink, blue and green and I add-on with colour variations. I also never shop outside my colour palette, that way everything will compliment each other and I’ll not end up with unwanted items in the attic or overspending on unwanted items.

Paint

My go to paint is Sigma Tigron Aqua Satin and the Sigma Tigron Aqua Primer. I use this paint for all woodwork and indoorsurfaces such as furniture. It’s a beautiful eggshell paint and has a great flexibility to work with. For walls I use Histor Perfect Finish matte, this is actually a quite modestly priced latex paint and does the trick. If you want to get the best quality and splurge on wall paint I can highly recommend Farrow & Ball. For floors I use Sigmafloor.

Mixing Colours

I so do love all the Farrow & Ball colours but I’m not really fond of their paint as it’s too chalky to my liking. You can use their colour numbers instead and let your local paint shop mix them using the paint of your choice. For example when you want Farrow & Ball All White to be mixed using a different paint use the code FAR 2005 - FAR is the Farrow & Ball Library and 2005 is the colour number for All White. Vert de Terre would be FAR 234 and so on.

Tips & Tricks

• Work with primers mixed in the top coat colour that way you can see if the colour works for you, if not you can go for another top coat colour but you can keep using the primer. Also primers mixed in the top coat colour will make life so much easier as you need to apply fewer coats and your top coat colour will be much deeper and richer.

• Use water-based paints for everything besides floors and stairs. Water-based paints dry much faster so you’ll be able to apply more coats in a shorter timeperiod. Water-based paints are also better for the environment and for your health.

• Don’t use masking tape on windows but use a glass scraper instead. It’s faster this way and water-based paint is easier to remove as glue remains.

• If you paint walls and floors, put a roller on a broomstick as it will go so much faster and you can work in evenly strokes up and down.

1. Clementine 2. Mallow 3. Mary Isobel 4. Leicester

Ordering Wallpaper and Fabric

I can highly recommend Jane Clayton for wallpaper and fabric. They ship fast in the UK, the EU and the rest of the world. Tax and duty are included in the shipping cost so there will be no surprises afterwards.

Linen fabric is best purchased on Etsy in Lithuania, where the heart of linen fabric lies. My favourite seller is Linengraphy, although not all of their fabrics are always in stock and shipping is quite expensive, their linen is magnificent. Another favourite is Merchant & Mills in Rye England. You can easily order online or plan a shop visit when you’re planning to travel to the UK.

My Favourite Paint List

• ZINSSER^® B-I-N - Difficult surfaces like laminated IKEA furniture

• Sigmafloor Aqua Satin - I use this for wooden floors. It contains a primer and a top coat. Normally I do two layers and it will last about 5-7 years.

• Sigma Tigron Aqua Satin - paint for professionals, so you can only buy this in a paint pro shop. I use it for all woodwork indoors. The satin is like an eggshell finish. It’s water based so you can do a few layers on the same day. Use the same primer (Sigma Tigron Primer)

• Sigma Torno Aqua Semi-Gloss - Same as above for outdoors. The semi gloss gives a light sheen and is really durable for outdoor woodwork. Use the same primer (Sigma Torno Primer)

• Painting The Past Outdoor - Perfect for outdoor furniture like metal and wood. I use this paint without a primer.

• Farrow & Ball Modern Eggshell - I use this paint for radiators, it just works the best.

• SPS FAÇADE MAT - acrylic wall paint. We use this for walls and ceilings.

• Farrow & Ball Modern Emulsion - acrylic wall paint. We use this for walls and ceilings. We also use this to lime wash if you mix two colours, but that’s a whole other post.

Swenglish

I often get this question and my answer is “Swenglish” a combination of Swedish and English country. I love all the white, clean lines and minimalism that comes with the Swedish countryside. I’m really fond of Swedish antiques as they are practical yet pretty without a lot of fuss.I love nineteen century cottage antiques used in England and obviously all the stripes, checks and florals.

Colours Room by Room ( paid subscribers only)