Colour Focus - Reds

Red is a bold, vibrant and fun colour to decorate with but it can be a little daunting. Use it too much and your space can become overwhelming and tacky, use it too little and it can feel as if you've phoned it in a little bit. Let's dive into decorating your home with reds and - importantly - what pitfalls to avoid.

Shades Are Everything

It sounds simple, but when decorating with reds, understanding the different shades and how they interact with your space is so important. If you're decorating with yellows, it's fair to assume that they'll brighten up your room and add a sense of freshness - even the darker hues. With reds, however, the shade you go for will completely alter the whole ambience of a room. For example, interspersing vibrant red accents around a room gives a fun, vibrant and playful feel. Doing the same with darker shades gives an exotic, sultry, sophisticated air. It's all about understanding the use of your space and what you're trying to achieve.

Embrace Bold Design Choices

You've decided to decorate with reds, you've made already made a bold choice, don't play it safe - your space could look unfinished and feel noncommittal. This doesn't mean overuse reds, but it does mean be prepared to make brave choices. Reds can work great with more eclectic styles, think big bold patterned fabrics like Dandelion Clocks by Sanderson in a contemporary space or Audley Claret by Chess Design for a more traditional feel. How ever you choose to use your reds, be confident, be bold, be brave.

Reds Are Perfect For Pops Of Colour

Depending on your space, and the style you're trying to achieve, reds can be used as little explosions of colour dotted around your decor - injecting vibrancy. Red is as a fast colour, without getting too technical, it has a higher wave length and will move faster. We're not astrophysicists, red being a fast colour isn't going to really affect us in terms of design. What will affect us is that we're naturally predisposed to notice colours like reds first.

We can take advantage of this when decorating with red colours, adding red elements into focal features of your room really helps them stand out and adds vibrancy to your space. This is particularly effective when combined with a black and white colour palette, your red elements will add bursts of vibrant colour, livening up your decor without overwhelming it.

Bigger Might Be Better

It's important to caveat this with don't overdo it. We talked earlier about making bold design choices - this is a great example of being bold. Pops of colour are great for injecting vibrancy into your decor, for the bold and brave - consider something a little more head turning. Something big. Something red! Think big, thick floor-length curtains or a big red upholstered sofa as a centrepiece.

Incorporating one or two large, eye-catching red elements to really enhance your decor. This works exceptionally well with more contemporary styles. 

Reds can be daunting, but stick to your guns and trust your gut - get it right and they're fantastic to work with.