Use Bright Colour Schemes to Make Your Home Feel Friendly

Evoke warmth and fun with summer shades

What feels friendly, fun and warm to you? For many, the summer season comes to mind, and it’s possible to retain this feeling all-year-round. In the home, summer shades have the power to transform your mood, no matter how dull and grey it might be outside. They can evoke an atmosphere that’s energetic, fun and creative while feeling cosy and soothing at the same time. 

Bright Colour Palette Ideas

Consider a rich, earthy colour like Summer Pecan 1 and a deep, vibrant orange like Auburn Falls 4. Brown tones remind us of the earth and the outdoors, but they also bring a sense of comfort, stability and calm. Orange literally radiates warmth and happiness, making us feel adventurous, enthusiastic and spontaneous – just like summer.

When you bring colours like these together, your home simply can’t help but feel friendly and welcoming! The even better news is that your options for welcoming colours are as wide as that smile you’ll have every day when you walk through the front door.

The Friendly Barter Palette

Need some inspiration? With 14 warm and bright paint colours, the Friendly Barter palette is custom-made to bring a welcoming, friendly vibe into your home. Use the colours in any combination you like by simply choosing your favourites. Don’t worry about whether they ‘match’ or not, as clashing colours often bring the most fun to interior design.

The palette combines bright, punchy shades like rich orange and pink with tonal hues for balance and contrast. These colours bring out the best in warm wood tones, so they’re fantastic for DIY projects. Get out those old veggie crates and chairs for a spruce up with welcoming paint colours. To choose a hue, simply consider the type of mood you wish to create overall.

Bright Colour Palette Ideas

For example, if you want to enhance a sense of energy, introduce a citrus zing with Chartreuse Charm. When it’s a cosy feeling you need more of, settle in with comforting Roasted Pumpkin 2.

Do flowers always give you that overriding sense of outdoorsy joy? You’ll feel like you can smell the roses with beautiful shades like Floral Bunch and Pink Nevada. Just remember that the idea is to choose the colours that give you the happiest, most welcoming feeling. When you do that, you can’t go wrong.

In need of more orange paint inspiration? Check out our other orange decorating ideas.

How and Where to Use Welcoming Paint Colours

So, once you’ve determined which colours give you the warm fuzzies, where will you put them? If you’re feeling a little timid about splashing intense colour around the home, you’ll be happy to know that warm, bright summer colour schemes work perfectly as vibrant colours. Go forth with your ideas and just have fun!

Kitchen, Dining Rooms and Living Rooms

To enliven a kitchen or dining room, consider a grey shade like Sincere Brew for the walls and add a bright strip of red or yellow on the ceiling trim. For more contrast, intersperse white areas throughout your scheme.

If you already love your walls, look at your table and chairs. You could dip the chair legs in various colours for instant cheeriness. Ever thought of a two-tone table? Pair up some spectacular brights for a refreshing look that makes your table stand out from the crowd.

Warm, cosy home ideas are easy when you think outside the box. Look for unusual areas to indulge in your love of Collective Coral or Party Surprise 4. Could you paint the window recess? The back of a large display shelf? Use blocking techniques for even more contrast? The smallest hit of colour can dramatically change a room’s ambience from dull and cold to welcoming and friendly.

Top tip: consider all angles

Take a moment to consider your space. As you look around, which walls are visible at the same time? Can you see into the next room? If you’d like to add some personality to your space with layers of colour, a simple way to start is to choose two contrasting shades for adjoining walls or rooms.

Kids' Bedrooms

Kids’ bedrooms are perfect for unleashing your inner colour fanatic, so don’t hold back with your creative ideas! Two-tone walls bring visual fun and give you the chance to play with colour combos to your heart’s content. This also helps to separate areas, such as two beds, so the kids can pick a favourite for their side of the wall. Don’t be afraid to add a stripe or two of contrasting colour as well!

Top tip: divide the space in a room with paint

You can use colour as a tool to change how a room is viewed – and used. Here, a children’s shared bedroom has been cleverly divided to give each child their own space – with a two-tone wall that combines sunny colour with a pastel shade using a quirky accent stripe. You can read more about how paint can help create a multipurpose space here.

Home Offices

If, like most of us, you’re prone to procrastination, doesn’t it make sense to make your home office a whole lot friendlier? Design a room that inspires you to work, with summer shades of orange, yellow or pink to give you an instant hit of energy and enthusiasm.

Top tip: rooms within rooms

Using colour to zone your space is especially effective in multifunctional rooms. You might opt for a feature niche to highlight the architectural details of your home or create an area with a particular purpose in mind. Here, a workspace, painted in a rich and intense shade, has been created in a corner of the bedroom, while the rest of the room is a warm, neutral colour.