What are the colours of Eco Chic?

As you would expect a style as important as Eco Chic has its own range of colours. Due to the combination of function and style, choice of colour can play a key role in the mood and atmosphere of your home and even energy conservation.
Its been known for hundreds of years that the orientation of a room will determine the sorts of colours that work well in a space. A room that faces south will get a good range of different light as the sun moves over head from east to west; from the warm reds and yellows of the morning to the harsher brighter midday light to the warm reds and oranges of the evening. A north facing room however will get no direct sunlight, and the reflected light into the room will be a cooler blue. In this way, through the ages rooms have been colour coordinated to compensate for the deficiencies or benefits of light to suit- with north facing rooms being painted warmer colours and so on.

In the world of eco design however, wall surface finish is critical to maximise the reflection of natural light, so some would argue that only pure brilliant white would be right through out the home- that’s walls, ceilings, and floors. OK so I can sympathise with this- the darker your walls, the less natural light gets reflected around the space, so the sooner you have to turn on the lights, thus wasting energy.

But this leaves me in a quandary – I enjoy using colour, it helps me to express feeling in a space, it can create drama and atmosphere, character and identity ….. need I go on?! Eco Chic needs to find a compromise where these emotional design aspects can be explored whilst creating functional light and reflective homes.

The answer may well be to introduce colour or darker shades in only certain selected areas. Think about using tonal shades of colour (the same colour just lighter and darker shades) on different walls – lightest on those walls surrounding the source of light such as the window and darker feature walls, further away. White details, (or very light colours) for window frames and sills will also help to bounce light as it falls through a window.