Can’t afford an interior designer? A colour consultant could take your home to the next level at a fraction of the cost…

Choosing paint should be fun, if all the dreamy room reveals on Instagram are to be believed, but the reality is often very different.

For most of us, there is a big gap between the desire for a bold new scheme and our confidence when it comes to seeing it through. Not surprisingly, paint companies have cottoned on to our indecision and spotted an opportunity: most brands now offer some form of colour consultation service.

Aimed at helping customers navigate the vast choice of colours and finishes without making costly mistakes, there are options to suit all budgets: from virtual guides online, to Zoom calls and in-person home visits, there seems to be something for everyone.

But do they really work? Can a stranger really help you find a scheme that you love in under an hour? Team H&A put the leading in-person consultation services and one Zoom session to the test with four very different decorating challenges...

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Finding the perfect palette to warm up a dark, north-facing room

Advice from Little Greene.
Words: Charlotte Packer

Show me a paint chart and I’m a kid in a sweet shop: I want all the colours. In fact, it seems that I want all the paint charts, too. I have a stash that I consult every now and then, poring over those little squares that offer so much possibility. Too much possibility, unfortunately. How can you choose a favourite when you love them all?

This inability to decide is the reason our gloomy, north-facing home office has remained dotted with experimental squares of green and blue for the past 17 years. I clearly need help, which is why I jump at the chance of an hour-long colour consultation with Anthony Fortune from Little Greene.

Ahead of my session, I fill out a detailed questionnaire to help me identify what I want from our consultation.

How do you want the room to make you feel?

Of the 18 questions about likes and dislikes, one really stands out: ‘How would you like the scheme to make you feel?’ I know how I want the room to look (nicer), but I’d never thought about how I wanted it to make me feel. I realise I hate it in there. Despite the shelves filled with favourite books and ceramics, it’s a cold, unwelcoming space, the sun only glancing through the window late in the afternoon. I want it to feel warm and welcoming; a place for work.

Knowing how indecisive I am, I can’t imagine how we’ll fix this in an hour, but amazingly, although the time flies by, we achieve a lot. It turns out we can discuss up to four rooms in our session and as I show him around the house Anthony keeps our conversation on track.

By the time he’s ready to present his cure for the study (as well as the scuffed-up hall and the sitting room that needs a revamp), it’s clear Anthony has been paying close attention. And not just to my thoughts on colour, but to the art on the walls and our furniture, too. Not to mention the rugs and blinds I’ve confirmed we’ll be keeping.

‘It all helps me build a picture of your taste,' he says, adding that it’s nice visiting a house that’s already a home. 'A lot of my work is for clients mid-renovation, so the rooms are empty and there isn’t as much to work with.'

The Little Greene palette reveal...

I have a brief moment of panic as he shuffles through a huge deck of tester cards: what if I hate the colours he suggests? But my anxiety soon evaporates as he reveals the three colour cards for the study.

Shirting, a soft white for the ceiling, and two contrasting shades: Madeleine, a warm, sandy yellow and Nether Red, a curious reddish-brown.

I love both, but how will I choose? It turns out he’s suggesting both: the yellow for walls, shelves and floorboards, and the brown for the window frame and recess. I hold up the sample cards around the room to see how they look. Madeleine is lovely against the books and Nether Red, a close match to the toile de Jouy blind I want to keep, is inspired. But I’m nervous about using the colours together.

While I mull this over, we move into the sitting room which is a dark green that feels too cool for the south-facing room. Anthony suggests Sage Green, a warmer, paler shade that looks wonderful against the paintings on the walls. 

And finally, we discuss the hall, which was painted a rich yellow 12 years ago and I fancy a change, but it’s a big job – our house is tall and narrow. Anthony is impressively decisive and hands me a bold blue/grey/green card, Livid, which is one of those mercurial shades that shifts dramatically depending on the light.

Then he holds up a pale neutral to demonstrate how gloomy and unfinished it would look in such limited natural light. Split Pink is his warmer alternative, which sends me back into the familiar realms of indecision.

The consultation is hugely enjoyable and I’m surprised by how liberating it is to hand
control over to someone else. And although I’m not entirely convinced by the Nether Red/Madeleine combination, I dutifully paint some sheets of lining paper and, having lived with them for a week, I decide to go for it. I figure repainting the window recess and frame the same yellow as the walls is a small enough job if I don’t like it.

Living with the results: the verdict

A few weeks later, I wonder why I had any doubts at all. As soon as the Nether Red goes on I can see it works, making the window a focal point where previously, as the source of the grey north light, it was simply the reason the room felt cold and gloomy.

Once finished, it feels wrong to reinstate the old flatpack desk, so I replace it with my great-aunt’s drop-leaf bureau, which was in the sitting room. With the addition of a couple of armchairs from other parts of the house, the room of gloom is transformed: not only is it a place where I want to work, but it has become a surprise second sitting room, which the rest of the family want to use as well.

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Adding character to a brand-new kitchen with brilliant white walls

Advice from Farrow & Ball.
Words: Katie Pike.

When I told friends I was trying out the Farrow & Ball colour consultation service for our recently revamped kitchen, I was met with a fair amount of scepticism. One wanted to know how it could take an hour to choose a paint for one room, while another wanted to know what I’d do if I hated the colours. Thrilled to have access to some expert colour advice, I shelved their concerns and embraced the process with an open mind.

Renovations by their nature involve endless decisions, and by the time our kitchen/diner was finished, my husband and I had run out of steam. When it came to choosing paint for the walls, we’d taken the easiest option and gone straight for brilliant white, with a yellow feature wall for a pop of zoning colour where we have our desk for working from home.

Two years on, and we are ready to inject some more colour into the space. Although the room is light and bright, the white feels stark and unfinished.

Enter Farrow & Ball and its colour consultancy service. The first step is to send Bristol consultant, Jill Hazelgrove, a few photos of the room, as well as some images of schemes that I love. Jill then sets up a phone call to discuss the images so she has a better understanding of my likes and dislikes ahead of our meeting.

On the day of our session, Jill arrives, laden with sample cards and rolls of wallpaper. We begin by looking over my inspiration shots again and she points out that, in most of them, the walls, cabinets and ceiling are the same colour. If our cupboards stay white, they’ll stand out against the colour of the walls, creating a contrast.

While I love the idea of colourful painted cabinets, I have to be practical: with two small children, there’s a limit to how much time we can devote to decorating. But I’m keen to give the painted ceiling a go, especially when Jill explains that painting the ceiling the same colour as the walls will make the room warmer, and whatever shade I choose will feel more enveloping.

A paint consultation is a great way to banish 'decision fatigue'

Next, we discuss the colours I’m drawn to – pinks, yellows and greens – and with the help of her colour cards we narrow the selection down to Green Ground. 'People get decision fatigue with renovations,' says Jill. 'This process gets their excitement back – they can see it coming together. She suggests matching the skirting to the walls to create a more contemporary feel.

How to make the room 'feel considered'

In the dining area, we agree to use Green Ground throughout, apart from the yellow feature wall behind our desk. For this area Jill has two suggestions: the first is to repaint it Blooth Pink, a coral shade from the archives, which will maintain the zoned space. And to pull the room together and make it 'feel more considered', Jill suggests a strip of the same pink on the facing wall, running floor to ceiling.

While I’m absorbing this idea, she reveals a second option, and pulls out a length of Atacama, a wallpaper design I’d mentioned in our email exchange. She fixes it to the wall with Blu Tack so I can get a feel for how it might look as an alternative.

Jill then suggests using a punchier green on the Velux recesses and a storage cabinet – perhaps Breakfast Room Green or Yeabridge Green.

To wallpaper or not? Two schemes are offered, with and without wallpaper

I’m getting the sense that if it can be painted, it should be, and I’m very much here for that. I love how creative her ideas are and I can see how her scheme will bring the room to life. It feels brilliantly personalised and I appreciate how she’s listened to my practical concerns, offering two different schemes, depending on whether we opt for wallpaper or not.

My friends needn’t have worried. As it turns out, an hour feels short and, with her collaborative approach, there was no way I wouldn’t end up loving the scheme. As Jill says, the consultation brought back a sense of excitement and fun to the renovation process.

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Balancing a triple-aspect  bedroom & en suite

Advice from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint.
Words: Jenny Oldaker.

Our large, sunny, triple-aspect bedroom with en-suite bathroom should be a doddle to decorate, but the choices have always felt overwhelming: the scale of the room calls for a bold approach, but I’m more at home with a pale, neutral palette.

Craving a confidence boost when it comes to decorating

In need of a confidence boost as well as inspiration, I turn to Edward Bulmer Natural Paint for advice. Prior to our consultation, I receive an email describing what to expect, explaining that the aim of the process is to leave us 'feeling confident and empowered when selecting your colour options'.

We’re asked to share images of the room and what we’d like to achieve, and reminded that the consultation is intended as a collaboration, rather than simply dictating what we should do.

On arrival, Emma Bulmer is keen to get a sense of the whole house, our taste and the way we use the space. We chat about the room and look through my inspiration boards so she can build an idea of the kinds of colours we like.

Going too dark will fight with the natural light

I’ve been edging towards the idea of a deep, moody room, but Emma advises against going too dark, as this will fight against the room’s naturally bright light.

She then spends 15 minutes or so in the room on her own, working through possible colour combinations and getting a sense of the shades that meet my own preferences, as well as the ones that will work best in the space.

I return to find various A5 swatches on the walls, and Emma talks me through the choices. It’s exciting to see the colours grouped together and the first set she shows me are very much in keeping with the shades I had in mind. It’s clear these slightly lighter versions of teals and pinks that had appeared throughout my mood boards will work better than the darker blues I’d initially envisaged. We are now ready to whittle them down to a palette we’re happy with.

Whittling down the palette and feeling empowered

We move the colour cards around the room and talk through the placement of different shades. Our favourites include Sea Green and Vert de Mer for the walls, with Nicaragua and Pompadour offering contrasting pink shades for impact.

Emma’s enthusiasm is infectious and her ideas inspiring. And, as promised in the email, the whole session feels very much like a collaboration, rather than an instruction; I’m already feeling empowered to use bolder colours.

After the visit we receive a follow-up email setting out the options we liked, and Emma’s thoughts on how to approach different surfaces – woodwork and walls – and a reminder that further support is available if we have more questions. Soon after, we receive a package of colour cards and samples in the post – so we can spend some time living with the colours, allowing us to come to a decision over time.

The breadth of advice is eye-opening

We are left with lots to think about. I naively thought that the consultation would give me a few ideas for colours that would work in a space I’d been struggling with. But the breadth and depth of advice is really eye-opening: from painting surfaces I hadn’t thought about (a freestanding bath, wardrobes and so forth) to advice for maximising the height of our low ceilings by painting the skirting and coving the same colours as the walls to make them appear taller.

Emma’s knowledge of colour and understanding of space covered aspects that we hadn’t thought about and, best of all, her approach has really fired us up to try things we might not have been confident to before.

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Find your shade

From colour quizzes to room visualisers and online consultations, there are so many ways to pick a perfect colour, says Jenny Oldaker

These days, most paint companies offer some form of colour advice, so if an in-person consultation isn’t for you, or your chosen paint brand doesn’t offer the service, there are plenty of options to help you find the right colours and finishes for your project – and some of them are free.

Both YesColours and Craig & Rose offer virtual colour consultations conducted via Zoom (see review below). Meanwhile, Lick provides two online options to help you narrow down your choices. A personalised Colour Quiz, billed as a ‘virtual colour consultancy’, will help you discover your perfect palette by working through a series of questions, and the site will suggest specific shades.

Lick’s Colours Tool will help to refine your choices. It works on a mood board system, whereby you share a Pinterest board with Lick and it picks out paints that match the recurring colours on your board.

Coat also has an online colour quiz, at the end of which you can choose to be sent an email detailing recommended shades and personalised colour advice from the team. We found the email concise, with helpful reasons for the colours suggested, as well as useful general advice about using colour in the space.

Some companies have developed apps to help with the process of deciding on colours. The Dulux Visualizer uses augmented reality to allow you to explore its range of colours and picture them on your walls.

If you don’t fancy downloading an app but just want some colour inspiration, the colour tool on the website enables you to swipe left or right on a range of room images to narrow down the shades you like best. It’s not in-depth, but it’s a fun way to think about colour – and at the end you can even upload a room photo to see the final colour/s on your own walls.

Graphenstone’s Room Visualiser provides a similarly interactive approach, but users upload a room shot and experiment with different Graphenstone paints on the image. It also has a range of demo rooms for you to use if you don’t have a photo.

Atelier Ellis offers a different approach to help home decorators find their shade. The company’s self-guided Maps of Colour can be downloaded as a PDF or sent as a complimentary printed chart with any paint chart order. The ‘map’ aims to offer direction for each colour in its range, enabling you to easily build a palette of complementary colours.

Earthborn, meanwhile, provides a similarly helpful and comprehensive Colour Guide PDF on its site, explaining where to start with colour choices and outlining the underlying qualities and effects of its various shades to help you work out which will work in your chosen space.

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Refreshing a tired hallway

Advice from Craig & Rose via Zoom.
Words: Poppy Benner.

As someone who is ridiculously indecisive about paint colours, I’m delighted to get advice on my drab hallway from Flora Hogg at Craig & Rose. Painted off-white since we first moved in many years ago, it’s in desperate need of a facelift.

Setting out the 'non-negotiables'

We begin with a virtual tour of the house using my phone, so Flora can get a feel for my style and we also discuss the ‘non-negotiables’ of the existing decor, such as the black-and-pink geometric porch floor tiles and grey/blue of the front door, both of which I want to keep.

Flora suggests either light but warm Chinese White or Pale Celadon for the walls and stair spindles, to help open up the narrow space; she also recommends a dark blue, Lido Blue, or grey/blue Payne’s Grey for the handrails, and for a window reveal at the top of the loft stairs, to act as a contrast and also a thread that links the three floors.

Creating a separate identity with paint

For the porch, Flora chooses Dried Plaster, a soft pink, to give the area a separate identity and to tie in with the tiles in the entranceway.

I love all the colours Flora suggests – she’s really listened to my ideas and understands my taste. The hallway is a large space that links so many rooms, and it’s great that she has taken the other rooms into consideration to create a sense of flow.

A summary of our consultation arrives via email the same day, and my samples, which are included in the £95 one-hour- fee, follow two days later. Quick and efficient, the whole experience has given me the confidence to make a decision – finally! Payne’s Grey for the handrails, Chinese White on the walls and Dried Plaster for the porch.