Colour your world: the creators celebrating colour at home
When it comes to interior decorating, colour is like music for the eyes. It sets the tone, creates a mood and offers boundless inspiration. So, why not run wild with the rainbow?
While the decor rule books might advise you to pick one or two feature colours, there's a growing movement of colour enthusiasts embracing a more-is-more approach to colourful decor. Of course, we love it! Colour is essential to the Mustard world, and we can't get enough. Beige? Never heard of her. Meet the makers inspiring us with their creative approach to crafting colourful homes.
Courn Ahn's Polly Pocket dreamhouse
@candy.courn
adults love colour too!
Courn's hyper-pastel home is a dream in every sense of the word. "I want it to feel like you're walking into a Barbie or Polly Pocket dream house," they explain (goal well and truly achieved!) But there's a deeper meaning behind this bright, eclectic styling, too. "I have always wanted my space to just feel warm and comforting — two things that I didn't always have as a queer autistic Asian person growing up!"
"My goal has always been to create a space that feels as colourful and lively as how I feel on the inside. I want it to feel like a living art installation. I want it to feel like me."
To that end, Courn has even repurposed their guest bedroom into a space dedicated to their special interests. It's filled with books (displayed by colour, of course), plush toys, Pokemon accessories and even a Lilac Twinny! Speaking of toys, Courn says, "I also just want to show that interior design for adults doesn't have to look a certain way to be professional or acceptable. Adults love colour, fun shapes and dynamic design choices too. As much as I love a good neutral palette for other folks, it ain't for me!"
colour + emotion
Working as a graphic designer, Courn has always had a keen awareness of the impact colour has on us. "Colour has such a powerful ability to make us feel things, which is exactly why I knew my house would be the perfect avenue to explore that for myself," they say. "Pink has always been my favourite colour (which you may have noticed), so that's been the driving colour behind the bulk of my interior design. It's the epitome of feminity, warmth, and energy." And although Courn loves bright colours, that doesn't mean they always belong at home. "They don't always feel the most relaxing for me, so I've mainly stuck to a mix of pastels with some colourful accents to make it feel balanced."
Courn's advice for bringing colour home
"It doesn't have to be a grand, expensive gesture to start bringing more colour into your space! Paint and contact paper can go a LONG way in bringing new life to your current furniture and decor. Check out thrift shops and secondhand shopping sites. You'd be surprised at all the fun, colourful decor you can find (99% of my decor is secondhand)! Invest in a few high-quality colourful pieces that you really like."
"Start small. You don't have to do it all at once! I started room by room to make it more manageable for me, and it's taken nearly two years to get where I'm at now with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears! But even today, I'm still tweaking and redecorating all the time, along with planning even more big projects (like painting my entire exterior by myself) because it's always an ongoing process."
Kalianna Carpenter's rainbow castle
@kaliannakali
inspo at home
If you're on TikTok, there's a good chance you've stumbled across one of Kalianna's addictive, colour-drenched fashion styling videos. Her colour-coordinated closet is a rainbow fantasy world and she even takes colour combo requests! According to Kalianna, her design choices are all about evoking a good mood. "When I was first designing my house I knew I wanted decor that gave off cheery and happy vibes. Every day, I create in my house, so it needed to make me feel inspired and keep the creative juices flowing." In fact, her house is the source of inspiration for some of her video ideas.
Since Kalianna regularly explores colour combinations via her outfit choices, we had to ask – what's her favourite home decor combo? "Yellow and orange is my favourite combo! They are both just bright, happy colours that make everything look better. They also give off major sunset vibes and who doesn't love that?!"
When it comes to lockers, though, Kalianna is firmly team Lilac. Her Lilac Midi looks extra sparkly scattered with light reflected from her disco ball collection, while her Lilac Lowdown creates the perfect display spot for her bright Assouline prints.
dopamine dressing
Kalianna is a big believer in dopamine dressing – the trend of wearing colours designed to boost your mood. "If you think about it," she says, "when is the last time you had a bad day when you were wearing a super colourful outfit? I bet you can't think of a time!"
"My rainbow closet feels like one big boost of dopamine and joy."
"Everything is organised in colour order and my go-go boot collection is proudly displayed right when you walk in. The only way something makes it into my closet now is if it brings me joy or brings a burst of colour! Basically, if it brings me happiness I will wear it! With all of the fun pieces I have it feels like I get to play dress up every day."
Kalianna's advice for bringing colour home
"OMG DO IT! Seriously once you start wearing bright colours, it will be hard to go back to neutrals. Neutrals just don't have the same *oomph* that rainbow colours do! I went from a fairly neutral wardrobe to an actual rainbow wardrobe and it made getting dressed every day into something I actually looked forward to. When building your own rainbow wardrobe, start out slow by adding 2-3 colours that you love into your wardrobe. Over time you will have a rainbow masterpiece that brings you so much joy!"
Maarten & Sharvin's bold + beautiful home
@happyvillageinterior
dare to be different
Maarten & Sharvin aren't afraid to try something new. In fact, they're all about it. "We always try to think outside of the box and strive to do something that's different than what we've seen before," they tell us. Take their four-tone bedroom. With its blue ceiling and horizontal stripes of rich red, orange and pink, it's an idea that shouldn't work. But it does! The result is an incredibly moody, artistic and lush space that's full of personality, especially with their Navy Twinny tying it all together! Maarten & Sharvin say "We want our spaces to feel cosy, to be rooms where you can get inspired."
embrace the clash
Forget what you think you know about colour. Maarten & Sharvin believe it's worth taking some risks.
"Colours just make us happy, it's that plain and simple. Whenever we do things we just think, this could use a splash of colour to spice it up."
"We're also not afraid to combine colours that might clash. In the end we're very happy that everything works out perfectly." That said, they don't just throw the colours onto the walls! There's preparation involved to get the balance right. "We plan our projects out and think a lot about which colours we use. Usually we get testers first to see what the colour looks like in different lighting. After that, we just go ahead and start painting." That's the fun part!
Maarten & Sharvin's advice for bringing colour home
"We always tell people to just go for it and don't be afraid to make wrong choices. Especially when it comes to interiors, nothing is permanent. Of course, we understand the financial aspect but that does not mean everything has to be grey, black, white or beige. So we advise you to try some testers and paint whatever surface you like. If it does not work out the way you wanted, you can always repaint."
Or, add a new locker colour to your collection and you can bypass the paint shop altogether!
