DIY: Jazz up your interior with neutral, earthy colours

Primerose Kaisaali, an interior designer says geometric prints and large florals, especially wallpaper have been trending lately. 

Besides her work as an interior designer, Kaisaali makes simple side chairs from wood and fabric collected from different places by compressing and spraying them in silver or any other desired colours. 

“I make the chairs from a local workshop where I do the base work because I do not have the equipment needed in my home-work space. It takes me about a week or two to make a set of chairs,” Kaisaali says.

She further says the price of the chairs, which ranges from sh3m and above, depends on how many chairs a client wants, and the material used. 

Kaisaali says when she dressed the chairs with geometric prints and large floral last year, her clients loved them to bits and bought all of them up. 

However, this year, plain fabrics are the most preferred option. 

She says geometric prints and large florals will not be liked much moving forward, because they are exhausting on the eye. 

“Plastic furniture of any kind for both the indoors and outdoors is also a trend, especially in shared spaces, as compared to geometrics prints and large floral,” Kaisaali says.

According to her, neutral earthy tone colour is that which is commonly observed in nature such as the sea, the sky, vegetation, and land. 

Kaisaali says any tints or shades which are dull colours mixed with grey can also be considered an earth tone. 

These include the browns, greens, reds, yellows, oranges, greys whites and shades of black.

She says neutral colours which include black, grey, ivory and some shades of white appear to be without colour but in many applications often have undertones.

Juliet Mbabaali, an interior designer says if one wants to maintain the geometric prints and large floral trends, this can best be done in a rented space, where one is bound to live for a short time. 

“If you are renting space, it is difficult for you to have your own choice of neutral earthy tone colours, especially if the landlord has already chosen otherwise. However, if you are living in your own house, you want to come back to a calm earthy-relaxed, and toned house,” Mbabaali says.

 She adds that if you look at the colours in your space and they do not please you, you can change the paint to please your eyes. 

“While painting your spaces, choose the living room and the bedroom because these are the spaces where you spend most of your time. When painting the living room, furniture and texture already present must be taken into account in order to combine the old and new in the best way possible,” Kaisaali says. 

She adds that interior decorations and colours should also match the paint, colour of the textures and the furniture.