Earlier this month, I attended the day-long Colour For Interiors Masterclass at Coco Republic Design School in Sydney and I had a ball! I learnt so much more than I expected to and it really got my creative juices flowing and made me look at everything interiors in a new light (or should I say shade, tint or chroma?).
I really think colour is so important to interior design. It’s something a lot of people get wrong while others wrestle with potential colour schemes for months and years, all the while sticking with boring beiges and neutrals because they’re basically scared!
This course was a real eye-opener. Being back in a classroom environment (and on a Saturday) was a bit of a shock to the system and it started out much like a science lesson with Newton’s electromagnetic spectrum and some basics on how we actually see colour and what it is. And I thought we’d just be playing around with colour wheels! It was fascinating though, and the teacher, Annamaria di Cara, was excellent.
We learned about hue, value and chroma (I had no idea what any of these meant beforehand, to be honest with you) and left much more able to articulate what we like and why. My classmates ranged from interior designers to renovators and those who simply had a passion for interiors. We did eventually get on to the colour wheel (HOURS of fun!), which helps you understand the relationships (related and contrasting) between colours (primary, secondary and tertiary) when mixed in certain ways. I could go on for hours here about split complementary and triadic schemes but if you’re interested, you really need to sit yourself down with a colour wheel for a couple of hours and apply some serious concentration. I promise you, you’ll be hooked when you work out why it is that red and red-purple plus green and yellow-green (yes, all four of them!) can work together in a scheme. That’s a double-complementary colour harmony if you were wondering…
While all the theory was great, what I loved most was with the practical elements of the class, cutting and sticking and using a glue stick for the first time in years. Fun! We collected paint swatches, fabrics and images from magazines to create various mood boards which we then shared with each other.
I learned so much more, like how colours can make a room seem larger or smaller, warmer or cooler, calmer or busier, but I’d be here all day! You would think a day would be more than enough to just learn about colour, but I could happily spend many more days on this subject. It’s a very thorough introduction but it does leave you fascinated to learn more!
I would really recommend this course to anyone. Find out more here.
Coco Republic Design School courses are developed and presented by The Design Centre Enmore, part of TAFE NSW. Coco Republic Design School is in O’Riordan Street, Alexandria. This one-day course costs $450 and includes lunch.
