Embrace the visual noise

‘Never work with animals and children’

That’s what W.C.Fields once famously said (second-in-command, aged 12, is incredulous: ‘Why? We’re great!’)

It transpires that a kitten planting itself bang smack in the middle of your interiors vignette can, in fact, be a marvellous thing. If I’d even vaguely tried to get him to lie there to order, he’d have flicked his tail before scooting off in search of flies.

Instead, he sat still and lent some rare monochrome interest to an otherwise colour-packed scene. I often used to look at people’s pared-back, Minimalist, monochrome interiors and wish I could do that. I thought it might make me sensible (I once believed that was something to aspire to. I know.)

In 2003 I even tried Kelly Hoppen neutrals in a bid to subdue my innate, colour-filled interior desires (I break out in a sweat just thinking about it). Then I woke up one day and thought, ‘I love the noise and chaos of colour. Why am I fighting it?’ Now I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m posting this visually noisy scene to fling some rainbow-hued joy from Colour File HQ your way and to prompt you to be brave and brash and to really not give a damn. It can start with interiors, beginning with the small things, like looking at a bundle of paint swatches or buying bright blooms – who knows where it might go next?

Martha, The Colour File x

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