Philippa Stanton: My colourful world

Artist, photographer and jigsaw puzzle producer, Philippa, tells The Colour File about her love of colour... My first colour [...]

Jennie Maizels: My colourful world

Jennie Maizels is an artist, illustrator, university lecturer and creator of the highly acclaimed Sketchbook Club online. She is [...]

Helen Gilbert, Luxe 39: My Colourful World

Helen Gilbert is the brains behind luxury velvet cushion company Luxe 39. Here, she tells us what colour means [...]

British Colour Standard: My Colourful World

The British Colour Council set colour standards to help regulate official colour use across the British Empire, from flags [...]

A bit about Martha Roberts, creator of The Colour File

Hello from W4 I know most of you lovely lot know me already but I’ve had a flurry of [...]

9 April 19: A colourful cushion addition

Hello from Tuesday, I think (school holidays always get me super-confused). I just HAD to show you this – [...]

10 books about colour

As a colour-lover, I’m often asked colour questions like, ‘What’s your favourite colour?’ The other one is, ‘What colourful [...]

Quirk & Rescue’s Ms Pink: My Colourful World

From incredible wallpaper, cushions and prints through to bespoke hand-painted furniture, the signature prints of Ms. Pink and design [...]

Colour guru Mark Wentworth: My Colourful World

Global colour ambassador Mark is the creator of The Colour Path and the Colour PsychoDynamic method, which integrate colour with [...]

Lisa Dawson: My Colourful World

Lisa Dawson is an interiors blogger, writer and presenter whose weekly blog inspires fans on Instagram and IRL (in real life) [...]

In the home of artist Mary Darch

Do you ever visit somewhere and, overwhelmed by its style and substance, find yourself saying, ‘I wish I lived [...]

Interior designer Sarah Mailer: My Colourful World

Sarah Mailer is the brains behind the brilliant Girl About House blog as well as being a much sought-after [...]

16 August 18: When does colour love start?

Hello folks. Having talked about beach huts yesterday, I’ve had paint colour on my mind (in truth, it’s pretty [...]

27 July 18: Front door fervour

What, Friday already? How does a week go so fast in west Wales? I only started snapping delectable Georgian [...]

26 July 18: The joy of oddjects

Hello, folks. One thing I love about holidaying with friends is the opportunity to act like overgrown kids and [...]

20 July 18: Shelfie travel props

What’s the strangest item you’ve ever taken on holiday with you? Whatever it is, I bet I can totally [...]

22 June 18: Sorbet, primary or monochrome?

Hi colour-chums. It’s been a while since I played with my plastic rubbish so while SIC is making a [...]

21 June 18: Pink makes food taste sweeter

Hello folks 💕💕 A while back I wrote about how yellow plates encourage you eat more and blue plates [...]

19 June ’18: Lemon & Lime

Good morning, my colour-loving friends. As you know, I get colour inspiration wherever I go so I’m always thrilled [...]

17 June 18: Blue crystal memories

When I was a little girl visiting my dad, I used to enjoy studying the pictures he’d painted. One [...]

16 June 18: Go green for greater creativity

I’m in a quandary and it’s got me thinking: is there a colour that helps us when we’re stuck [...]

15 June 18: My love affair with colour

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12 June 18: SHELFIE book countdown!

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12 June 18: Objects with faces, fun or freaky?

Hello from Tuesday, folks. I remember when I was a kid, I visited friends who had a Lichtenstein poster [...]

11 June 18: Welsh girl called Myfanwy

When I was about nine, I dressed up in a traditional Welsh costume to sell programmes at a St [...]

9 June: What’s the word I’m looking for?

Good morning from sunny W4. I wonder if you could help me? A few years ago, I discovered a [...]

Kasie Barton: My Colourful World

Kasie Barton is a colour tour de force. DIYer extraordinaire and stylish founder of the For The Love Of [...]

7 June 18: What’s in your handbag?…

How many bags do you own? Me? I’ve lost count (20? 30? More?) largely on account of being a [...]

6 June 18: Thanks for all the love x

Hello folks, I want to say a big thank you for all your lovely messages in the past few [...]

30 May 18: Car boot heaven or hell?

Hello, folks. I recently read a survey that claimed car boot sales have suffered because of people selling on [...]

29 May 18: A bit of love for brown…

You know about me and the colour brown, right? We just don’t really seem to get along. We have [...]

13 May 18: Buying books for colour

Hello my colour-loving chums. As you know, I’m a great exponent of buying books for their covers (other fans [...]

27 May 18: Purple Thames shelfie

Who saw the lightning in London last night? As second-in-command and his friend ran in and out of the [...]

25 May 18: Time travel for colour

If you had a time machine, where would you go and why? I’m thinking the 1850s. I recently read [...]

22 May 18: Fighting over the rabbit’s tail

BIRTHDAY TIME! 🎂 Good morning, lovely people, What foods spring to mind when you think of your childhood birthdays? [...]

19 May 18: Did you blub, too?

OK, can we have a chat about this? What exactly IS it that makes us cry at weddings? You [...]

18 May 18: First pair of shoes?

Can you remember your favourite pair of shoes from your childhood? Mine were silver and I chose them to [...]

17 May 18: Grey sofa confessional

Are you sitting down? I have some shocking colour news. (Fortunately when I heard it I was actually seated [...]

14 May 18: Addicted to candles

I love candles. In fact, as you can see, I have a candle-buying addiction (this pic is just the [...]

12 May 18: Best of British design

Hi folks. How’s your weekend shaping up? Revision looms large at Colour File HQ but we’re mixing it up [...]

11 May 18: Scratching the creative itch

Does anyone else here suffer from ‘creative itch’? No, it’s not something you should be embarrassed about, nor is [...]

10 May 18: An app for wallpaper perspective

Gosh, is that the time already? Apologies for my tardiness in posting today. I’ve been to some interiors events [...]

9 May 18: The yellow buttercup mystery

Good morning my colour-loving chums. Hands up who used to play the buttercup under the chin game? The story [...]

7 May 18: The bluest of skies

A blistering Bank Holiday weekend? Never! This morning the sky is THIS blue and the sun so bright that I’m [...]

6 May 18: Cast not a clout

Hello folks. How’s your Sunday going? As well as buying yet another crocheted blanket on one of the hottest [...]

5 May 18: Oh yes, you’re a superwoman

Good morning, my colourful friends. Second-in-command is on the mend, the sun is shining and colour is exploding EVERYWHERE. [...]

4 May 18: What do you think of teal?

A while back I talked about Marrs green. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a teal/blue-green [...]

3 May 18: Purple Thames plastic

Good morning, folks. I trust all’s well. I’ll be doing some shelfies today while second-in-command recuperates but in the [...]

2 May 18: Minimalist or maximalist?…

Now, it’s not often you’ll hear me say this but sometimes less can be more. For years I wished [...]

30 April 18: Picking ice cream by colour

I’ve never quite seen ice cream in the same way since, as a teenager, I thought that mango sorbet, [...]

29 April 18: Yellow Thames plastic

Morning, my colour-loving friends. Now, I don’t know what it is but there’s something about this yellow Thames plastic [...]

28 April 18: Pink Thames plastic

Hope you’re having a great weekend, folks. Much as I adore second-in-command, parenting is winding me up something chronic [...]

27 April 18: The many colours of chemistry

A while back, I once wrote about the excitement I felt when I discovered in a school chemistry lesson [...]

26 April 18: Colours of rebellion

Morning, folks. I’ve loved turquoise ever since I bought a pair of turquoise pointed flats when I was 15 [...]

25 April 18: Light blue Thames plastic

Hello, folks. Here’s light blue in the ‘Thames rubbish’ series. Again, I’m enjoying the ‘disappearing’ objects and also the [...]

24 April 18: Navy Thames plastic

One of my favourite things in nature is the whole business of camouflage. And, of course, as a colour [...]

23 April 18: Don’t give a (colourful) damn

Hello folks. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that I’m just a year away from half a [...]

22 April 18: Cerise Thames plastic

Here you go, folks: the result of today’s Thames mudlarking. As you’ll see from my stories, second-in-command was deeply [...]

21 April 18: Colourful mudlarking plans

Ah, hello, Sun. How lovely it is to see you again. Folks, aren’t you just loving this bright light? I [...]

20 April 18: How many blankets is enough?…

My love of blankets is well-documented in The Colour File. In the same way that women sometimes confess to [...]

19 April 18: Vert de gris girl power

I don’t know about you but the colour vert de gris always makes me think of Lady Liberty. Coincidentally, [...]

18 April 18: Down in the subway

Good morning from sunny London. I remember the first time I went to New York (see, I told you [...]

17 April 18: Balloon Flower (Red)

I read once that adrenaline heightens memory (which is why, I guess, shocking things often become lodged in our [...]

16 April 18: The very best of nature

One of life’s simple joys is a rainbow 🌈, don’t you think? The other day I read that you [...]

13 April 18: Favourite trainers

OK, folks, you’re going to have to humour me for a bit while I carry on talking about New [...]

12 April 18: The one that got away

Hands up who is haunted by the one that got away? I don’t mean a person – I mean [...]

11 April 18: Colour collecting in NYC

Hello people. We’ve just landed in London and it’s grey, grey, grey (I know you lot love a bit [...]

9 April 18: MoCCAFestNYC

My first memory of comics dates back to when I was four and my brother, aged seven, thought it [...]

8 April 18: Using pink to protest

Early last year, I remember watching The Women’s March on TV and loving the sea of pink hats and [...]

6 April 18: NYC the gestalt city

There are so many reasons I love New York, many of them visual and sensory. It was the first [...]

5 April 18: Love affair with NYC

Oh NYC, you’ve gone and done it again 🇺🇸. Every time I come back it would seem I’ve forgotten [...]

2 April 18: The origins of ‘green’

Do you ever wonder where the names of colours hail from? A version of ‘green’ is thought to have [...]

30 March 18: Easter chick yellow

Welcome to Easter (and chag sameach if you’re celebrating Passover, too). Here’s some chick yellow marine plastic for you (thanks to [...]

29 March 18: A rainbow of colouristas?

What’s the collective noun for people who love colour? A spectrum of colourphiles? A rainbow of colouristas? Whatever it [...]

28 March 18: What colour plastic?

Hello, people. Three days into the Easter hols and second-in-command has declared that he’s already had an ice cream [...]

27 March 18: Bittersweet plastic finds

Hi, folks. Spring has sprung and that can only mean one thing round here: it’ll soon be time for [...]

26 March 18: Pick up a Penguin

Oooh, don’t you just LOVE a flight of coloured Penguins! I’ve always wondered how the unmistakable logo came about [...]

24 March 18: Looking for scaffolding

What are up to today, folks? I’m in search of delicious colour pics and, from experience, I know I [...]

23 March 18: Map love

Ah, maps! I’ve spoken before about how much I love them, especially, of course, in relation to colour. I [...]

22 March 18: Why I love convex mirrors

I have this thing about convex mirrors. I can’t get enough of them. I think my love of them [...]

21 March 18: Colour-ordered clothes

Looking in my wardrobe this morning, I’ve realised I’m missing a huge opportunity: my clothes aren’t arranged in colour [...]

20 March 18: Happily lost in wallpaper

Hello folks. Have you ever got lost in a picture, or imagined yourself wandering through wallpaper? When I was [...]

19 March 18: Typewriter tales

Over the weekend I collected second-in-command from a sleepover. When I walked into the kitchen, there, sat on the [...]

17 March 18: Colour order club

Hands up who likes putting things in colour order? ❤️🍊⭐️🍏🦋💙👾☂️ I was wondering, do you know of a secret [...]

16 March 18: Blow a pink raspberry

Happy Friday, folks. When I was a kid, my friend Jane and I would play a game where if [...]

13 March 18: Colourful school memories?

Good morning from Tuesday, lovely people. Cast your mind back to school. Are you there? OK: what colour or [...]

11 March 18: Happy Mother's Day, folks

Happy Mother’s Day to you all. Aren’t mums amazing? They’re definitely something to celebrate, for sure. In my experience, [...]

10 March 18: Colourful walking thoughts

Welcome to the weekend, lovely people. When I was 13 I walked the Pennine Way with Alfred Wainwright’s book [...]

9 March 18: The doll with blue eyebrows

When I was four, I had a doll I called Jesus who lived in my toy rocking cot and [...]

7 March 18: How did a stranger help YOU?

Hello lovely people 🐝🌸🐝🌸 I remember writing a newspaper article a few years ago about how you can use [...]

3 March 18: Favourite colour songs?

It may come as no surprise to you that one of my favourite albums is named after a colour [...]

2 March 18: Circles everywhere

A while back I revealed that my second-in-command isn’t mad keen on circles in design (round windows are a [...]

28 February 18: In praise of 'cute' food

Hello from Wednesday, folks 🌸🌼🌺🍀 Don’t you just love ‘cute food’? Whether it’s baby sweetcorn, teeny spring rolls or [...]

26 February 18: Orange & lemons

Welcome to a new week, folks 🍊🍋🍊🍋🍊🍋🍊 When I was a kid I loved stories or rhymes that contained [...]

25 February 18: Rebellious colouring

Good morning from the weekend. When I was about three, I was stroking a friend’s cat when she scratched [...]

24 February 18: A colourful first year!

Happy Saturday, folks 👚🌺🍎🍊☀️🌿🦋👾☂️ This morning I turned up to have my hair done, a week early (better than [...]

22 February 18: How many handbags?…

Hello there 🛍👜👛 How many handbags do you own? Yes, I know: lots. Apparently the average is 14, bought [...]

Pink House founder Emily Murray: My Colourful World

If you’re a lover of interiors or the colour pink – or a delicious mixture of the two – [...]

20 February 18: Family tales matter

Happy Tuesday, folks 🌸🌵💕 When I was a kid, I loved driving through rural mid Wales with my mum [...]

19 February 18: Greetings card poll

Welcome to a new week, my colour-loving friends. I was wondering if I could pick your brains? Following on [...]

18 February 18: Fear of wearing yellow

Hello lovely people. I recently read that yellow is the colour that people fear wearing the most (followed by [...]

18 February 18: Best and worst together

Welcome to the weekend, folks. When it comes to colours, I know what I like – and what I [...]

17 February 18: A search for indigo books

Good morning, my lovely friends 👛🌺❤️🍊💛📗🌵💧👖👾☂️ Since divulging my librarian secrets the other day, I’ve had books on my [...]

15 February 18: School library stories

Not so long ago, I had a part-time job as a primary school librarian. My time was mainly spent [...]

14 February 18: Choose your door

Happy Wednesday, folks. Which front door would you most like to see behind, fictional or real? Maybe it’s 10 [...]

12 February 18: Your favourite beach find

Hello, my colour-loving friends. What’s in your top 10 of things that make you happy? Aside from the expected [...]

9 February 18: Thanks for your patience

Hello, folks. Today is one of those ‘blue moon’ days: a day when I can’t think of anything much [...]

6 February 18: What is it with rainbows?

What is it about rainbows? 🌈🌈 Kids draw them endlessly and even as adults, seeing a rainbow is in [...]

5 February 18: What do these lines mean?

Hello folks. I need your help. It’s a matter of great colour importance – well, I say great importance [...]

4 February 18: Feeling hiraeth

Happy Sunday, folks.  Don’t you just love those words that don’t have an English equivalent, like iktsuarpok which is [...]

3 February 18: Pink, green and lilac love

Hello folks, long time no see (my fault entirely, not yours). I’ve been revisiting that ‘What’s your favourite colour?’ [...]

29 January 18: Spring flower shelfie

Happy Monday, folks. What’s your favourite aroma? According to a 2015 UK survey, top of the list is freshly [...]

28 January 18: Red, yellow and green

Happy Sunday, lovely people ❤️⭐️🌿 Don’t you just love it when colours come together? Well, that’s what’s just happened [...]

26 January 18: A childhood of Puffins

Hello lovely people, and apologies for the radio silence. Shooting pictures in other people’s homes and seeing their collections [...]

24 January 18: Ultra-violet floral thoughts

I love purple. Purple rocks. That’s why I’m loving the fact that @pantone has chosen @pantone_ultraviolet as its colour of the year for [...]

22 January 18: Favourite colourful item?

Hello there ❤️🦁🐤🌵👗🦋👕👾☂️ I’ve been rummaging around at Colour File HQ for colourtastic things for the book and thought [...]

19 January 18: Colours dancing all around

Happy Friday, folks. I’m sitting at Colour File HQ, writing captions for the book, and suddenly sunlight has come [...]

18 January 18: In search of graffiti

Hello lovely people. Another late one, I’m afraid, this time on account of a phone malfunction (read ‘The black [...]

16 January 18: Colour-collecting hazards

Being a colour-lover can be a hazardous pursuit. Colour isn’t only to be discovered in safe and expected places. [...]

15 January 18: Blue Monday

Howdy, folks. As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s Blue Monday. Apparently today has all the components for a perfect [...]

13 January 18: Beautiful Angie

Hello Colour Filers. I’m taking a break (of sorts) from painting pink by sipping a curious pink drink in @ikeauk so [...]

13 January 18: Loving the pink!

Hello, my colour-loving chums. Like so many of you, I am an inveterate paint geek. There’s always a busy [...]

11 January 18: Beauteous stars

In recognition of how late I’m posting today, I’m giving you stars. They’re beautiful, mystical and awesome (in the [...]

10 January 18: Chocolate (& other) teapots

Hello, folks. How much do you love sayings? One of my favourite things is to take Brewer’s Phrase & [...]

9 January 18: Art deco green and pink

I have this thing about Art Deco. I think it’s from studying in Brighton, cheek by jowl with Saltdean [...]

8 January 18: India, I love you!

Welcome to a new week, folks. Of all the countries you’ve visited, which has made the most impression on [...]

7 January 18: The brown pullati

Hello from Sunday. Over the holidays I watched Gladiator again (one of my top five films – go on, [...]

6 January 18: The green roofed house

How’s your weekend going? I’m still in the middle of BookLand (a theme park of sorts but with no [...]

5 January 18: A slave to technology

Hello colour peeps. How many pics do you have on your phone? The reason I ask is because with [...]

4 January 2018: Colour is my salve

Gosh, this is a late one. Apologies: I’ve been head-down with the book and have just come up for [...]

3 January 18: Fantastic funfairs

Once upon a time, a friend told me she was scared of heights. She later divulged that she’d pushed [...]

2 January 18: Bye for now, decs

Hello my colour-loving friends ❤️👘🌟🌲🦋👾☂️ So the time has come to take the decorations down. I’d have them up [...]

31 December 17: More colour for 2018

Hello lovely people ❤️🍊🌟🍀🐬🦋👾☂️👚 So, on the eve of a brand new year, I’ve done what many of you [...]

30 December 17: Superstitious green

Hello folks. I’ve been writing about green for my new @psychologiesmagazine column. Some people find it lucky while others run a [...]

29 December 17: Sweet wrapper joy

Over Christmas, the bumper box of #qualitystreet inevitably made its way to the table. As always, I asked my family to [...]

28 December 17: Colour to fool us

When we are kids, my brother and I always used to save the green sweets for Mum because we [...]

27 December 17: Red door history

When I was in Cambridge last summer, my friend took me to see the red front door of a [...]

26 December 17: Travel by colour

Hello lovely Colour Filers. I’ve been wondering where to go on holiday this coming year and, naturally, colour is [...]

25 December 17: Merry Christmas, all xx

Happy Christmas my gorgeous, fantabulous friends. What a year it’s turned out to be. It’s seen the birth of [...]

24 December 17: Christmas Eve memories

Christmas Eve is a day bursting with memories, like my mum making mince pies while we listened to the [...]

23 December 17: Best gift ever?

As I wrap second-in-command’s gifts, I’ve been thinking about my most memorable childhood Christmas presents. There was the glorious [...]

22 December 17: To darn or not to darn?

In the summer of 2016, wandering through the streets of beautiful Bordeaux, I found a shop full of incredible [...]

21 December 17: Fairy pink armadillo

I’ve recently discovered a new favourite animal. It’s miniature, it’s cute and – joy of joys – it has [...]

20 December 17: Blue is the colour

Not so long ago I told you about some research that showed that eating off a blue plate can [...]

19 December 17: Politics CAN be fun…

I was eight when Margaret Thatcher came to power. In the run-up, my brother Tom (11) and I were [...]

18 December 17: Sleepwalking tales

In my twenties, I went through a sleepwalking phase in which I folded my clothes in my sleep. When [...]

17 December 17: Chrismukkah joy

Love, it seems, can do many things. It can save souls, bring disparate folk together and blast hearts into [...]

16 December 17: School science memories

I loved science at school. I was (and am still) foxed by molarity and most equations in physics but [...]

15 December 17: Wabi-sabi

The other day, after talking about my ‘imperfect’ Christmas tree, I learned about the concept of wabi-sabi (thanks @drmegarroll x). Wabi-sabi [...]

14 December 17: Post-It Note yellow

There are some things in life you simply can’t have enough of: friends, lip glosses and Post-It Notes. I [...]

13 December 17: Purple love

My love of purple is nothing new to you Colour Filers. In fact, when I started this blog nearly [...]

12 December 17: Chasing sunsets

A few years ago, my second-in-command and I took up the pursuit of sunset-chasing. Arriving back from school, it [...]

11 December 17: Beauty in imperfection

One Christmas about six years ago, I bucked my own trend and bought a fake tree. I was in [...]

10 December 17: Why are they red?

I spotted this gaggle of fire trucks at a car boot sale and it got me wondering – ‘Why [...]

9 December 17: THAT'S how to cut bread

Hello from a lazy Saturday at The Colour File HQ. I spotted this verdigris-coloured enamel bread bin at a [...]

8 December 17: Beautiful Au

What’s the most fun fact you learnt at school? At risk of sounding like a total dweeb, I loved [...]

7 December 17: The power of blue

Happy Thursday, folks. There’s nothing like studies and facts to make my day. I’m definitely more of a ‘fact [...]

6 December 17: That strange sunny day

On a grey December day, where the sun appears to have called in sick, my thoughts are returning to [...]

5 December 17: Book news!

Hello my fabulous InstaFriends. I have news: I am writing a book. I can’t say too much more at [...]

5 December 17: The joy of Russian dolls

I remember playing with a friend’s Russian dolls as a child and never tiring of the thrill of cracking [...]

4 December 17: My thoughts on grey

I’m not the biggest fan of grey. At a time when grey interiors are still popular and grey is [...]

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3 December 17: A room of colour magic

Once in a while I have one of those colour moments that I know is likely to stick in [...]

2 December 17: Deep blue secrets

I once wrote an article about how marine life is helping us to cure disease. They may look like [...]

30 November 17: White wall memories

I have memories relating to pretty much every colour, including white. I remember getting my brother to stand against [...]

29 November 17: The 'ugliest' colour?

I love a good old ‘man bites dog’ story (once a hack etc). Years ago I went on a [...]

28 November 17: What decs do at night…

Oh my gosh, I love these colours together. When @farrowandball sent me fabulous #yellowcake to try out for one of my shelfies, I [...]

27 November 17: Baker Miller Pink

Unlike most girls, I wasn’t an early adopter of pink. But it’s grown on me, so much so that [...]

26 November 17: Clever colour alchemy

When I see hydrangeas, I think of two things: firstly, how the little boy next door to my Great [...]

25 November 17: The world's best job

What job did you hope to do when you were a kid? Possibly not the one you’re doing now. [...]

23 November 17: Little squares of yellow

As a lover of colour and pattern (and a fiend for facts), somewhere I often head for inspiration is [...]

22 November 17: Kawasaki Green

Not long ago, I told you about how some people think that green is unlucky. I was fascinated to [...]

21 November '17: Ebay beauties

One of my favourite pastimes is trawling through @ebay in search of the delightful and unexpected. It’s how we rock over [...]

20 November '17: Londoners love colour

There are many reasons I love being a Londoner: the ever-changing skyline, the constant Thames, the delicious Tube map [...]

19 November '17: Stripes and scoundrels

Stripes rock. They’re so unambiguous and directional – “Follow me! I know EXACTLY where I’m going!” But stripes haven’t [...]

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18 November 17: Too much animal print?

Fashion designer Jenna Lyons once described leopard print as a neutral. I’m inclined to agree, but then I do [...]

17 November '17: Nuts about notebooks

Hands up who loves notebooks? As a girl, I do, of course, have a dominant and irrepressible stationery-buying gene [...]

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16 November ’17: Granny blanket love

A few years ago I went through a phase of buying granny blankets. I think I may have been [...]

15 November '17: The history of baubles

Yesterday, I spent several happy hours looking at Christmas decorations (lots in @frompaperchase and @heals_furniture, and this cute sputnik-esque one in @habitatuk, top [...]

14 November '17: Budgie blue

I have a thing about unusual names. As a cub reporter, I spent hours trawling the pages of the [...]

Encyclopedia of Rainbows author Julie Seabrook Ream: My Colourful World

American artist Julie Seabrook Ream is mad about colour. Unable to pick a favourite, she set about showing the [...]

12 November '17: Harrods green

I’m not big into football but know enough to know that some strips are things of great beauty. I’ve [...]

11 November '17: Men love cushions, too

Forget the small matter of a Y chromosome. There’s something else waaaay more crucial that distinguishes men from women: [...]

10 November '17: Early Christmas

Anyone who knows me knows my view on Christmas decorations: why wait til Christmas? New research reveals that 57 [...]

9 November '17: The fashion police

In a previous Colour File, I mentioned the Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws that dictated what colour clothes you were allowed [...]

8 November '17: Favourite shapes

Welcome to Wednesday, my colour-loving chums. I have this thing about squares and cubes. It stems back to school [...]

Creative and design expert Emma Jane Palin: My Colourful World

Emma Jane Palin is a London-based creative lifestyle blogger with an avid love for design, interiors, and travel. With [...]

6 November 17: Bone china tales

Welcome to a new week. When my grandmother made the big move from rural Wales to London in the [...]

5 November 17: Khaki love or hate?

I don’t know about you but I have a love/hate relationship with green, depending on the shade. Khaki is [...]

4 November ’17: Primrose pants

When I look at a colour, I generally have a memory attached to it. Often there are two memories, [...]

3 November 17: Blue for a queen

When I was a little girl, I loved drawing the Queen wearing one of her crowns. My favourites were [...]

2 November 17: Lucky number 3

I’m not a huge fan of superstition but I am fascinated by it. Lucky & unlucky numbers intrigue me [...]

31 October 17: White space love

Good morning, people. I have a strange relationship with black and white. On the one hand, I want to [...]

30th October '17: The story of orange

Happy Monday, my colour-loving chums 🎃🍊🎃🍊One of my favourite times in the calendar is when the Oxford Dictionary announces [...]

29th October '17: Travel by colour

The other day, one of my IG friends @georginamclarenpr sent me a pic of her colourful @phaidonsnaps travel books of places she has [...]

28th October '17: The story of Royal Blue

Happy Saturday, folks. Time for another story of blue – Royal Blue. Apparently, we’ve had it since the 17th [...]

27th October '17: Is green unlucky?

Welcome to Friday 🔋🎾🥗🍐🍏🌵🐢Are you superstitious? Probably: research shows that 77 per cent of us are, even if it’s [...]

26th October '17: Pink and red perfection

Welcome to Thursday, folks ❤️🌺🌸🌹❤️🌸I don’t know about you, but one of my definitions of happiness is staring at [...]

25th October '17: Same but different

Hi Colour Filers. I was looking through my snaps yesterday and pondering as to why I love pictures of ‘sameness’ [...]

23rd October '17: Loo blue…

The other day, I spotted this turquoise ‘Ladies’ sign in a local shop (swipe for pic). It got me [...]

22nd October '17: Playing with colour

Hi folks, I hope you’re having a chilled Sunday. Last night, reflecting the kind of rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle [...]

21st October '17: Tube tales

Welcome to the weekend, folks. I used to travel to secondary school by Tube and when I first started, [...]

19th October '17: In love with red?…

Hi from Thursday ❤️👠🎒⛑🌹🍄🍎 Red has been wanting me to write about it for a while. As I’ve beavered [...]

Artist Eelus: My Colourful World

Eelus is one of the most important artists of the street art movement, having first burst onto the scene [...]

17th October '17: Penelope Pink

Welcome to Tuesday. I was recently reunited with my birthday cards from when I was a little girl (read [...]

16th October '17: In praise of shells

Welcome to a new week, my colour-loving friends. We’re massive fans of shells at The Colour File, especially ones [...]

15th October '17: Air Force Blue tales

Happy Sunday, Colour Filers. The more I look into colour, the more I’m fascinated by the deliberateness behind so [...]

14th October '17: Infinity & beyond

Happy weekend, colourpeeps 🍋🍊🍋🍊🍋🍊 In my local shoe shop when I was a kid, there was as a Start-Rite [...]

12th October '17: Navy wants more FUN!

Hello from Thursday, Colour Filers 💙👖👕🦋🐳🐬💦 One thing I’ve noticed from my pics and posts is that you love [...]

11th October '17: Blue & green, be friends

Happy Wednesday, folks 💙💚💙💚 ‘Blue and green should never be seen’. Apparently. In my twenties, I remember someone telling me [...]

9th October '17: Shelf candy

Welcome to a new week, colour-peeps 💕⛑🦀🐤🐢👗💙👾💜 In the words of Maria Von Trapp, these are a few of [...]

8th October '17: Neon flashback

Hello from Colour File HQ. Near where I lived as a kid, there was a house that was painted [...]

7th October '17: Branding magic

Welcome to the weekend, folks. Yesterday I mentioned how red and yellow energise us and encourage us to eat. [...]

6th October '17: Hungry yellow

Welcome to Friday, colour-lovers 🍋📒💛☀️⭐️ I was recently told that these striking @royalcrownderby plates (top right) were a private commission for [...]

5th October '17: Beware of stripes!

Happy Thursday, my colourful chums. Had a headache recently? Tell me, were you wearing stripes at the time, or [...]

4th October '17: Kids & Colours

Welcome to Wednesday. Yesterday, a fellow journalist asked me when I first got into colour. The answer, of course, [...]

Illustrator Marion Deuchars: My Colourful World

Marion Deuchars is an internationally-acclaimed illustrator and creator of a book called ‘Colour’. Here we find out what colour [...]

2nd October '17: Hounds hate hoops…

Welcome to a new week, folks 🌹🌸🍊⭐️🐸🐟👾🕺🏻 When I buy striped clothes (like this multicoloured @clementsribeiro jumper, bottom right) I think [...]

1st October '17: Collaborative yellow

Happy Sunday, dear friends ☀️🐥🌟⭐️🍋🍯 When I started The Colour File, it began as something of a joyful yet [...]

30th September '17: Purple love & hate

Hello Colour Filers 👾🕺🏻💅🏻👿🤳🏻👩🏻‍🎤 The day I launched The Colour File, I posted a picture of me blowing out [...]

29th September '17: Natural & beautiful

Welcome to Friday, folks ❤️🍊☀️👒👕👾🕺🏻 I spotted these worry dolls in Covent Garden yesterday. They made an impression on [...]

28th September '17: All kinds of orange

Hello from Tuesday, my colourful friends 🍊🍊🍊 Vincent Van Gogh famously said ‘There is no blue without yellow and [...]

26th September '17: Cookerphobia

Hello from The Colour File HQ 🌵🌴🌳🌿 Let me tell you a story of domestic hopelessness. One Christmas I [...]

25th September '17: Red, white & blue

Welcome to a new week ❤️💭💙 When I was eight, Britain was in a state of feverish euphoria for [...]

24th September '17: Sorry, Mr Gilchrist

Happy Sunday, Colour Filers ❤️🍊🌼🍀🦋👾 😈 Yesterday I read that marking has been cited by nearly 80 per cent [...]

23 September '17: Bottle green

Hello from the weekend 🍾🍾🍾 When I was 11, I seriously contemplated choosing a particular school simply on the [...]

21 September '17: #Footsie

Hello from Colour File HQ. I remember as a kid hearing that Sir Bruce Forsyth (RIP) had a foot [...]

Textile designer Niki Jones: My Colourful World

Designer Niki Jones is known for her eponymous geometric interiors collection.  Here, she tells Martha Roberts how important colour [...]

20 September '17: Faces everywhere

Hello my colourful chums. When my second-in-command was three-and-a-half, we moved to a new place. As we shut the [...]

19 September '17: Dress that tree!

Hello Colour Filers. Do you have a favourite nook or cranny in your home? Mine is our upcycled corner [...]

18th September '17: Curves v lines

Welcome to a new week. I’m off to ogle at all things interior at @decorex_international today so ‘form’ is [...]

16th September '17: Checkerboard

Welcome to the weekend, folks 🖤☁️🖤 When I was about 10, I was mad about ska music. My older [...]

15th September '17: Be thrifty

Happy Friday ❤️🍊🌼 This week I was lucky enough to interview the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi for @psychologiesmagazine After [...]

14th September '17: Smart clothes

Hi lovely people ❤️🍊🌼🍀🦋👾☂️ Want to make an impact? UK researchers found that wearing black or blue makes you [...]

13th September '17: Blue memories

Hi from Wednesday ☁️💙🌼💙☁️ I recently read an interesting study about blue plates. UK researchers found that giving dementia [...]

12th September '17: Criss-cross capers

Hi from Tuesday. I clearly remember my first encounter with diagonal lines. I was at my grandmother’s house at [...]

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10th September '17: A new discovery!

Hello from Colour File HQ. When I was at school, I was fascinated by things named after the scientists [...]

9th September '17: Be 'colour honest'

Welcome to the weekend, folks. Over the years I’ve tried to make myself like certain colours. From wearing grey [...]

8th September '17: The world loves blue

Yesterday I told you that blue is the colour we apparently love the most. Although it’s not my own [...]

7th September '17: Favourite colour?

Hi folks ❤️🍊⭐️🍏🐟👾☂️ On 4 July I composed a shelfie based on how much people love Marrs green (is [...]

6th September '17: Unexpected beauty

Hi Colour Filers 🎱🎱🎱 Years ago I bought a basket of pool balls (but no table) from a boot [...]

5th September '17: Silver sensations

Welcome to Tuesday. I’m intrigued by what colours mean to different people. Countless studies tell us how colour impacts [...]

4th September '17: Pastels & poetry

Welcome to a new week. I recently read a couple of news stories about people who bought objects from [...]

3rd September '17: Rug beauty

Happy Sunday, dear friends. When I was a child, my bedroom rug had patterns on it that I decided [...]

2nd September '17: Colour clash

Hey, you made it to the weekend. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 A couple of nights ago, my second-in-command and I read one [...]

1st September '17: Shelf love

Happy Friday, folks (yup, it really is Friday – I double-checked 😁). I’ve been thinking about where my love [...]

31st August '17: Mauve confusion

Happy Thursday, Colour Filers Last night I played the ‘So what colour IS it exactly?’ game. It’s where I [...]

30th August '17: 'But I want RED shoes…'

Hello from Wednesday. Yesterday it was wellies, today it’s shoes. My earliest shoe memory is going to Gillinghams, a [...]

29th August '17: Pink welly love

Happy Tuesday, colour-lovers. I adore wellies (so much so that an ex- said I’d wear them to bed if [...]

29th August '17: Your vote, please!

Hello on a stunning, sunny Bank Holiday Monday ☀️☀️☀️ My second-in-command and I are chilling at Colour File HQ [...]

28th August '17: Turquoise – or is it?

Hello from the tent again ⛺️⛺️⛺️ Since our visit to Wales, I’ve been pondering about blue and green, and [...]

27th August '17: Typewriter tales

Happy Sunday from a tent in Cheshire ⛺️⛺️⛺️ Yesterday, my second-in-command asked me what kind of computer and phone [...]

26th August '17: In praise of orange

Welcome to the weekend, folks 🍊🍊🍊🍊 I have a particular affinity to orange, on account of having been born [...]

25th August '17: Strawflower still life

Happy Friday, colour-lovers. I was recently asked, ‘If you could own one famous work of art, what would it [...]

24th August '17: Six Colour File months

Hello from Thursday ❤️💥💛💚🐬👕👾💜 I’m celebrating today because it was exactly six months ago that I started The Colour [...]

23rd August '17: What flotsam has to say

Happy Humpday, my loyal friends ❤️🦁⭐️💚🌊👖👾💜 Before I started The Colour File, I was an avid (and slightly apologetic) [...]

22nd August ’17: Banana yellow

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers 🍌🍌🍌 My mum used to tell a story about being given her first ever banana. [...]

21st August ’17: Pelican blue

Happy Monday, folks 💙🐬🌊👕👖 When I was a kid, we had two goldfish named Maslow and Need (after Abraham [...]

Mosaic artist Carrie Reichardt: My colourful world

Carrie Reichardt is a leading contemporary UK artist and self-confessed ‘craftivist’. She uses murals, ceramics and screen-printing to create [...]

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18th August ’17: Black mood to multi

Happy Thursday, colour-lovers. Next week it’ll be six months since I started The Colour File and I have to [...]

Author Kassia St Clair: My colourful world

Kassia St Clair is a self-confessed colour addict and author of The Secret Lives of Colour, which documents the history [...]

14th August ’17: Cobalt goblins

Welcome to a new week, folks. Looking out of my window today, I can see the Atlantic and I’m [...]

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13th August ’17: Colourful acrostics

Happy Sunday, Colour Filers ❤️💥🐤🍀🦋👾☂️ When I was a newspaper reporter, a story did the rounds of a disgruntled [...]

12th August ’17: ‘Mental chocolate’

Welcome to the weekend, folks. I recently had a cull of my books. Having always said there’s no such [...]

11th August ’17: Happy Birthday, E xxx

Happy Friday – or rather, ‘Happy Birthday’ 🎂🎂🎂🎂 Eleven years ago today, my second-in-command made his spectacular entrance into [...]

10th August ’17: Dial-A-Disc triumph

Happy Thursday, instapeeps. We recently got an Amazon Echo Dot at Colour File HQ. I’m sure she’s great once [...]

9th August ’17: Jelly Baby baby

Happy Humpday, pals. When it comes to food, my top three goes like this: 1) cheese, (any kind); 2) [...]

8th August ’17: Paint stories, please

Happy Tuesday, lovely people. Do you love paint? I ADORE the stuff 💕(Need any tester pots? Come on down). [...]

7th August ’17: A little favour…x

Hello again, folks. You know I told you I’d been nominated for the @amaraliving Interior Blog Awards in the Best Colour [...]

7th August ’17: Who was a Brownie?

Hello to a new week, folks ❤️🦁🐥🌿👗🎽👾☂️ One of the many things I love about car boot sales is [...]

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6th August ’17: Feedback, please!

Hello again, lovely people. Hope your weekend is going well. We’ve been car-booting (see second-in-command’s photobombed pic, bottom right, [...]

6th August ’17: Ecclesiastical purple

Happy Sunday, folks. When I was a kid I sang in a church choir. I loved the singing, especially [...]

2nd August ’17: Ultramarine tales

Happy Humpday, dear friends. When I was 13, after a childhood with three TV channels, Channel 4 came along. [...]

1st August ’17: It’s ‘pink’…or is it?…

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers ❤️🍊⭐️🌵🦋👾☂️ As a lover of all things colourful, visiting an art shop is a little [...]

31st July ’17: Rama blue

Welcome to a new week, folks 💎🌐💎 As the book says, men are from Mars and women are from [...]

30th July ’17: Best gift, worst gift

Happy Sunday, colour-lovers. Do you have a ‘most disappointing childhood gift’ experience? It’s ok – we’re all friends here, [...]

29th July ’17: Treasures in the trash

Hi from Saturday, folks 🌸👛👚💕 I came across the word ‘urbexing’ for the first time yesterday. It’s what ‘urban [...]

28th July ’17: Yellow etymology

Welcome to Friday 🙂🐤🌼🍋 It may be no surprise to hear that I love words. I particularly love their [...]

27th July ’17: The blue rose enigma

Hello from Thursday, instapeeps. When I was six, my mum handed me a catalogue and told me I could [...]

26th July ’17: Red for passion

Happy humpday, lovely people. Red has been on my mind, firstly since seeing @style_mum at the #cuckooclubforgrenfell event last night (swipe right to [...]

24th July ’17: Peruvian perfection

Happy Monday, colour-peeps. South American textiles make my heart sing. They ping me back to visiting my Peruvian godmother [...]

Farrow & Ball’s Joa Studholme: My Colourful World

As in-house colour specialist at paint company Farrow & Ball, Joa Studholme has the awesome job of developing (and [...]

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22nd July ’17: Scrubs green & blood tales

Welcome to the weekend. As a child, I loved hearing my mum’s 1950s student nurse stories (swipe for a [...]

21st July ’17: Squabbling over rainbows

Hello colour-lovers 🌈🌈🌈 The history of time is replete with tales of people disagreeing about things: money, religion, jam [...]

20th July ’17: Rarely black & white

Hello from Colour File HQ, lovely people. Much as I adore colour, I’m fascinated by black and white. Having [...]

19th July ’17: Hello from me

Hi lovely people. Unaccustomed as I am to putting my mugshot on Insta (I ALWAYS do it reluctantly because, [...]

19th July ’17: The trouble with plastic

Welcome to Wednesday. Yesterday evening, the floor of Colour File HQ was awash with plastic. My second-in-command was ankle-deep [...]

17th July ’17: Supertasters & super-seers

Welcome to a new week, Colour Filers ❤️☂️🐥🎟🍀💙🍊 Last week I experienced something fascinating. At the launch of the @hellofreshuk online [...]

16th July ’17: Slow-burn pink passion

Happy Sunday, folks 🌸🌸🌸 I’ve just read a study that shows that by the age of 2.5, girls show [...]

15th July ’17: Best friend paint pranks

Welcome to the weekend, my colour-loving friends. One of the many things I enjoy about collating The Colour File [...]

14th July ’17: Colour-hunting time

Yay, it’s Friday!!! And you know what that means? A weekend of unfettered, unadulterated colour-hunting coming up ❤️👘🐤🐊🐬🐟👖👾☂️My second-in-command [...]

13th July ’17: How not to buy a sari

Welcome to Thursday, Colour Filers. Do you have a colour that is strongly connected to laughter? In my gap [...]

11th July ’17: Red, white and blue

Happy Tuesday, folks ❤️🐑💙⛑🐇👕 On Saturday, my second-in-command and I went to @gucci at @theofficialselfridges. Having lusted after their clothes from afar [...]

10th July ’17: The Colour File ‘on tour’

Happy Monday, folks. I was hoping you might be able to assist me with some of your great advice. [...]

9th July ’17: They’ve arrived!!!

So, dear friends, the first batch of The Colour File’s cards have arrived ❤️🍊🐤💚👕👾☂️ They are A5 (half A4) [...]

9th July ’17: Best gift EVER!

Happy Sunday, Colour Filers 💕💛💗☀️👚🌼 What memories do you have of a favourite childhood birthday present? Mine was a [...]

7th July ’17: Oh no, it’s the tweens…

Happy Friday, lovely people. Well, we made it. Today, my second-in-command leaves primary school. After seven years of tear-jerking [...]

5th July ’17: Stop press

Hi lovely people. I have news. Due to popular demand, I have turned one of your favourite Colour File [...]

5th July ’17: Wobblephobia tales

Happy Hump Day, folks. As a journalist who writes about health and wellbeing, I’ve always been fascinated by phobias [...]

3rd July ’17: So what do YOU collect?…

Welcome to a new week, lovely people 🌸🌼🎀🌐 Are you a collector? I wager you probably are. According to [...]

2nd July ’17: Pink for girls?…

Happy Sunday, folks 💗🖤💗🖤 Before my second-in-command started school, he loved pink. His favourite outfit for at least a [...]

1st July ’17: Feathered friends (& foes)

Hello from Saturday at the Colour File HQ. Last night I was at a party where someone asked me [...]

30th June ’17: Soap story

Well done for making it to Friday, folks. When I was five, my grandmother gave me a box of [...]

29th June ’17: Coming up roses

Happy Thursday, Colour Filers 🌹🌹🌹 A 2017 survey found that roses are the UK’s favourite flowers. I’m more of [...]

28th June ’17: Madonna blue

Happy Wednesday, colour peeps. My second-in-command recently played Peter Pan in his school performance. A proud mum moment, for [...]

27th June ’17: In praise of vinyl

Hello from Tuesday, Colour peeps ❤️🦋🌼🦋💚🦋 Not long ago I went to a brilliant gig (@lomoon – Look them up) [...]

26th June ’17: Purple & yellow super-duo

Welcome to a new week, my colour-loving friends ☀️👾🌼☂️🐤 I am a big fan of purple and yellow. Together [...]

25th June ’17: Milky marble white

Happy Sunday, lovely friends. After a frenetic and hot week, I thought we could recalibrate and decompress with some [...]

24th June ’17: Urban hieroglyphics

Happy Saturday, Colour Filers 💛💕🍅💚 Have you ever seen spray-painted arrows and symbols on roads and pavements, like striking [...]

23rd June ’17: Green for Grenfell

Welcome to Friday, folks 💚👒🌿🌱🍀🍃🍏💚 Today is #greenforgrenfell day where people across the UK will be wearing green to raise money [...]

22nd June ’17: Sunny Rome, anyone?…

Hello from Thursday, lovely colour chums💛☀️🌼😉 When I was 16, five school friends and I went Interrailing for a [...]

21st June ’17: Daddy Pig’s my hero

Happy Wednesday, peeps ☀️🍊❤️ As a mum, it’s fairly inevitable that I have a favourite #peppapig episode. It’s the one where [...]

20th June ’17: Sugar-pot shelfie

Happy Tuesday from The Colour File HQ ❤️🍊🌼🌵👕👖👾💅🏻 Round these parts, happiness is finding a colourful pot at a [...]

19th June ’17: Cooling sea foam

Welcome to a new week, my colourful friends 👕👗👕👗 You cannot fail to have noticed how sweltering it is [...]

Colour expert Karen Haller: My Colourful World

Karen Haller is an Applied Colour Psychologist and a leading international authority in her field, specialising in business brand colour, [...]

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18th June ’17: Happy Father’s Day

Hello again ❤️💛💚💙💜 I couldn’t let today pass without wishing Happy Father’s Day to all those dads out there. [...]

18th June ’17: Gerbera pick-me-up

Happy Sunday, one and all ☀️🌸☀️🌺☀️ As it’s going to be a scorcher today, it crossed my mind to [...]

17th June ’17: Creating colour memories

Happy Saturday, guys ❤️🍊🍋🌵👖👾💅🏻 When I was growing up, we had a lodger called Denise. She was tall and [...]

16th June ’17: Yellow, green & blue

Hello again, folks. I’ve been looking at Wednesday’s Colour File post (which, incidentally, seemed to drive you all wild) [...]

16th June ’17: Regal violet

Happy Friday, folks ☂️☂️☂️ When I was five, I was racing my cousin down a country lane when I [...]

15th June ’17: Orange & blue super-duo

Hi from Thursday, folks 🍊💙🦁👕👘👖 Painter Van Gogh once said: “There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” [...]

14th June ’17: Colour v Dewey

Happy Humpday, folks ❤️🍊😉🍏🚙👾👩🏻‍🎤 I’m a big fan of places where books hang out, especially libraries. I love the [...]

13th June ’17: What colour IS it?

Happy Tuesday, people. What do you remember about your first day at work? My abiding memory will always be [...]

12th June ’17: Trump orange?…

Happy Monday, dear people 🦊🍁💥🔥🍊📙 If you grew up in the 70s, as I did, chances are you had [...]

11th June ’17: A colourful run!

Hello colour-lovers. Me, my second-in-command and a bunch of friends have been having some Color Run fun today. We [...]

11th June ’17: Pretty piles of stuff

Good morning, people. When I was a trainee reporter, I wrote a story about a five-year-old boy who went [...]

10th June ’17: Important indigo

Welcome to the weekend, folks 👖👾🌂 There’s nothing like an expert or enthusiast. Whatever the subject, these are the [...]

9th June ’17: The writing on the wall

A Friday ‘hi’ from Colour File HQ 💋👘⚡️🔋🗽👕👖👩🏻‍🎤 When I was about eight, I was hauled up in front [...]

8th June ’17: In praise of Iris Apfel

Happy Thursday, folks 👛🌺🌈🛍🎀🌈💕🌸🌈 I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love colour. It’s ALWAYS been about colour: [...]

7th June ’17: Get ready for peach

Happy Wednesday, lovely people 🍑🍑🍑 I mentioned peach in The Colour File back in April, mainly in relation to [...]

4th June ’17: Sending big love

Hello folks ❤️🦁🐤🍏🛋🦋👾🙅🏼 Later today I’ll be bringing you this weekend’s Colour File colour influencer Q&A – always one [...]

3rd June ’17: Looking down for colour

Good evening, lovely people. When I’m looking for colour inspiration, no stone goes unturned. I look upwards, outwards and [...]

3rd June ’17: Monogram love

Welcome to Saturday, lovely people 💛👖🐟☀️🌊💎 I don’t know what it is about monograms but I can’t get enough [...]

2nd June ’17: Pastels & maroon

Happy Friday, my colour-loving chums. I’ve spoken before about my love of faded colours, and there’s no better place [...]

2nd June ’17: Making new friends

Hi folks. When I started The Colour File, I expected it to bring more colour into my life. But [...]

1st June ’17: Smart like Valentino

Happy Thursday, guys ❤️💛💚 Apologies for the late show-up but The Colour File is in Devon #bantham where time takes [...]

31st May ’17: Smokey blue

Hello from The Colour File 🐋👤👕 When my second-in-command & I popped into @hackandveldt cafe yesterday, I sat and lusted [...]

30th May ’17: Crocus Petal Purple

Happy Tuesday, dear friends 👾👾👾. Talking of friends, there is a possibility that I may be one of the [...]

29th May ’17: Hermes scarf memories

Happy Monday, one and all 👘🦁🦊🦀☄️💥🔥🍊🍑🏀 My mum once told me that when she combed our hair, my brother [...]

Gretchen Rubin: My Colourful World

Gretchen Rubin is a global authority on happiness – possibly THE global authority. Here, she tells The Colour File’s [...]

25th May ’17: Crimson joy

Happy Thursday, lovely people ❤️🚒🏎🗼☎️⏰🎈✂️🖍❤️ I’m still giddy from last Saturday’s @libertylondon colour pilgrimage. I can’t recommend it enough [...]

24th May ’17: Wallpaper love

Happy Wednesday, one and all. Hands up who loves wallpaper? I lose many an hour scrolling through wallpaper websites [...]

23rd May ’17: Formidable red & black

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers. As a teenager, I spent several weeks at London Zoo at a summer school about [...]

22nd May ’17: Celebrating rainbow-style

Happy Monday, dear friends 🎟 ❤️📙🔑🔫🗾⛴👾☂️ It’s a day of celebration today – celebrating the life of my uncle [...]

21st May ’17: The blue of cherubs

Happy Sunday, my colour-loving friends. I ADORE this blue. According to #colourpsychology, blue symbolises intelligence and serenity. If so, this [...]

20th May ’17: Fruits for fashion & friendship

Happy Saturday, insta-peeps 🍋🍊🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍍🍑 Everywhere I look there’s fruit. Whether it’s interiors, fashion or stationary, it’s all about fruit. [...]

19th May ’17: Yellow’s different faces

Happy Friday, lovely people 🌟🐤🌼⚡️🍌🍋🧀💛 Thoughts of yellow have been pinging me back to the happy sound of my [...]

18th May ’17: The pull of Tiffany blue

Happy Thursday, colour-chums 👗👗👗 As you may know by now, the Colour File philosophy is pretty much ‘colour for [...]

17th May ’17: Colour clusters rule

Happy humpday, lovely people. ‘What is your favourite colour?’ must be one of life’s easier questions to answer, right? [...]

16th May ’17: A Clockwork Orange door

Happy Tuesday, dear friends. I’m currently obsessed with front doors. Imagine my dismay on reading that, in a world [...]

15th May ’17: The full spectrum

Happy Monday, folks ❤️🦊🙂💚💙👕🌂☂️ Let’s start the week with the full, pleasing spectrum. I was recently sent this scrumptious [...]

14th May ’17: Mothers Meetings news

Hi folks, Beyond excited about going to the @mothersmeetings Business Academy 2017 on Tuesday. My bestie @style_mum has encouraged me to do it [...]

14th May ’17: Blue, in memory of Jane

Happy Sunday, folks 👕👖💙 I’ll be popping up a Colour File colour influencer interview today but in the meantime [...]

13th May ’17: Red, gold & green

Happy Saturday, lovely people ❤️💛💚 When I returned to The Colour File HQ yesterday, I yearned to do a [...]

Hair colourist Jack Howard: My Colourful World

Jack Howard is a global celebrity hair colourist based at Paul Edmonds London. He has tended the tresses of [...]

9th May ’17: The challenges of colour-love

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers. I don’t know about you but most of my vivid memories have a colour connection. [...]

8th May ’17: In praise of neighbours

Hello lovely people 🍅🌸🍅🌸 Since starting The Colour File, I’ve become much more aware of my neighbours’ front gardens, [...]

7th May ’17: Colours to soothe the soul

Happy Sunday, folks. It’s that time again – Chiswick car boot day. As someone who is prone to get [...]

6th May ’17: Steve Lovi, & that poor cat…

Hi folks. Don’t you love it when you unearth things you haven’t seen for years? Chaos at The Colour [...]

Chloe Samwell-Smith @ChloeLovesToShop: My Colourful World

Chloe Samwell-Smith is a fashion, beauty and lifestyle influencer who is known for her effortless style, her curated use [...]

5th May ’17: Calming sky blue

Ah, Friday, how good to see you again. The arrival of the end of a busy (and wet 🌧) [...]

4th May ’17: Black beauty

Happy Thursday, my colourful friends 🖤🎱🎮🕳🖤 I returned to The Colour File HQ last night to check on building [...]

3rd May ’17: In praise of blankets

Happy Hump Day, folks 👚💚👛🐤 I’ve already filled you in re our love affair with blankets at The Colour [...]

2nd May ’17: Wild flower shelfie

Happy Tuesday, folks 💛👚💜 As much as I love montages, I’ve been desperately missing shelfscapes. So, yesterday, my second-in-command [...]

1st May ’17: Bus ticket memories

Happy Sunday, lovely friends ❤️🦊🦁🐱🐸🦋🌊🌂☂️ I’ve been feeling the need to spread some more colour joy and couldn’t wait [...]

1st May ’17: In memory of Merv

Happy Sunday, lovely people. I hope you don’t mind me indulging myself slightly today but I’m going to dedicate [...]

Artist Bob Osborne: My Colourful World

Artist Bob Osborne (AKA Rebel Not Taken) blends the ‘vulgar and the sublime’, taking inspiration from fairgrounds, seaside humour and other [...]

29th April ’17: Chameleon green

Happy Saturday, folks 💚🦎🐊👒 Are you a fan of Where’s Wally? The kids at the school where I’m a [...]

28th April ’17: Feeling peachy

Happy happy Friday, pals 🍑🍑🍑 I’m fascinated by forecasting, not of the weather variety like most Brits but the [...]

26th April ’17: In love with white

Good afternoon, Colour Filers. Now, grab yourself a seat. Ok, are you sat down? I have some shocking news. [...]

26th April ’17: Crazy about stitching

Happy Wednesday, lovely people. Unless you’ve been living on another planet (and even then you may have clocked it) [...]

25th April ’17: Bright stripes

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers. Well, I say ‘happy’, though my second-in-command isn’t best pleased to be returning to school [...]

24th April ’17: Colour influencers wanted!

Calling all colour-lovers! ❤️🍊🦁☀️💚👕👖👾☂️ This is a shout-out from The Colour File HQ. I’ve got a bevy of exciting [...]

24th April ’17: Candy pink & navy

Happy Monday, people. I’m going to start the week with an apology. There’s been a paucity of shelfscapes from [...]

18th April ’17: Muted rainbow

Happy Tuesday, folks ❤️🍊🌼🍀💎🌂🔮 If you’re battling to bagsy a seat on the bus to work after a long [...]

22nd April ’17: Colour therapy

Kapow!!!! 🔥⚡️☄️💥 Just LOOK at these colours. They’re making my heart sing. When life gets turbulent and crunchy, which [...]

21st April ’17: Masculine & feminine

Happy Friday, ColourFilers 💕♣️💗🖤🎀🎬 My second-in-command @marinefighter999 and I are currently banished from The Colour File HQ while builders turn it [...]

20th April ’17: Best shoes EVER

Happy Thursday, one and all 💅🏻👠👡👢👟💅🏽 I’ve been thinking about nails (the finger and toe variety rather than the [...]

19th April ’17: Life Force Green

Happy Wednesday, lovely people 💚🍀👒🐸🌿🍃🌳 Do you ever have those moments in life where you’re reminded of the brevity, [...]

17th April ’17: Easter eggs

Hello again, Colour Filers.  So here are the painted eggs from today’s crafting session (followed by copious pancakes – [...]

17th April ’17: Chocolate & purple

👜☂️🐻🔮What’s that? You’re sick of chocolate, you say? In truth, me too…but I don’t think I’ll EVER have my [...]

17th April ’17: Car-booty

Happy Monday, lovely people 🌼🌊🌸💎🎀🐥 There are vague thoughts of going car-booting today, but Easter continues to rule the [...]

16th April ’17: Craft-time

So, what do you do when you’ve eaten all the eggs? You have a crafting/drawing session instead. It’s a [...]

Artist Yvonne Coomber: My Colourful World

Yvonne Coomber is a renowned contemporary British artist best known for her depictions of the English countryside. Here, she [...]

15th April ’17: An Easter hat trick

Hi folks 💕🍀🌸💚🎀 It would seem that today is your lucky day (or, if you’ve had your fill of [...]

15th April ’17: Cobalt blue & red

Good afternoon, folks 💙❤️💙❤️ Yesterday, I mentioned blue, in particular my consternation at photos of it not appearing ‘true [...]

15th April ’17: Ah, pink & green…

Happy Saturday, my colourful friends 💕💚🎀🔫🌸🍀 I just have one thing to say: pink and green. Ah, pink and [...]

14th April ’17: Pastel tomes

Hello again, lovely people 🍎🍊🍋🌵💎🍆🔮 Here are some of those pretty Easter-perfect, jewel-coloured books I promised you earlier. There [...]

14th April ’17: Bank Holiday blooms

Happy (Good) Friday, folks. I was in the garden at Colour File HQ yesterday, looking up at the cherry [...]

13th April ’17: Ahhh, blankets…

Happy Thursday, lovely people 🐙❤️🍊🦁😊🌿👗🦋👕👾☂️ A few days ago, I brought you up to speed re the scissor scenario [...]

12th April ’17: Colours for health

Good evening, lovely people. As a health & lifestyle journalist (the colour-crazed librarian’s alter ego), I get to hear [...]

12th April ’17: Books rainbow

Happy Wednesday, folks 🐙🦀🦁🐥🐛🦋👕👖👾☂️💕 It feels like a day for books. In colour order, naturally. All is well with [...]

11th April ’17: Pretty pastels

Hello again, lovely people 🌸👗👍🏻 Easter colours are everywhere and I have come to the conclusion that, much as [...]

11th April ’17: Raspberry love

Happy Tuesday, Colour Filers 🌸🌿🌺🌼 I’ve been rearranging furniture in anticipation of the builders descending on Colour File HQ. [...]

10th April ’17: The stationery gene

Happy Monday, my colourful friends 🌸💕👾💙🦋. You’ve caught me in the middle of a scissor inventory at The Colour [...]

Fashion brand creator Miranda Dunn: My Colourful World

Miranda is the founder of clothing label Miranda Dunn London and creator of the iconic Happy Coat – a colourful [...]

8th April ’17: Neon brights

Happy Saturday, lovely people. Isn’t this sunshine just incredible? Everything looks super-bright in this light and all the colours [...]

8th April ’17: The phantom cushion mover…

Good evening, dear colour-lovers. I’m going to start this post with an apology, meant entirely if you are someone [...]

7th April ’17: Shell pink

Happy Friday, Colour Filers 🌼🌺🌸 And what a super-sunny day it is at The Colour File HQ. I’m really [...]

6th April ’17: Science bottles & books

Happy Thursday, people 🍎🦊🦁🌼🍏🐬👤👾☂️ When I was a little girl, I’d occasionally make a school holidays sojourn to the [...]

4th April ’17: Delicious books

I don’t know if you already know this but there are some fundamental truths about books 📕🍊📒💚📘. Firstly, there is [...]

3rd April ’17: Pops of yellow

Morning, colour-filers. Spring has definitely sprung at The Colour File HQ. Today it is, it seems, all about pretty [...]

2nd April ’17: Spring greens

Hello, colour-lovers. Thought I’d give you some Spring green to ogle over from this morning’s super-sunny car boot sale [...]

1st April ’17: Car boot finds

Happy Sunday, colour-lovers 🐙🦊😊🐛🐋👾☂️. As you plough your way through the Sunday papers, my second-in-command and I are off [...]

1st April ’17: Black & multi

Happy, lazy Saturday, folks. I am, I have to confess, super-excited because it is, once again, that time of [...]

31st March ’17: Marine art friends

It’s #FollowFriday and I wanted to use this opportunity to introduce you to a merry band of people who [...]

30th March ’17: Sorbet brights

Happy Thursday, people 🌸🐥☂️🦊 I couldn’t just give you my mugshot as today’s Colour File contribution to our our colourful [...]

30th March ’17: Brown & beige…

Here we are at #throwbackThursday. This little imp is me, looking like an extra from Little House On The [...]

29th March ’17: Beautiful rubbish

So here we are at Wednesday again 🐙🌺🦊🦁🐥🐸🦋👕👾☂️ The longer days are, very strangely, making the weeks slip by and [...]

28th March ’17: Faded stripes & buttons

Happy Tuesday, folks. Ok, time for a blast of my favourite colours – faded ones. This little hoard of [...]

26th March ’17: Luckiest mum alive

Love love love this boy 😍. Thanks @marinefighter999 for a decade of hoots, japes and memorable times aplenty ❤️🦊🦁🌼🌿👕👖👾☂️ [...]

26th March ’17: Mother’s Day high tea

Happy Mother’s Day ❤️🦊🦁🌼🌿🐳👕👖👾 Here at The Colour File HQ it’s a lovely, lazy morning of tea and biscuits [...]

25th March ’17: Fabric love

Oh my goodness me, I didn’t expect to fall in love today!!! These @libertylondon fabrics are just incredible (especially [...]

24th March ’17: Embroidery love

Happy Friday, people. There’s nothing I love more than embroidered textiles, whether it’s embellished fabric, a vintage tablecloth or [...]

22nd March ’17: Cerulean blue

Welcome to Wednesday 💙👕👖👔🐟🦋🐳🐬💦💧 As I haven’t done one for a few days, I thought I’d give you another ‘noir’ [...]

21st March ’17: Colour explosion

Good afternoon, people ❤️💛💛💚💙🌈 I just had a quick lunch-break scout around the Aladdin’s cave of wondrousness that is @theoldcinemalondon [...]

21st March ’17: Blue & red

 Happy Tuesday, lovely Colour Filers ❤️💙 Today feels like a day for blue and red. On the one hand, blue [...]

20th March ’17: Day of Happiness

Happy Monday, colour-lovers. So, today I had a choice – to give you a riot of colour or something [...]

19th March ’17: Colourful creative chaos

Happy Sunday, folks ❤️🦁🐥💚👕👖👾🙅🏼 I’m busy beavering away on some colourful creations for your delectation and am currently lusting over [...]

18th March 2017: Multicoloured shelfie

Happy Saturday, lovely people ❤️🦊🦁🐥🐸👕👖👾👩🏻‍🎤🙅🏼 Thank you for your enthusiasm for my ‘noir’ shelfscapes. Today, I thought I’d give you [...]

17th March ’17: St Patrick’s green

Good day, fellow colour-lovers ☘️🍀 There are two reasons to celebrate today: it’s Friday (and that means you have [...]

16th March ’17: Pastels & macaroons

Good morning, Colour Filers. You know that feeling when you go out to buy reading material and end up [...]

15th March ’17: Navy, ochre & rose

Happy Wednesday, folks. I was trying to do a pure navy/indigo on its own but my car boot pen [...]

14th March ’17: Pink, yellow & black

Tuesday is here, Colour Filers, and I was full of hope for a blast of sunshine today but in [...]

13th March ’17: Blue-green & pale pink

Happy Monday, colour-lovers 👍🏻💚 I hope you had a colour-filled and joyful weekend, just as I did. Here are [...]

12th March ’17: Purple & pink

Happy Sunday, folks 💜💕 See, I told you I’d wear that purple shirt. I love it 💜💜. Once upon a [...]

11th March ’17: Rainbow colours

Happy happy Saturday from The Colour File, lovely people 🌈 Today, I’m having a ‘collating’ day, which effectively means [...]

10th March ’17: Burnished colours

It’s Friday – you’ve made it! Today at The Colour File, it’s a day for burnished colours 🌺🦊☀️. An [...]

9th March ’17: Yellow & black

Happy Thursday from The Colour File 🖤💛🐝 I’ve been busily reading a batch of smart-thinking and self-help books for [...]

8th March ’17: Power from purple

Happy Wednesday, one and all 💜🙋🏻💜 At long last, it’s a day for purple – a Colour File favourite. I [...]

7th March ’17: 80s blue and yellow

Happy Tuesday, colour-lovers 💛💙 Well, here are the hyacinths and daffodils, as promised. And they led me down a [...]

6th March ’17: Rainbow super-brights

Happy Monday, folks 🌸🌺🌼🌈 Here are some super-brights to kick-start your week, courtesy of a box of vibrant car boot [...]

6th March ’17: My love of faded colours

Hello lovely people, I hope the weekend has treated you well 🌸🌺💕☀️. Just to let you know, I’ve posted [...]

5th March ’17

Happy happy Sunday from the Colour File ☀️🌈🌸 I thought I’d give you a quick glimpse of one of [...]

4th March ’17

It’s Saturday! And it’s a sunny one (well, at least it is in London). Pink, green and a smattering [...]

3rd March ’17

Happy Friday from The Colour File, folks – you made it! Here are some of The Colour File’s favourite [...]

2nd March ’17

Happy World Book Day, colour-lovers. If you’re a frazzled parent, wondering how to cobble together that last minute Where’s [...]

1st March ’17

Is the week dragging? Are you dreaming of summer holidays and faraway beach sunsets? The Colour File can’t take [...]

28th February ’17

 Happy Tuesday from The Colour File. Today it’s a day to show you how opposites attract, especially in the [...]

27th February ’17

Afternoon tea, anyone? The Colour File (including my 100-year-old son) loves nothing more than a p.m cup of tea [...]

27th February ’17: Un-blue Monday

Hello Colour-Filers, Are you feeling blue that it’s Monday? Here at The Colour File, we’ve decided that the only [...]

26th February ’17: Perfect pastels

  Happy Sunday, folks. I thought I’d treat you to some pastel-coloured deliciousness to ease you into a ‘hopefully) [...]

24th February ’17: Welcome to The Colour File

  Hello lovely people, Today marks the launch of my colour blog, www.TheColourFile.com where I’m planning to post up [...]