Do you want to decorate your home with some big, bold colours but you are not sure where to start? Try the following tips.

For a really striking room you do need several colours in the one space. You do, however, need to make sure that you use them in equal measure or they will fight for attention. Red is the most stimulating and bold of colours, team it with white on the woodwork and ceiling. It can add a sophisticated and adult feel to a room if used in its darker shades such as crimson. Bright pillar box red is great for children’s rooms. Sunny yellow is also a stimulating colour but is best avoided in bedrooms. These colours will ‘warm’ a room too as they are both at the warm end of the colour spectrum. The cooler colours such as blues and violets do not necessarily give a room a cold feel however, they can create a very intimate and cocooning feel to a space.

You need to be brave to use bold palettes, as they will reflect your personality. To some people, citrus type shades can appear zingy and fun, but to others they may verge on the garish. If you don’t feel overly confident, then use bold colours in a small room, like a cloakroom, to create a sense of ‘wow’ factor.

Avoid a clash as bright colours can jar with each other, but a pale grey flooring and a dash of black will ground them. There is an old adage in interior design ‘don’t forget the black’. By adding a black element – say, a black box, lampshade or picture frame – you clarify and enhance all the other colours in the space. Try it, it really works. The trick is to use big blocks of one plain colour and add the other colours in furniture and accessories.

Live with the colour before you buy it. You can buy various tester pots of all the major paint manufactures. Paint a large piece of paper (a roll of lining paper from any DIY shop is ideal and cheap) with several coats of the colour and use BluTac to hold it to the wall. Try it in several different places and also observe it in different lights and times of the day. Put it near furniture or fabrics that are staying in the finished room to see how it goes with them. When shopping for fabrics or wallpapers, similarly always ask for a sample to take home and use it the same way as the paint swatches. You do need quite a large swatch if the fabric or paper has a big pattern and/or repeat, so that all the colours in it are visible. Pay particular attention to how they look during the time of day when the room is most used.