A calming bedroom colour combination

How beautiful is this blue and mustard/gold bedroom? The downlit wall really adds drama and the illusion of different layers – making a flat wall an interesting canvas, even before the art gets hung. 

And on the idea of texture, I love how there are so many on show here: the velvet of that elegant golden bed, the gentle sheen of leather armchair, the burnished metal wall-lamps, soft linen bedding and a nicely battered chest of drawers. This is a textbook example of one easy way to create a welcoming space.

Blue can be a great, calming colour for a bedroom – unlike hot shades that can fire you up, not great if you're prone to waking up at 3am and frantically compiling to-do lists (like me). And I love how this dark shade (I'm thinking Blue Denim or Teal Tension, though the right colour will of course depend on how the light hits your wall) is cosy rather than cool. And the bold shade gives it a grown-up, elegant edge, too. Strong colours, well-combined, show confidence.

This room or, rather, room set, was on display at Grand Designs Live last week, and served as a relaunch for the interior consultation service that the paint company offers. More of which another time. For now, here are some more rooms designed by the company full of ideas for other strong colour combinations.

Clockwise from top right

1. Proof that monochrome can be soft – and easily broken up with brights (here, in the books) without killing the two-colour statement. Again, texture comes into play: the (fantastic) lampshade is not solid, and the whites are not just one, dazzling block: the walls and woodwork are gently different, and the white-ish leather stool adds softness, as does the floor is off-white floor.

2. Grey and yellow is my current favourite collision of colours, and it works really well with monochrome too, for a fifties feel. The flash of turquoise on the headboard is brave – the wrong blue (like the one in the image directly below it) would look harsh against the yellow. But because teal is, essentially blue + yellow, a blend rather than a solid contrasting primary shade, it totally works.

3. Inky black is a great foil for vibrant shades, and lots of them all at once. Bright colours really leap out at you, with a super-dark backdrop like this (I've tried and tested it in my new office), and in a good rather than a head-ache way.

4. My granny, now 100 and a half, is the most elegant woman I know. I remember as a style-free, gonky teenager telling her I couldn't borrow her navy Guernsey jumper, even though I was cold, because it wouldn't go with some black thing or other I had on. "You can't wear navy and black!" I said with the boldness of ignorance. My grandmother shot out her catchphrase: "Don't be so stupid." And, of course, she was right.