Why You Shouldn’t Be Nervous to Decorate with Primary Colours

When you walk in the front door of this open-concept home, you’re welcomed by a ’60s-inspired receiving area and an original brick fireplace painted a brilliant white.

The true-blue wall was a bold choice but it’s the accessories, such as the red faux-fur throw, yellow-highlighted artwork and chartreuse bench, that really punch up the primary-colour quota.

The red paint on the office (or perhaps bedroom) ceiling reflects off of the white walls, giving the spacious room a warm pink glow. The black chair and hound’s-tooth rug help to absorb some of that striking terra-cotta colour.

As part of the redo, the Wilsons removed a couple of walls and added two more beams to the vaulted ceiling, which completely opened up the landscape of this single-story home.

Since the Wilsons bought this house mid-renovation (the previous flippers wanted out), they decided to work with the white subway tile that was already installed in the main bathroom.

Kortney pulled in red, blue and yellow with groupings of fun accessories, bathroom linens and artwork to give this main bathroom the same punch of colour she uses throughout the rest of this fun-house flip.

To get a full-sized dining room, Dave decided to get rid of one of the bedrooms and convert it into a luxurious entertainment area that connects to the kitchen via a long, white built-in buffet.

Using a clever decorating trick, Kortney chose black accessories – such as this serving tray and orchid planter – to help ground a space that’s saturated with primary colours.

Ultra-luxe, blue-velvet chairs encircle a round, glass-topped dining-room table, giving this dynamic dining room a decidedly modern vibe. The red of the apple artwork and blooming orchids reminds buyers that blue’s not the only colour at play in this funky space.

A wall of double-sided glass cabinets forms a divide between the kitchen and dining room, giving this very open space some needed shape and structure.

Kortney used minimal staging in the kitchen as she didn’t want to overwhelm the all-white space with too much colour. The result is a clean, airy kitchen ready for a new owner to add their own personal touches.

With its white shaker cabinets, simple black hardware and white subway-tile backsplash, the kitchen is traditional in its design – but with a modern interpretation.

The simple symmetry of the two white open shelves situated under the windows, as well as the two white industrial over-island pendants, bring a real feeling of balance to a house that could have gone overboard with the colour.

A white-and-black kilim rug acts as a neutral centrepiece to ground the blue textured couch, with its chartreuse and yellow throw cushions, in this open-concept living room.

The kitchen opens directly onto the living room, but the entertainment space doesn’t end there – those two French doors go straight out onto a deck, complete with an outdoor seating area.

Even the smallest of details – such as a yellow bookbinding and green faux houseplant – in this colourful living room feature the same shades shown throughout this fun Masters of Flip house.

After first testing out red, yellow and blue for this feature wall, Kortney landed on using white paint as the backdrop for these custom-made floating shelves. She then selected brightly coloured accessories to give the space a quick hit of colour.

The yellow accessories sitting on the black-stained floating shelves reflect the sunny paint colour used on the back wall of the living room, while the wood and black objets du art help to tone down those prevalent primary pigments.

The yellow paint on the back wall of the living room has creamy orange undertones, while the red-leather armchairs have a black, textured quality to them – neither are true “primary” colours and that’s key to getting the correct primary-colour mix and match.

Thanks to the vaulted ceilings, wallpaper feature wall and oversized silver chandelier, the master bedroom feels extra spacious – the three large light-filled windows don’t hurt either.

Since bedrooms are supposed to be calm, reflective spaces, Kortney decided to take the primary-colour tones down a notch in the master bedroom and go with a more muted selection of blues and greens.

“Primary colours can be really overwhelming,” says Kortney of her chosen colour palette in the master ensuite, and throughout the house. “So I really neutralized everything with white.”

As the house’s exterior was in need of much more help than the already half-renovated interior, the facade got a major facelift. New siding, paver walkway, topiary garden and red front door were all added to skyrocket this Nashville home’s curb appeal.

The Wilsons bought this partially renovated house for US$362 and put $90K worth of renovations into it. They’re hoping to get a cool $550K, which means they’ll be in the black – and not the red (or blue or yellow) – with a profit of $65K.