ONCE YOU ADD kids into a household, the kitchen suddenly needs to fulfil a lot of other needs – from becoming a busy dining room (AKA feeding zone), to a living room to of course, a playroom – capable of withstanding art projects and daily couch-jumping.
For jewellery designer Eimear Tolan, hers serves yet another purpose – her work space. Within it, natural light and proximity to the colours of nature outside in her garden are essential inspiration for her pieces.
With Flying Colours is a brand new video series that we’re running with Dulux. Over the next few months, we’ll convert a room in four busy households to show the huge impact that colour can have on our homes.
By the time Eimear had completed an impressive, light-filled extension on her childhood family home in 2012, she and her husband had a tiny baby in tow. Like all parents, they were tired. When it came to pick a paint colour, they opted with the safest option – white.
Seven years later and with a younger brother on the scene, it’s become a little more difficult to keep their large floor-to-ceiling windows clean. The kitchen’s white paint also tends to become grubby as little mischievous hands explore the large, open space.
The Rathfarnham house was originally bought by her father for £5,000 in 1954. These days, the busy kitchen and living space plays host to Ella (6) and Patrick (almost 4), along with their feline partner in crime – Apollo Rainbow Ninja Glow Cat.
“I would design a lot at this table so it’s really important to have a nice, restful space, when the kids and the cat aren’t here”, Eimear told our colour consultant Darran Heaney (oldvictoriannew).
For Darran, the white wasn’t fulfilling the kitchen’s full potential to be a welcoming family space: “It’s a lovely, light, bright space but it’s quite sparse and I think that actually adding some colour to the walls will make it a lot more cosy and warm.”
Taking inspiration from some of the shades featured in Eimear’s jewellery, Darran found a daring new shade in the Dulux Easycare colour card– Denim Drift. To complement this, he selected the bright shade of Ivory White for the woodwork in the kitchen.
To see it in situ, Darran tried out the shade using a Dulux Roller Tester which allowed them to see what it would look like on the wall, without having to touch a paintbrush. Once Eimear was happy with the colour, the painters set to work…
Walking in with Patrick and Ella in tow, Eimear was delighted with the new shade: “It’s deadly! It makes everything pop out so much more. [...] It’s like a brand new kitchen. It’s better than I could have anticipated.”
Despite the fact that blue isn’t usually associated with warmth, for Eimear the shade had managed to make the large, airy space seem cosier.
It was a risk but a risk I’m really glad we took. I just think it’s cosier and… this is going to sound weird because it’s blue, but it’s warmer than the white, which was quite clinical.
When you’re planning a space that will be frequented by little, soft (but not always clean) hands, your choice of paint is an important one says Darran:
It’s important that the paint is durable and that the colour can withstand marks and scuffs. It’s also really helpful if the paint is washable, just in case there are any handprints or marks on the walls.
Got a busy household too? Dulux Easycare takes the stress out of spills with stain-repellant technology. The range is 50 times tougher than Dulux Vinyl Matt and allows you to just wash away common stains. Easycare Satinwood even comes with scrub resist technology, meaning you can always keep every room looking freshly painted.
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