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In an interview published by Livingetc, Irish interior designer Róisín Lafferty shared five principles for building intentional, bold interior color schemes. Her advice centers on choosing color for its purpose and the feeling a room should create, rather than following fixed rules about which shades belong together.
Interior designer Róisín Lafferty has shared five principles for using color in interiors, arguing that a palette should have a clear purpose rather than follow fixed rules about which shades can be paired. In an interview with Livingetc, she described color as a tool that can shape a room’s mood, apparent proportions and connection to neighboring spaces.
Lafferty’s first principle is to decide how a room should feel before settling on its colors. A bedroom might call for a soft, restorative atmosphere, she said, while a dining room could support richer, more theatrical shades. Hallways, experienced while moving through a home, may suit a stronger or less expected treatment.
Her second principle is to commit to a color rather than confining it to a small accent. That might mean carrying a shade across walls, ceilings, doors or joinery. Lafferty said she has used deep burgundy in full hallways and cobalt blue on staircases, describing the results as bold but refined. She also favors tonal layering or contrast over matching every element precisely.
The article’s third principle is to use color to alter how a space is perceived. Lafferty said color can guide the eye, affect a room’s apparent proportions and shape movement from one area to another. Her broader approach is to begin with a reason for each choice: palettes can take cues from stone, landscapes, artwork, travel or memory, then develop through relationships among color, material, light and texture.
Color as a Design Decision
Lafferty’s advice offers homeowners and design professionals a way to approach color beyond selecting paint for a wall. Treating it as part of a room’s architecture and atmosphere can change how a space feels and how its features relate, while extending a color across several surfaces may create a more immersive effect than using it as an isolated accent.
The guidance is presented as one designer’s practice, not as an established technical standard or a guarantee that a particular scheme will work in every home. Its practical value is the emphasis on intention: identify the desired mood and the room’s materials and light, then decide how much presence the color should have.
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From Mood to Material
Lafferty told Livingetc that her own palettes rarely begin with a paint chart. They may start with veined stone, a landscape, artwork, travel or memory, and develop from there. She said she thinks about how color relates to material, light and texture rather than treating it as a decorative finishing touch.
That approach also informs her view of color as an architectural element. She described extending color from walls onto ceilings, doors, skirting or built-in joinery so that it surrounds occupants and changes the sense of the room. The published material includes three of her five rules in detail; it does not provide the remaining two in the supplied text.
“I think we feel color before we consciously register it.”
— Róisín Lafferty, speaking to Livingetc
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Two Rules Not Included
The supplied source text gives details for the first three of the five rules but cuts off during the discussion of the third. The other two principles, and the rest of Lafferty’s explanation of using color to manipulate a space, cannot be confirmed from the material provided. The text also does not state the article’s publication date or provide independent testing of the design advice.
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Check the Full Interview
The five-rule headline points readers to a fuller Livingetc interview, but only three rules are available in the supplied source material. Readers seeking the complete list can consult the original Livingetc article. No further publication, project announcement or follow-up by Lafferty is identified in the source.
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Key Questions
She shared five principles for using color in interiors in an interview published by Livingetc. The supplied text gives details for three of them.
What is Lafferty’s main principle for choosing a palette?
She said every color choice should have a clear reason. Her approach begins with the feeling a room should create, rather than a fixed rule about which colors can sit together.
Does she recommend using color only on walls?
No. Lafferty described extending color across ceilings, doors and joinery as well as walls, to create a more enveloping effect and influence how a space is experienced.
What are the five rules?
The source provided here details three: decide how a room should feel before choosing colors, commit to a color, and use color to manipulate the space. The remaining two are not included in the supplied text.
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