MELLOW MOCHA

Years ago when stencilling was all the rage in interior design, I used this technique to add a touch of individuality to rooms such as my daughter’s which featured a two colour wall incorporating stencilled suns and stars.

Decorative stencilled design

Painstaking to create as each image has to be carefully transcribed into position using special stencilling crayons, stencilled designs are too fiddly and time consuming for today’s fast paced life where everyone wants that instant designer look with minimal effort.  So it is with heavy heart that I am now covering these with emulsion.

Being a Starbucks ‘coficionado’, my daughter has gone for a paint colour called Mellow Mocha to create a more neutral colour palate in her current two shade boudoir.  This rich taupe/beige should give the room a warm feel and contrast nicely with white woodwork and coving.

A lovely shade of sludgy grey pink or taupe

Now before you all go scrambling for your keyboards to pen a concisely worded email to Dulux regarding their use of the term ‘Mocha’ to describe a colour that closely resembles a sludgy grey pink more than your favourite Mochachino then a word here about paint colours.

Firstly, the fancy monikers paint companies ascribe to their emulsions cannot be used in a court of law to accurately verify a specific shade of colour that may or may not be contained within a can.  These descriptive names are purely concocted for marketing purposes as someone is more likely to buy a can of aptly named ‘Café Au Lait’ than ‘Donkey Droppings’ when looking for a shade of brown.

Secondly, colour and how it appears on a wall or other surface can be affected by many factors such as lighting (natural or artificial), room size, perspective (where you are stood in relation to what you are looking at) and even your own eyesight.  How many of us can boast to having 20-20 vision?  Mine is definitely more Mr Magoo as time goes on.

A couple of coats of Mellow Mocha later and the same room looks like a completely different one. 

Before Mellow Mocha paint job

After - Subtle colour that contrasts well with white

Painted wallpaper also looks good in this colour

Will make a nice base colour for accessories such as prints

And because I’m a ‘saddo’ even Shelby’s tortoise table is getting the Deco makeover in Mellow Mocha. 

Tarting up the tortoise table