Yesterday here at the Willow Bank showroom we threw our first ever Farrow & Ball open day; and what a success it was! Willow Bank are always trying to be active with what we can offer and quite often when designing kitchens are being asked not just about the cabinetry but about the room colour’s, furniture, flooring etc. I thought why not make a bit of a thing about what we can offer by speaking with our suppliers and throwing open days where our clients really can get the most out of what Willow Bank has to offer.
Lindsey our area manager from Farrow and Ball was fantastic. From 2pm – 7pm she was booked up back to back with existing and new clients, all having a 30-minute slot to talk about any colour concerns they may be having. We were talking kitchens, bedrooms, drawing rooms ….. It really was fantastic and a great learning curve for myself, Petra and Ashley here in the showroom eagerly listening and learning from what Lindsey had to offer and recommend.
Between a couple of client’s Lindsey spent some time with us sharing her knowledge. Now being a designer for 10 years now I am pretty good with colours and am lucky enough to be able to visualise a space. However I am always eager to learn and of course it is important to keep up with the trends of 2016 and more importantly looking into 2017. The last couple of years it really has been the trend of ‘50 Shades Of Grey’ (and not just in the sense of the book) ;). I asked whether she felt this trend was moving and what she thought was coming up. She answered saying that grey is so popular and such a fantastic neutral pallet to work off of if anything the grey tones are hindering more to a greener pallet as opposed to the stonier pallets we are all currently using. Farrow and Ball’s new greys reflect this in their recent release of new colours; ‘Shadow White’, ‘Shaded White’ and the beautiful ‘Drop Cloth’.
Lighting is such an important factor when it comes to choosing colours and I always find that especially in kitchens we are trying to keep things nice and light and therefore are concerned to step away from the more neutral colours on kitchen cabinets. One of my clients yesterday was concerned of light and Lindsey recommended a ‘Cornforth White’ or a ‘Drop Cloth’ which you would instantly think was a darker tone, however matching with a lighter worktop and light floor really does give a lighter effect. When looking at natural lighting Lindsey gave me a fantastic tip;
“If a client is looking at grey tones and their kitchen is south facing you want to look at greys which have more of a yellow tone, perfect colours for this would be ‘Parma Grey’ or, ’Dimpse’. If the kitchen however is north facing it is better to go for more blue tones such as ‘Amonite’ or ‘Cornforth White’. East and West kitchen’s you can pretty much get away with either so just go for personal preference. Your saving grace however and if you are unsure ‘Elephants Breath’ is a beautiful colour which of course is a fantastically popular colour, reason being is it really does work in all lights. So when choosing a grey colour and all else fails go for an ‘Elephants Breath’ not only for its fantastic name!
Another tip and bang on trend is painting the walls, ceilings and woodwork all in one colour, this is especially effective in rooms with low ceilings as it will draw your eye away from the line between the wall and the ceiling therefore making the space feel larger!
All in all, we learnt a huge amount here at Willow Bank and from opening up my emails this morning and having some lovely emails from clients saying how much they enjoyed it I really think the whole day was a complete success! I will have to get some more dates in the diary so look out for the next one …. For now, however, we of course stock all the Farrow and Ball sample pots and can order the paint as and when, so please don’t hesitate to pop in, have a cuppa and play around with some colours. J.
What our clients had to say;
Thank you so much for having me along yesterday. The way you kindly looked after the girls made it so easy for me to focus with the lovely Farrow and Ball lady, Lindsey! It was incredible how as we went through the colours, those that looked good changed. Really worthwhile as her knowledge was excellent, particularly about the tones in the colours. It’s great also to have a sample, I’m going to put some colour tests up soon.
Mrs Orledge 25.02.2016
Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed meeting with you and the Farrow and Ball lady (oops forgotten her name) and discussing the paint for our new kitchen.
I feel as if we ‘dodged a bullet’ with the paint colour!! I would have gaily gone ahead with Tallow and then completely hated it! So glad I was able to take advice and make a more appropriate choice. Thank you for setting that up.
Good to know that everything is progressing as it should be and that soon we’ll be the proud owners of a brand new Willow Bank kitchen.
Thanks again for a great meeting, and look forward to seeing you next week.
Mrs Nichols 25.02.2016