Fiona de Lys
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Three Italian Color Palettes That’ll Make Your Home Feel Like Summer on the Amalfi Coast

Three Italian Color Palettes That’ll Make Your Home Feel Like Summer on the Amalfi Coast

by Steve Gibson

Three Italian Color Palettes That’ll Make Your Home Feel Like Summer on the Amalfi Coast

It’s not as simple as putting a plant in the corner — a biophilic designer shares how the philosophy actually centres around people

by Steve Gibson

Colourful evolution

Colourful evolution

by Steve Gibson

A few of my favourite things: getting to know colour consultant Fiona de Lys

A few of my favourite things: getting to know colour consultant Fiona de Lys

by Steve Gibson

A few of my favourite things: getting to know colour consultant Fiona de Lys

40 pink paint ideas from the House & Garden archive

by Steve Gibson

Maximalist ceilings are having a moment

Maximalist ceilings are having a moment

by Steve Gibson

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Recent Posts

  • Three Italian Color Palettes That’ll Make Your Home Feel Like Summer on the Amalfi Coast
  • It’s not as simple as putting a plant in the corner — a biophilic designer shares how the philosophy actually centres around people
  • Aesthetic Narrative + Colour Perspective course (full-day)
  • The Colour Retreat
  • Aesthetic Narrative + Colour Perspective course (bundle)

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fionadelys_colourconsultant

Founder: The Colour Academy & Delysian Colour System
1:1 | Workshops | Mentorship |Consultancy
@englishhomemag @houseandgardenuk
BIID partner
The most valuable thing I can offer a designer or The most valuable thing I can offer a designer or someone studying colour for interiors is rarely a technique. It is room to grow and develop. When you spend a day working slowly with real colour, real light and real materials, something opens up. People try things they would never risk in front of a client, ask the questions they had refrained from previously asking, and leave with a steadier, more confident eye than any course notes could give them. Professional growth does not happen under pressure - that's just stress-testing. It happens in a space that has been made safe enough to stretch in. And that space is not confined to my workshop studio for courses alone. I give it wherever I can: Home, for real life observations Consultancies, for work experience Online, for guest talks and sessions Whether I'm working 1:1, or with a small group, the space I have created for learning does precisely what it is intended for - room to grow and devlop with colour and I couldn't be more enthusiastic for each person who does. Join me on my next workshops in October - link in comments. #designeducation #interiordesign #cpd #professionaldevelopment #colourtraining #creativelearning
Recently, I’ve been exploring the concept of abstr Recently, I’ve been exploring the concept of abstract palettes in response to my evolving work and research around colour, home and the human connection with these. Looking through my photo gallery, it is clear to see how the colours in my home reflect a sentimental landscape of life in Italy, for me. There is a rhythm to the palette, in these captured moments. Collectively, these impressions become like fragments of a dream - a blurring where feelings outlast the memory of colours. It is this abstract collage of colour that harbours the subconscious mind, beyond the visual narrative, where palettes flavour emotional memories. The images above show a collection of photographs I’ve taken followed by a blurred version, and then another blurred photograph of similar colours that reveal to show how my room schemes have evolved within these abstract palettes. These subconscious colours are what students work with in the Aesthetic Narrative course. For more information, please visit my website. #narrativephotography #colourstory #mycolourfulinterior #aestheticnarrative #colourpalette
No one tells you how emotional colour decisions ca No one tells you how emotional colour decisions can be. To choose how a home or a space will look is to expose your taste, your memory and your sense of who you are, and then to commit to it in a way that everyone who visits will see. That vulnerability is one of the reasons why so many capable people freeze at the paint chart or settle for 'safe'. A large part of what I do is hold that steadiness for them: slowing the process, naming the feeling, and turning anxiety into clarity so the decision can be made with confidence. The colour is the easy part. The courage to choose it is the work. Once that part is overcome, it's truly amazing to see how peoples' interior design schemes unfold. This scheme was centred around the ideas and feelngs associated with what this student called 'a meaningful place' and 'forest bathing' for a particular room she had in mind, and it all began with choosing three colours for a material swatch. Join me on my next workshop this year in October - link in comments. #interiordesign #designprocess #creativeconfidence #interiors #colourdecisions
Thoughts turn to the front-room floor downstairs a Thoughts turn to the front-room floor downstairs and I’ve had a vision for some time that I just can’t shake. #red #thefloor #colourconfidence #colourmyhome #cottagehome
Last week, my client sent me a fantastic array of Last week, my client sent me a fantastic array of images illustrating her and her partner’s taste for colour with their house renovation. The palette was earthy and sun-drenched, featuring ochres and rusts dappled with fresh aquas and deep moody blues. However, today, the living room was a sticking point – something kept surfacing and then disappearing. The light leaned towards oranges and ochre-pinks but my client wanted a Desert Room with rich ochre yellow. It sort of worked but the idea seemed lost in the room. This downstairs d family space felt more grounded in warmer, richer ‘terre’ colours, and with an adjoining room in minty-aquas. The vision was clear but I couldn’t quite understand why the yellow of the Desert kept surfacing. So I asked, “Why the Desert?” She replied, “I spent my childhood travelling across deserts, collecting and observing rocks and fossils with my father.” That’s special. That’s raw emotion. That’s colour association with a personal purpose. 💛 No Pinterest image can capture that feeling. Sometimes you have to read the room for answers and dig beyond the visuals to find the narrative. Upstairs, there’s a smaller, intimate room flooded with light. I suggested the idea of placing an interpretation of the Desert Room there – a space for my client to retreat to - while downstairs focuses on the colours of geology, rocks and a terracotta floor that will eventually be fitted and tie everything together beautifully. I can’t wait to see how this house evolves into a colourful home, of past and future stories. #homeswithcharacter #homestory #colourfulhome #aestheticnarrative #colourconsultant
If you wanted a lesson from nature about chroma, y If you wanted a lesson from nature about chroma, you just had it. Taking the yellow of the sunshine and diffusing it with the greyness of the moon transformed the outside light to a shade that I can only describe as translucent cardboard! I had my swatches and glass sheets and we assembled as a road of residents making our various recordings. The vibrant yellow turned to washed out dull colour and the white houses became colours I haven’t seen since I first moved here. What a brilliant exercise and what a spectacular performance from nature herself. #colournature #eclispe #chroma #colourtheory #colourgoals

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The Colour Academy

The Colour Retreat, Liguria 2027
Aesthetic Narrative course
Colour Perspective course
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Designed by Gibson. Photographic & prop credits.