Home interiors: Take a fresh look at brown to revamp your space

'It's the original Marmite, with its most infamous hour in the 1970s, when chocolate slouch couches grooved'

Rich, enfolding, perfect with rattan, weaves and pale reflective shades to freshen in a relaxed vintage style. Fleetwood Urbane Bronze (Vogue collection), from €25 per litre, fleetwood.ie.

Brown. It’s familiar, fascinating, the original Marmite, with its most infamous hour in the 1970s, when chocolate slouch couches grooved with canyons of beauty board. In psychology terms, brown has a calming, enfolding quality, resonating with the tones of timber and earth. 

It’s said to deliver a profound sense of serenity, reaching into our primal relationship with nature. Based on the primaries — yellow, red, and blue, brown sings with most colours on the decorator’s colour wheel — a potentially highly versatile decorating choice.