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Blending art and colour for a striking look

By Shirley Genga

They say that colour is a living energy that has the effect to change the ambiance and mood of every room; no one knows this better than interior designer, Jamila Musa.

Beautifully decorated hallway.

Her house stands as a wonderful illustration of the effect one can create with the use of different colours. The accessories and colour choices are bold and daring, oozing eccentricity all the way from the entryway to the end.

The sitting room is painted a deep and rich red combined with two different shades of yellow, giving a sense of excitement and cheer, an effect created through colour therapy. Colour therapy is basically a technique that involves the use of colour to help create different moods.

According to Jamila, when she was choosing the colour scheme for the sitting room, she wanted to create a bright and cheerful environment in which her three daughters could enjoy and feel safe in.

Contemporary and African

The sitting room flows effortlessly into the dinning hall as the space is open and what stands out is the manner in which she has used full-length glass to add depth.

Jamila’s kitchen has been decorated using pale lemon green, with a little sunny yellow stripe. It’s a fresh, clean and appetising colour scheme that works well for the kitchen, which sometimes doubles up as the dinning room.

Jamila’s sitting room. The deep red painting combined with two shades of yellow, give a sense of excitement and cheer. [Photos: Shirley Genga/Standard]

The theme is a mixture of both contemporary and African blended artistically. The furniture, also complementing the general dÈcor, is very stylish and a comfortable — oddly assorted but plenteous. Her artwork is also well picked and strategically placed in the sitting room, dinning room and stairway.

One particular art piece of a Swahili woman blends in beautifully with her boldly coloured walls. Even the stairwell, although painted a more sober colour; a lighter shade of yellow, has a unique leather hanging that captures one’s attention.

calm effect

Apart from colour another of Jamila’s passion is lighting. She uses dimmer switches to control the light emitted from her eye-catching chandeliers instead of the usual kind of switches, enabling her to choose the intensity of light depending on the mood she wishes to create in the different rooms.

As a result, Jamila has managed to create a home where each room has a personality of its own. Unlike her very eccentric house, however, her garden is probably the simplest thing in the homestead. It is neat and well maintained with nothing screaming, just nature creating a beautiful and calm effect.

Call it a sitting room, bedroom, kitchen, or stairwell, its all comfortable and lived in, not simply a passage way. Guests will certainly feel welcome here.

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