Interior design ideas: colour in the home – in pictures

Imagine one of the most followed people on Pinterest – with 2.5m fans and counting – and the founder of a hugely popular design blog, and you probably don’t picture him living in a pleasant but singularly ordinary modern block in a town in Buckinghamshire. Will Taylor, 27, rents a small one-bedroom flat with his fiance Toby, where he writes brightbazaarblog.com. As a journalism graduate and long-term fan of interior magazines, he started it casually in 2009, musing on his love of bright, bold, eclectic colours; it is now his full-time job. → Photograph: Lee Garland

Taylor may be self-taught and on a budget, but his home is a lesson in how to use colour and pattern. Retro and Scandinavian in feel, it features pops of primary colour amid geometric and striped monochrome prints, animal motifs and pastels. The effect is neither twee nor overly feminine. “I use black as a foil, so the effect’s a bit more sophisticated,” Taylor says. In among the pastels in the living room are industrial black iron and mango wood shelves and black-and-white Swedish wallpaper. Taylor suggests looking at what colours you favour in everyday life, from clothes to accessories, for a steer on decorating your home. His favourites – yellow, mint, indigo and sky blue – pepper every room. And he isn’t afraid of repeating shades: he stuck cheap, buttercup-yellow lino from eBay on to kitchen cupboards, a shade that matches his sofa, toaster and kettle; and a green Norwegian blanket on the sofa matches a green Ikea armchair and Donna Wilson badger cushion.→ Photograph: Lee Garland

In his study, Taylor transformed vintage furniture with coloured paint, rubbing it to give it a distressed look. He painted a “masculine” gunmetal army chest pink and then yellow, before sanding the layers to reveal tinges of all three colours. “I was inspired by weathered yellow and pink building facades I’d seen on holiday in the Balearic Islands. It gave these two pastel shades a less saccharine look.” Taylor is a dab hand with a needle and thread, too: he made the curtains in the living room and study from Vanessa Arbuthnott and Cath Kidston fabric and mini-bulldog clips from Ikea, and upholstered his bed’s headboard using foam padding covered with wadding and Romo fabric. He customised Ikea bedside lamps with bobble trim.→ Photograph: Lee Garland

The flat’s walls are filled with photographs of his travels, and his much-loved pastel ceramics are everywhere. Tea towels are displayed on a white ladder and a customised barber-board welcomes guests with a menu of drinks. Taylor likes to have a lot on show: “Things that remind me of places I’ve been and people I’ve met.” At only 27, he’ll have a lot more to come. → Photograph: Lee Garland

Bright Bazaar, by Will Taylor, is published by Jacqui Small on 17 April at £25. To order a copy for £20, including free UK mainland p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop. Photograph: Lee Garland