This colour is a colour creatively (I think!) called Raisin. A colour that is a little bit red and a little bit brown – but not maroon. Reminiscent of American barns as seen in the naïve paintings of Grandma Moses, or patches of autumn leaves, this colour makes a rich strong statement that is neither dull not flat.

Here are some suggestions for incorporating it into your colour scheme:

- Use it in touches with cream and a dusty brown-pink

- Team with light olive, deep olive, or a deeper sludgy black-green

- A tiny ‘pop’ of a reddish orange, in say napkin embellishment for liveliness

- A deep or sludgy mustard colour

- Taupe

- Pewter, brass, bronze, gilded candlesticks, ornate mirrors

- Ornate metal dishes with filigree and other detailing to lighten the scheme

- Emphasis on textured, lustred fabrics to add movement and light, velvet

- A sitting room with deep sofas, lots of cushions, birdcages, candles, pewter dishes of ‘sweetmeats’, sherry and port served before and after

- Dark stained wood

- Chandeliers

- Voluptuous greenery, deep red to ‘black’ roses, ‘black’ Asiatic lilies, succulents especially those with a purplish/black tinge (e.g. Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’), the occasional mustard or orange coloured flower, dark red berries, strong sculptural leaves such as dracaena, autumn leaves, branches of persimmons

- Australian natives such as leucodendron, brown boronia, smoke bush, bronze coloured teatree

- Bowls of pomegranates, persimmons, plums, nuts in their shells, russet seed pods

- Crockery or linen in your chosen secondary colour e.g. raisin linen, with deep mustard and/or deep olive crockery, pewter or brushed stainless steel flatware.

- Monograms

- Dark wine lips

- A simple bridal dress in lustrous cream fabric – see Kat Stewart’s J’Aton dress at the Logies – caught at the side with a beautiful jewel in raisin, olive and mustard

Pear Raisin Chutney from Martha Stewart, Earrings from Exotic India, Makeup look from Instyle Weddings, Flowers from Brides