How to revamp on a tight budget with colours, fabrics and a few vintage pieces

The project brief was very simple: to renovate a mews house in Little Venice with a budget of £250,000.

Once we'd allowed for refurbishing the bathroom, putting in new flooring, and renewing the kitchen, very little of the tight budget was left.

How to put it to good use to decorate the house and give it character?

We started with the colour scheme: colour is our first port of call when the budget is limited.

Our client has lived in the Far East for many years. During that time, he has collected a mix of objects and art. He also acquired an open-minded view of bold colour combinations.

In the kitchen, the splashback is purple, to contrast with the primary colours of a beloved print.

The staircase and the corridor are putty-coloured. This colour brings together the mix of art on the walls. The art spans from Vietnamese propaganda posters from the 1950s and 1960s to Chinese calligraphy.

The sitting room walls are vanilla white. They offset the warm wood of a pair of vintage Burmese chairs and of a Conran sideboard that has been with the client since the 1980s.

During his time in China, our client took calligraphy lessons. He also acquired some pieces of calligraphy from his teacher and his friends. The largest, at almost 2 meters tall, hangs on the double-height wall that connects the dining area with the sitting room upstairs. We painted the wall in India Yellow by Farrow and Ball. It's visible from almost every angle of the house, lending a sunny vibe to the space even in the depth of winter.

The small guest bedroom's walls and wardrobes are a tea green colour. A Hmong skirt framed in Perspex hangs above the bed, while a vintage paisley shawl has been fashioned into a blind.  A combination of botanical patterned sheets from Marks and Spencer and Indian Kantha scarves dresses the bed.

In the master bedroom, we complemented the client’s banana-yellow bed with very dark blue walls and chocolate brown wardrobes. The room is grown-up and very relaxing. It's accented by a colourful tanka, a Buddhist hanging scroll, from Tibet. It also has blinds made in Laos from tones of the same blue.

The dusty raspberry hue of the study/guest bedroom looks great when the cherry tree outside is in bloom. It contrasts nicely with the client’s black and white car-racing photos.

The house is proof that the right colour scheme can elevate a space, suggest an atmosphere, and enhance existing furniture and art pieces.