Lisa McNulty of the Dulux Creative Board suggests looking at a home as a whole to create a flow and identifying any weaknesses. For example, she says, that with small rooms you'll need to check how much natural light there is before selecting a colour.

Then it's time to think about working the room, says Crown spokesman and Showhouse presenter, Neville Knott. "It's down to the shape of the space or room and manipulating that form to create a different shape."

Colour schemes need to be planned room by room, taking into consideration the furnishings, McNulty counsels.

"You can take inspiration from a great picture, rug or even duvet cover and use it as a starting point for your colour scheme. It's a good idea to check out the views beyond the room and use the natural environment beyond the space as a source of inspiration. If you're unsure about what you like, open your wardrobe and see what colour clothes you've been buying. These colours reflect you and your personality."

The secret to creating a successful scheme, according to Mary Ward, Creative Director with Dulux, is to devise a mood board with samples of your sofa fabric, curtain material, and a piece of your flooring along with your paint sample. "Most people, when they see all this on a white board, will make better decisions."

It's always worthwhile to invest in a sample paint pot.

"No matter what you think of a colour, you will always have to see how it is affected by flooring and changing light in your room, " Ward says.

"A really good tip is to use an old sheet of lining paper and blue tack it to a wall.

Paint directly on the paper and you can move the sheet around the room. Always do an area of at least half a metre by one metre, " recommends Ward. "It will help if you can cover up the colour behind it as if you have a strong blue behind a neutral, it is going to affect the colour."

While neutrals can be regarded as the easy option . . .

both to use and to live with . . .

you can make mistakes with them, says Ward. For example, if you have yellow tones in a room, pink-based neutrals will not be the best choice.

The Simply Neutral range from Dulux aims to take the guesswork out of the process.

Ward's advice is to try out the hue you're thinking of buying beside the colours you're trying to match.

If you crave a colour hit but don't want to go all out on your walls, opt for it on a feature wall, such as behind a bed. "A raspberry wall with very pale pink toned walls beside it would be fabulous, " Ward enthuses.

According to McNulty, painting a chimneybreast in a contrasting colour can be a mistake. "The chimney breast is an architectural feature that already dominates the room. By picking it out in a contrast, you can create the illusion of making it advance into the space. Painting the recesses either side of the chimneybreast or the wall facing it is often better."

If you want to add a bit of luxe to a painted scheme, Knott suggests checking out the latest range of wallpapers. "A lot of them have reflective qualities and are absolutely fantastic for widening a space. The effects they can create are stunning and they can bring personality to a room. Some are very bling so you can forget about crystal on your ceilings and go for a jewel-encrusted wall feature instead."

Don't confine layering to your wardrobe. Layering is a great way of adding interest to neutral walls, according to Ward. Dulux has colours arranged in families of four, all under the same name.

"Neutrals don't have to be bland if you choose the right tone and layer with deeper tones from the same family, " says Ward. "If you have rooms opening onto each other, you could have the darker neutral in one area and a sister neutral in another."

TRICKS OF THE SHADE

Make it wider

Widen a narrow room by painting a dark band of colour on the lower half of the walls and ceiling and the top half in a lighter colour. The light colour will open the walls out while the dark band of colour and ceiling will exaggerate this so the room feels wider. If your living room is very narrow, with the "replace facing you when you walk into it, Knott recommends using wide horizontal stripes either side of the "replace to pull out the room. "You must paint your fireplace a paler tone, " he says. A dado rail can also achieve the same effect.

Make it bigger

Create a sense of space by using lighter, cleaner colours on walls and ceilings. "This can work with any colour, just be careful of the tone, " says Ward. Avoid breaking up the paintwork by having too many colours on areas such as skirting boards. "For example, if you're working with the Dulux Simply Neutral range, you could go for the second lightest colour on the walls, the lighter shade for the skirting boards and woodwork, and one darker for the radiators, so you're keeping everything "owing beautifully." Knott's top tip for maximising space in a small room is to paint the ceiling brilliant white and go for white or off-white on the walls, with light "ooring such as highly polished porcelain, marble or a pale carpet in a bedroom.

Make it warmer "Greys, cool blues and lavenders should generally be avoided in a room that feels cold, " says McNulty. "A warmer palette will instantly make a cool room feel warmer . . .and it doesn't have to be scarlet or tangerine.

Opt for a pastel tint such as Dulux Natural Saffron or Simply Ginger from the Simply Colour Collection that is warm without being overpowering, allowing any design scheme to be worked around it."

Make it taller

Add height to smaller rooms with colourcoordinated bands of bold vertical stripes, or tonal stripes in silk and matt emulsion for a more subtle, sophisticated effect. One stripy accent wall should do the trick, and remember the narrower the stripes the greater the effect.

Painting the ceiling in brilliant white, not off-white or cream, will also help to add height to lowceilinged rooms, advise Knott.

Make it smaller If your room is just, well, too roomy, create a more intimate space by saturating the entire room, walls and ceiling in one, rich solid colour.

Or if your room has alcoves you could paint them a dark colour and extend some of the colour onto the ceiling.

Make it shorter

A clever trick for making a long room appear shorter and more square is to paint the two shortest walls in a deeper shade than the longest walls. They can be painted in a totally contrasting colour (eg the long walls cream and the shorter walls green) or just a shade darker than the longest walls for a more sophisticated effect.

Make it brighter

Clever use of colour can lighten dark windowless spaces. By painting a gloomy hallway in between two rooms several shades lighter than the two main rooms you will get a more harmonious, even effect. A well positioned mirror will also help to bounce light around the space and "tted "ush to the wall will give the illusion of a window.