Inside Fiona de Lys' Georgian cottage

Fiona de Lys reads colour the way most people read language. Her method, the Delysian Colour System, works by "bending" colour rather than working with linear values, introducing shadow or highlight to carry from wall to ceiling to woodwork. "It makes colour combinations feel more natural and transitionary," she says. In her own home, that logic runs through an autumnal sitting room in Tige Brune, Terre de Sienne, Terre Brûlée and Chypre Brûlée, a forest-toned dressing room in Matcha and Nori, and a bathroom in Argile des Marais, its tiles picked for the exact green of a Sardinian dive.

Her dining room takes the softest register of all, a warm clay in Andalouse paired with Terre de Verone, whereas her bedroom cocoons the earthy pink, purple and brown of Ombre Brûlée, Tige Brune and a Terre du Vaucluse ceiling. "I wanted the feeling here to be sensual and feminine," she explains.