"You wouldn't wear your grandad's grey baggy trousers," says Rishi Subeathar, who clearly hasn't heard of hipsters. "Or his beige club tie. So why would you use the same colour paint on your walls?"
Rishi clearly doesn't know what hipsters are. But what he does know is interior design trends. And intimately: Rishi is the founder of eico.co.uk, an Icelandic paint manufacturer that produces paints to exacting environmental standards and creates shades to match the chic whims of a host of European interiors, from cool Scandinavian shades to more traditional Britain-flavoured colours. Which means he knows what's up with interior design.
And what's up with interior design - according to Rishi - is a move towards bright, joyful, glowing and celebratory colours, which can be tempered by contrasting with more muted shades.
"Future trends are bright and we noticed the consumer choosing bright during the mood-lifting razzmatazz and euphoria at the London Olympics," says Rishi. "Expect eclectic colours, textures, substrates and ensure good lighting to show these off.
"There are going to be lot more stains in pigmented plasters and raw cements, as well as wood too. If unsure, I'd recommend you start with a feature or accent wall or structure and paint it bright."
And bright colours demand bright lighting. If you've been brave and splashed a lick of neon across a wall, you don't want a single bulb hanging in the middle of your room, casting shadows on your newly painted feature: you want to install flush ceiling spotlights in a grid across your ceiling, offering all-over lighting that will complement every corner of the room. That is what you want.
Grid lighting - rather than a single modern ceiling light hanging in a room - can be a modern way of lighting a whole host of rooms. As well as being practical in a kitchen, it can make a contemporary hallway more welcoming and illuminate a bathroom, too.
