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Color Choices

Color is one of the most important, yet one of the most difficult decisions you will make for your home. With the tens of thousands of possibilities, made up of shades and tints of every hue, it can be pretty daunting to hone everything down and make the right decision for you and your home.

Consider some of these facts before you decide:

1) Yellow, orange and red are very warm colors and will advance toward you. They will make objects appear closer than they are in reality. They are good for very large rooms where you want to make the room appear more intimate.

2) Violet, blue and green are generally cool colors and will do just the opposite. They will recede from you and make it look as if they are further away than they really are. These are good choices in very small rooms, like bathrooms, where you want the room to appear larger than it is.

3) Since kitchens are commonly very warm when it comes to room temperature, cool colors in this room will help to neutralize that warmth.

WHEN YOU'RE NOT SURE WHAT COLOR WILL WORK BEST:

1) Gather all the swatches and samples you wish to consider and bring them home.

2) Take the samples to the room under consideration and view them in the lighting conditions of the room, both during the day and at night. This is important because of a phenomenon called "metamerism". Colors will appear to "change" depending on the type of light source they are seen under. If you look at carpeting, for example, in a showroom lit6 by cool fluorescent lights, and you bring the sample home and view it under warm incandescent lights, you very may find the color appears to have changed.  Cool lights are notorious for sucking the life out of beige colors, for instance.

And it's not just whether you use incandescent vs. fluorescent lighting. Other factors that will influence your colors are: the time of day (morning, noon, late afternoon); the direction of natural light (north, south, east, west); the weather and season (summer, sunny, winter, overcast, rainy, snowy). Other factors include: color processes, color classes and color-matching processes between manufacturers.

Colors most likely to have a metameric problem are: tan, grays, taupe, lilac, mauve, blue/gray and celadon. 

4) Reflected light, say from large colored surfaces such as walls, ceilings, and floors can also change the way a color looks. If you doubt this, select one of your paint samples and put in the middle of a table. Place another sample right next to it.  Does the first color appear different?  How about the second color?  Now change the second color or a third color.  Has the first color changed?  How about the third color?

3) Frustrated by the small size of your sample and not sure how it will look en masse on a wall?  An easy way to get a better feeling: Hold the sample up close to one eye so that it "covers" the wall you are considering.  Keep both eyes open as you now look past the sample and at the wall.  The eye with the sample in front of it will see just the sample. The other eye will see the wall and the room.  The sample will appear to "fill" the wall and you'll get an immediate feeling for what it will look like once you have covered a wall with it.  This should help you make your final decision.

Finally, the only sure way to go, particularly with paint choices, is to purchase a small can of your final choice.  Apply a brush out to a large area of the wall.  To avoid color surprises, this is the only really safe way to preview interior or exterior paint colors.

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Style: How To Select It!

Do you have a specific style that you're decorating in? Not sure?  Let me help you break it down into easy segments. What do you really want in your home?  Here's a check list to help you define your personal style and that of your family:

  • Formal
  • Conventional
  • Modern
  • Serene
  • Dignified
  • Simple
  • Graceful
  • Quaint
  • Informal
  • Unconventional
  • Traditional
  • Exhilarating
  • Casual
  • Cluttered
  • Plain
  • Sophisticated
  • Now go back through the stacks of photographs you've clipped out of magazines and eliminate the ones that don't fit your choices above. Then look through the list below to define the type of "feeling" you ideally want for your room or rooms to evoke:
    • Elegant
    • Conservative
    • Flamboyant
    • Ordinary
    • Dull
    • Youthful
    • Playful
    • Luxurious
  • Amusing
  • Grandiose
  • Strong
  • Bold
  • Graceful
  • Offbeat
  • Plain
  • Ostentatious
  • Amusing
  • Dramatic
  • Sedate
  • Common
  • Whimsical
  • Opulent
  • Powerful
  • Understated Elegant
  • Understated Casual
  • You may choose one or a combination of any of the above. Now go through the remaining photographs and eliminate all pictures that do not fit into the category or categories of "feeling" that you have chosen from above. After you've done this, you should really be able to focus in on the style and feeling that is right for you and your family.


    What's Wrong With These Pictures?

    Look at the images below and see if you can spot instantly the decorating mistakes. Just as importantly, you should know WHY they are mistakes and HOW to correct them.  If you do not know, then you need to get your personal copy of Decor Secrets Revealed and Where There's a Wall - There's a Way.  You should also consider getting your personal copy of The Secret Art of Hanging Art.  All three of these in depth publications are exclusively offered here (see links below photos). You won't find them anywhere else.

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         decorate, redecorate Don't get caught making simple, unnecessary decorating mistakes. Learn what to do. Decorating is not complicated, especially if you know how to properly arrange your furniture and accessories.

    For information on how you can resolve these and similar issues in your decorating for all time, click here: Decor Secrets Revealed.

    For information on how you can resolve these and similar issues in your decorating for all time, click here: The Secret Art of Hanging Art.

    For information on how you can resolve these and similar issues in your decorating for all time, click here: Where There's a Wall - There's a Way.

    So before you host your next party, have the in-laws over to dinner, have your boss over, or even think about redecorating, get the tools, secrets and tips that the professionals use. Never again will you have to wonder if your furniture is arranged in an appealing manner, if you've designed that wall grouping correctly, if your art is hung appropriately or safely, if your friends and relatives like what you've done.

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    The Hot Color Trends for 2003!
    If you want to stay on top of the current color trends for this year and into 2003, you can get my "2002-03 Decorating Color Trends" report. Interior designers and product manufacturers pay over $600 per year to be members of the Color Board, the group that decides the color trends of the future. This is how they get the insider information in advance so that they can plan their product lines. For just $3.00, you can receive online colors that are currently hot, trendy and defining the new
    millennium. Ordering your online copy is easy. After you place your order, you will receive an email within about 5 minutes with a special link. To order your online copy and get the special link to access these color trends, click here.


    "Thanks to you my living room has been transformed from a passage way leading from the front door to the family room, into an inviting place where you'd like to sit down and visit a while!!!!! Jim said when he first walked thru the door...."Hey....I really like this!!!".....this is the same person that doesn't notice anything about the house unless it involves "his" chair! . . . I retained more of the book than I thought....because it definitely came into play today. . . . We've decided that instead of sitting in the dining area to share our day with each other, we are going to sit in our 'new' living room.  Much more comfortable!!!!!" - Sandy Cox

    Copyright 2002 Barbara Jennings