Welcome to my blog-
Times are tough and we are all looking for ways to dress up our living space without spending a fortune. Here are some basic tips and suggestions for you from a professional decorator:
Okay, so I think we have a heard that painting a room is the most economical and biggest way to make an impact on a room. Great. You rush down to your local hardware store and there you are staring at the endless selection of colors. You were set on soft green and off white and now you are not sure if you should do a Sage, Dill, khaki, something with more brown than gold undertones or more gold than brown? So you move on to the "Whites"... that will be much easier until you realize the hundreds of different off-white shades just sitting their waiting to drive you insane. No worries. You grab a handful of samples (and by handful I mean every sample you can possibly carry or stuff in your purse) and you head home. When you arrive home you tape all of your samples to the wall looking like some sort of childcare center or a frustrated artists facility. You stand back to admire the samples and feel completely overwhelmed. Stop. Relax. Look at what you actually have in your home. Furnishings, window coverings, wood, etc. It is important to use colors you like but also colors that work in YOUR home. In the last few years it was popular to paint one bold accent wall in a color such as a red. If you had other red throughout the home it worked. If not it looked like you got a great deal on red paint and were bored one weekend so you painted a wall.
My rules for paint are fairly simple. If painting an accent wall, select the wall the first catches your eye and go for that wall. The accent color should be bolder, brighter or darker than the surrounding areas. It should be a color that you would like to use sparingly in other areas of the house. This can be achieved with throw pillows, pictures, area rugs, etc. If you are painting an accent color around kitchen cabinets make sure the cabinets compliment the paint. I know that sounds simple and pretty straight forward but I can not tell you how many homes I have gone into on a "painting emergency" where people pick colors that do nothing for their cabinets. For example f you have oak cabinetry, do not go with a gold base paint. If you have dark cherry cabinets avoid dark browns or reds.
Another one of my rules is stick with three colors and white. No, this does not mean you can not have fun adding colors to bathrooms and bedrooms. It simply means for the best flow (rooms that you can see from one area to the next) use three colors. I recommend a neutral for the main color, a second color to compliment that neutral and then an accent color. For example you could do a light tan with a sage green and then a rust for an accent. Ceilings, doors and baseboards could remain in the white. Otherwise, if you have too many colors in an area, the eye does not know where to look. Your space starts to look like a patchwork quilt or Rainbow Brights Palace instead of the chic, stylish look you were going for.
Have fun adding an accent. Colors trends are bright and bold this year but make sure it will work with the rest of your home. Don't just pick a color because it is trendy. Pick something that you can live with and a color that will aid the rest of your accessories, not compete with them.
To learn more about me, please visit my website at http://www.decoratinglady.com/
Don't trust yourself? I offer personalized online decorating consultations anywhere in the U.S. and home visits to those in the greater Phoenix area. Visit my site for more information.
0 comments:
Post a Comment