How to Use Color in Your Home

Have you toured a show house or model home and thought, “How can I get my house to look like this?”. There are many elements that go into designing and decorating a beautiful home, but the balance of color is key. It’s the element that will make your home “flow” as you progress from one room to the next.

• The Rule of Three: When decorating your home, select a palette of three colors you would like to have as the primary colors in your home. These colors would be used for your paint, fabrics, area rugs and accessories. Neutrals, such as whites/beiges and blacks/soft grays, don’t technically count as colors, so you don’t need to consider them. The same applies to stained wood furniture and hardwood flooring.

• Proportion of Color: Individual rooms in your home can showcase all three colors in your palette, or just one or two of them. If you choose to use more than one color in a room, one of those colors should be the dominate color. For example, if your palette is red, blue and green, use a formula such as 60% green, 30% red and 10% blue. The idea is to have a tier of color, with a dominate, subordinate and accent. If you only use two colors, work with a 70% to 30% ratio. I designed the colors and fabrics in this guest bedroom room of a French Country style home. The dominate fabric was a blue & white toilé, and the entire room was purely blue & white ~ charming!

• Kid’s Rooms Don’t Count: This is one instance where you can break the rules of the color scheme. Children’s rooms are fun and unique to them, and most likely never match the rest of the home’s color palette. So, go ahead and let them express themselves!

Check back weekly for more decorating and home improvement tips, and until then remember ...

Everyone deserves a home they love ~ Inside and Out!

Framing & Hanging Artwork - There's an Art to It!

Everyone accessorizes their homes with artwork, right? Whether its family photos, prints, paintings or even a collection of antique plates, we enjoy the warmth that these pieces add to our everyday lives. But, while the actual art itself may be beautiful or compelling, the framing and positioning of it on the wall may be distracting from what you really want to showcase–the art!

When it comes to selecting frames for your art or photos, the main objective is to highlight the art–make IT the focal point. While the framing is very important to the overall decorative effect, you want the framing to enhance the object, not detract from it. For example, if you are doing a grouping of family photos, try and use the same frame for every photo, or at least the same color of frame if you want to mix the styles up a bit. The main objective is consistency in the framing, which will draw your eye directly to the photos. When there is a sense of imbalance in a display, you will find that your eye darts around, wandering, not really sure where to rest and take in the view. With this theory in mind, think about when you visit a retail store that’s overwhelmed with merchandise–you don’t know where to begin!

There are two other things to consider when framing photos or artwork: the size and style of the frame. When choosing the size of the frame, consider the proportion of the frame to the object being framed. If a small print is surrounded by a matting and frame that’s proportionately too large, the print will be enveloped and lost. When choosing the style of the frame, lean toward the conservative side, and remember a common design phrase–less is more. If the framing is too ornate or overpowering, you will again lose sight of the art itself.

When you are ready to hang your artwork, it’s important to take some time to think about your display. Consider the size and scale of your artwork in relation to the size of your wall. Just as your framing should be proportionate to the art, the art should be proportionate to the wall. Rather than hanging one diploma on the center of your office wall, consider making a grouping of it with other significant documents, or photos of your alma mater. That’s not to say you shouldn’t hang that one document on its own, but if you choose to, place it in a location where it will be close to other furnishings, making it part of a grouping.

Take the time to plan your display, and if you’re hanging a grouping, lay them out on the floor first, and play around with the them until you have a balanced design. This is an important step that will make the difference between your display looking professionally done rather than haphazardly put together.

Now you’re almost ready to begin hanging. But, before you hammer in that first nail, there are two final considerations: how high to hang them on the wall, and how far apart they should be placed. When choosing the height, the center of the art should be at your eye level. Of course, people have varying degrees of height, so use this as a general guideline and meet somewhere in the middle. If you hang a grouping, use the center of the group as your guide. When you are hanging large artwork or groupings above a sofa, keep the bottom of the lowest frame within 10-12 inches from the sofa back. While considering the spacing between your artwork, keep in mind that you’re forming a group, and don’t place them too far apart from each other. For a large display of family photos, you can position them as close together as 1½-2 inches, depending on the size of the photos. Generally, the larger the objects, the more space you leave between them. For example, a grouping of four prints that measure 20” x 20” each should be spaced no more than 3-4 inches apart. When hanging artwork, the tape measure is your friend. Remember the old rule--measure twice, cut once–and plan your layout before you grab the hammer and nails.

Check back weekly for more decorating and home improvement tips, and until then remember ...

Everyone deserves a home they love ~ Inside and Out!

THE Biggest Painting Mistake - Don't Let it Happen to You!

Have you been inspired to paint a room or the exterior of your home? Perhaps you want to add some color to your world of white walls. Well, don’t be afraid of color ~ Do it! Adding color to your home is the single best way to make the most dramatic effect, and is also the most affordable!

That said, there’s one big mistake that many homeowners make. As anxious as you might be to dash to your nearest paint store, select a color off the sample swatches, then dive straight into your project, don’t do it. You can save yourself a lot of time, labor and investment by just planning ahead a little. And, if you hire a painting contractor to do the work, this planning could really save you some money!

We probably all know someone who’s spent an entire weekend painting a room, only to discover they don’t like the color! Even if you do take the extra step to look at the color in your room before buying the paint, holding a little 2” x 2” sample up against the wall is not the most effective way to envision it in the entire room. It looks much different when covering an 8’ x 12’ area! Though some paint stores will allow you to check out larger sample cards, it can still be tough to imagine that color completely surrounding you. Some paint companies are now offering 2 oz. sample containers of their most popular colors, but I have not found these to be effective. They will not cover a 2’ x 2’ area, with two coats, as they claim to. Even if that were the case, I still don’t feel that painting an area that small is the best way to envision that color in your room.

So, here is what I suggest. Once you’ve chosen the color you like, purchase a quart-sized can. This will cost you a few extra dollars, but will be well worth the investment. I always recommend that my clients paint as large an area as they can, preferably a whole wall. Find the smallest wall in your room and paint the whole thing ~ floor to ceiling, and be sure to paint two coats. If you don’t have a small section of wall, then perhaps paint from one corner of the room over to a door opening, or from a corner to the edge of a window. The idea is to have a stopping point for your eye as you look at the new color, and to also help you focus more fully on the new color vs. the existing one. If you only paint a very small area, your eye will still see the old color surrounding it, and this will not give you the full effect of the new color. You need to get the idea of how it will look in the entire room! Colors also reflect off of each other, and the existing color, which is covering the whole room, will reflect onto your small sample, thereby altering its appearance.

Once you have painted a nice large sample area, take some time to live with it, and for at least a 24 hour period. If you’ve made a dramatic color change, you may love it initially, but then realize after a few days that you don’t want to live with it long term. Look at your new color during various times of day, at night, and with whatever artificial lighting you have in the room. If the sky is cloudy that day, give yourself the chance to see the color on a sunny day. You may discover that what looked like a beautiful gray-taupe in the evening looks like Clearasil pink-taupe in the morning sunlight!

Check back weekly for more decorating and home improvement tips, and until then remember ...

Everyone deserves a home they love ~ Inside and Out!