subject: Using Color To Liven Up Your Home [print this page] One of the most effective ways to rejuvenate your home without putting a hole in your budget is repainting it. If you're remodeling at the same time, a new color scheme is the perfect way to finish off the project. It is not just your perception of the room's dimensions or light that can be altered by color, but also your frame of mind. Used within certain basic guidelines, color can easily be introduced to add interest and life to your home.
If you are not making any changes in your current furnishing, the new colors you select will have to be in harmony with those of your furniture and window coverings. The predominant color of the material your upholstery is made of is the one that dictates the coloring of your walls, meaning that they should coincide. The reason for this color arrangement is that the walls are supposed to function as a setting for your furniture and other elements in the room. For the ceiling, molding as well as for the window and door frames you can use different tones of the color you selected for the walls.
For a more novel, fashionable aspect of the room, you should use a lighter color for the molding and frames. Ceilings should be a lighter shade than the walls if they are less than nine feet high. Higher ceilings can be painted a shade darker without making the room look smaller.
Often these days, whether in a magazine or a broadcast show dedicated to interior decoration, you'll find mention of neutral colors and like many other people you might be tempted to think they are referring to beige or white. Fortunately, that is not so. There are many undertones to a color, and one of them is generally considered neutral. That particular hue is generally called so because it is subject to change when associated with other colors. Neutral hues can be easily found as they are always set in the middle of the undertone spectrum. In other words, if there are 9 blue color swatches on the shelf, in a row, the 5th swatch will be the neutral shades of blue. If you want to use different hues of the same color for a room, you should select the darker of the neutral nuances for the walls, the lightest for the window and door frames as well as the molding, and the second lightest for the ceiling, thus the color scheme will be varied yet tasteful. Also the same hues should be used for cushions, throws and other decorations, or a contrasting set of colors for a more vivid effect.
As for children's bedrooms, now these are another story. Pastels are generally preferred when it comes to babies or toddlers' rooms, but a vivid color can be more exciting and eye-catching to your children. A neutral background color with bright shapes, stripes or characters painted around the room works well in children's rooms. As children grow older they will develop their own tastes, and outgrow them just as quickly, often to their parents' relief. It is not a bad thing if you let them try out different colors and combinations, but prepare yourself to spend a lot of money and shred a lot of nerves since they are prone to changing their mind quite frequently. Also, you can use a neutral color with changeable accents depending on their current preferences.
Houses are not like cars that you can replace whenever you need a change, but they can easily be repainted and thus rejuvenated at no great expense.
