Home Decorating Video - Color Tips
February 9, 2012 
Irwin Weiner ASID - You know that color is one of the most feared concepts in all of home decorating. There's nothing worse than selecting a wall color that turns out to be something you can't live with.
Photo: Simon Upton / TIA Digital Ltd
Fresh Home Magazine editor Neil Wertheimer was interviewed by Better TV and he gives us some practical tips for using color in today's featured video (see below). Let me summarize and editorialize.
- For a DIY room makeover - go knock yourself out! - it's most logical to bring together all the furnishings and accessories in the room and then select a paint color(s) that unify all these more expensive elements ... like pulling a paint color from a sofa. I would add that you don't have to be afraid of ceiling colors. Don't leave them white by default. Consider ceilings just another wall, but since it's at the top of your room, add the illusion of height by having your wall paint hue mixed a few shades lighter. Paint the same lighter hue for the wall surfaces above wainscoting or picture moldings, too.
- Realize that wall color creates a strong statement in a room, and there's a psychology to color, e.g., yellow is very vibrant and stimulating (great for a living room, but too stimulating for a baby's bedroom, by and large). There's also a cultural connotation (yellow in China is a royal color and connotes nourishment; in Egypt, it's the color of mourning). Select wall colors that give you the best feelings and connotations in your room, but at the end of the day you may stay away from a color because you hated it as a child and love another childhood favorite. Select hues you can live with.
- You can add a second primary wall color if you want to add a focus wall that draws attention to itself ... but know that you can create color on such an important wall - like a fireplace wall - with strong artwork or framed photography as opposed to painting the wall a different hue.
Here are some Design2Share color articles you might find helpful as you go ahead with a do-it-yourself room painting project to start off the New Year: Choosing Colors; Resolution: Finish Painting Your "Undecorated Room"; Color Challenged? Buy Some Palettes!; Color Advice for My Friends; and do a search on Design2Share using the word "color" and you'll find many more articles and tips.
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Reader Comments (1)
Awesome info.