The Color Conundrum: Eight Paint Tips to Beautify Your Home

(ARA) - A fresh coat of paint is a great way to change the look and feel of a home, and it’s important that the thought process include more than just color schemes. Lisa LaPorta, designer and co-host of HGTV’s “Designed to Sell,” along with KILZ Casual Colors paint, offer expert tips for repainting your home.

1. Don’t Fear Change‚ or Color

There are no rules about color when it comes to your own home. Using neutral or earth tones for larger, more permanent or more expensive items like the sofa will allow you to experiment with paint and colorful accessories to liven up your personal space. Many people fear dark and bold colors for their walls, but it’s okay to get creative with paint color, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot. The KILZ Casual Colors paint line, for example, offers a one-coat coverage guarantee, making it easy to quickly and inexpensively update the look of a room.

2. The Two “C’s” of Design: Customize and Complement

A room’s color scheme should always be decided based on your personal tastes coupled with something more, like a piece of fabric or favorite accessory. Bring an accent rug or lampshade with you to the store for paint color ideas. Never pick a color based on recommendations from friends and family. Always design to appease your own personality, not the masses.

3. Paint Inside the Lines

Painting is the easiest and cheapest way to transform your home. Alternate taped-off sections of your walls with matte and glossy finishes of the same paint color to create vertical stripes. This creates dimension and elongates the space between your ceiling and floor. Using faux finishes, stencils and borders can also add personality to your home. To avoid peeling away new paint, carefully remove the tape as soon as you finish painting each section.

4. Be Your Own Monet

Believe it or not, a plainly painted canvas can be just as effective as an expensive piece of art. To tie the color scheme of your room together, purchase and paint several canvases with colors inspired by the details of your room - green from the throw pillows or brown from the area rug. Hang your homemade art grouped in a symmetric pattern or scattered across the wall creating a completely unique masterpiece.

5. Work that Woodwork

Cabinetry, trim and other woodwork add detail and dimension to a room, and finishing them with paint can make them more effective design elements. Use a semi- or high-gloss paint on woodwork to help emphasize architectural details. Priming and then painting trim and cabinets separates the walls from the woodwork, helping every carving and edge to pop.

6. Pick-Up the Right Accent

Home enthusiasts are increasingly keen on accent walls, but deciding which wall to paint is tricky. Walls with dramatic architectural features, such as fireplaces and detailed woodwork, make the best accent walls. Avoid choosing long walls and those with TVs or “holes,” like doors and windows, for your accent color. Painting them creates distraction and causes them to compete with other dramatic features of the room.

7. From Gloss to Flat, Finish Matters

Using paint with the appropriate finish can make or break your space. Kitchens and bathrooms should always be painted with a semi- or high-gloss finish for protection against moisture and everyday wear and tear. Glossy finishes tend to highlight a wall’s imperfections, however, so use a flat finish in bedrooms or dining rooms. Another good finish for bedrooms is KILZ Casual Colors Eggshell, which falls between satin and flat. And regardless of what finish you settle on, always use a primer first to seal the surface and ensure the best results.

8. Color Me Moody

Scientific research proves that colors affect our moods. Extroverts tend to choose warm hues when painting while introverts select cooler palettes for their walls. The soothing power of blues and lavenders work well in an office or study, and bolder reds and oranges work best in rooms where the action takes place, such as the family room and kids’ rooms. And dieters beware; pinks and reds elevate your sweet tooth, so keep them out of the kitchen.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Source http://www.homedecoratingsense.com/ideas/eight-paint-tips-to-beautify-your-home/

Is Your House The Right Color For Success

Writen by Kathryn Weber

Feng shui says that color choice can affect occupants' success

If your relationships are tired and money flies through your hands, your house might just be the wrong color. Maybe life is a constant struggle and you can't put your finger on the one small thing blocking your success. The answer could be as simple as the color on your house.

For instance, if your house is painted the wrong color for the direction it faces, you might be losing money. A good example of this is an east- or southeast-facing house that is painted white. This is a great example of houses that lose money or whose residents suffer from ill health or poor family relationships. White is the color of metal, and east and southeast are wood-facing directions. Because metal cuts wood (think of an ax or a chainsaw against a tree), the success of the house is affected.

House colors can be confusing

When it comes to choosing house colors, it can be very confusing to most people. Most are not sure what will look good or what the best choice is for their house. Feng shui provides several starting points for color selection because each color has a different meaning and direction associated with it. And, if you can paint your house a color that is harmonious with the direction it faces, you will help create a beneficial environment in the home, and help harmonize it with the environment, thereby making life go smoother and easier.

For example, color in feng shui means different things. Black is the color of money, but a black house won't necessarily make you rich. However, a house that faces north and is painted white with black trim on the shutters and front door, and has brass trimmings, is a perfect example of a house that is harmonized with its environment. That's because white is a metal color and metal makes water -- making white a "productive color" for a house.

So, by being harmonious with the enviornment (a north house painted a north color), the more you increase your chances that north-related benefits will come to you: more job opportunties, career advancement, satisfying job -- and possibly -- more money. That's because the color and direction are harmonious. Feng shui is often referred to as a method for creating harmony. Harmony – in feng shui – means that colors, elements, shapes, and numbers are all supportive and beneficial for one another.

A Feng Shui Guide to Choosing House Color

Use feng shui to harmonize your house color with the direction that it faces:

White (creativity/children): Good for west, northwest and north-facing houses as it reflects light well.

Green/Purple (growth/good health/wealth): Good for east and south-facing houses.

Blue/Purple (career/wealth/opportunities): Good for north, east, and southeast facing houses.

Yellow/Beiges/Gold (ochre) (relationships/stability): Good for northeast, west, southwest, and northwest facing house. Yellow is a color of wisdom and study and smart decisions.

Reds/Pinks (social status, recognition, relationships): South, southwest, and NE facing houses benefit from these colors.

Browns: Good for growth and longevity and excellent for east-facing houses and good for the south (fire) direction.

Taupes (relationships, stability, grounding). This color is excellent for the northeast and southwest because these are "earth" directions and taupes are earthy or stone-type colors. It also helps stabilize relationships and promote family harmony – particularly for the woman of the household.

What about trim colors?

White is always a good option, as is a lighter shade of the predominant color. Choose a dark door color from the list of corresponding colors. Or choose a darker shade for siding and lighter shade for the door and trim.

Why not paint a "stone location" with a "wood" color?

Remember, you always want to paint your house a color that is harmonious for the direction it faces. If your house faces SW (an earth direction), and you paint it a wood color, such as green or brown, this will create difficulty with the relationships in the house. Likewise, if you paint a south-facing house white, the residents might struggle with gaining recognition at work or have a problem with neighbors.

Selecting color by direction helps guarantee that your house color will be harmonious with its environment. Harmonizing the color also compounds your feng shui -- something you want to do as often as possible because good feng shui is cumulative. So, get out the paint brushes and harmonize your house -- and all your rooms!

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter feng shui e-zine and is dedicated to helping her readers develop successful, prosperous, and supportive environments with feng shui. To subscribe, logon to www.redlotusletter.com and receive this special report Fr*ee "16 Feng Shui Secrets for Greater Prosperity."

Source http://get-better-home.blogspot.com/2008/09/is-your-house-right-color-for-success.html