Many of you have been following my series of color-picking articles. Those of you who have not, please start from square one. Everyone else, please, read on!

If you truly want to create a space you can love, start with something you love! Look at the predominate color in whatever you pick. That’s the color you should paint the walls. Accents should be colored after the remaining colors on the object of your affection.

The only limitation on what you can pick from is this; please, pick something you love, not someone you love. Trust me, it won’t turn out as well as you think it will.

Don’t worry, I’ll have more soon! I have three more tips and maybe a bonus for my faithful readers, if enough of you ask for it!

Many of you have been following my recent series of posts regarding choosing paint colors. Those of you who haven’t should probably start from the beginning. Those of you who have, probably noticed that I’ve run out of alliterations for the titles of these articles. Sorry about that. If you’ve been following along, please, read on.

If you have a favorite place, be it somewhere you vacation, a store you love to shop at, even a restaurant you dine at frequently, you can pick your favorite colors from that place and incorporate them into your home. It will help to remind you of that favorite place, in turn helping you relax and making you feel more comfortable.

If you would like more color tips, please, read on!

Many of you have been keeping up with my recent series of posts regarding picking paint colors. If you’re just finding this blog or haven’t been by in a while, I might suggest starting from the beginning. If you’ve been following along, please, read on.

If you’re going to be bringing several sources of color into a room, maybe you should consider painting the walls one of the many hundreds of clean shades of white.

Furniture, bedding, accent pillows, photographs, paintings, sculptures, even a window with a view can bring all the color a room needs.

If you’d like more color tips, please, be my guest!

Recently, I began posting tips on picking the best colors for a room. If you’ve been following the series, good for you! If not, you can get caught up, by starting here, before reading on.
You’ve picked the colors you want in your house and, now, just can’t decide what color to put where. Don’t worry, this is more common for the average homeowner than you probably think. This simple guideline should help you decide!

You want to make a statement to people coming into your home. One way, perhaps the best way, to do this is by painting your entryway a bright color. Strong colors, which would be suitable for such an area, should be kept out of a kitchen, however. There, you should use white or a very pale pastel. Dark or extremely bright colors aren’t relaxing enough for use in a bedroom. You’re better off with a neutral or softer color where you sleep. Pretty much anything goes in the bathroom; it’s such a small space that you can get away with almost anything. Except dark colors, that is. They make small spaces look even smaller.

Interested in thinking bigger? Read on!

If you’re considering installing recessed lighting, it’s probably because you prefer to keep lamps off your floor and tabletops. When it comes to functional lighting, that’s a wise choice; after all, a table lamp can only light a small area of a room. One more thing to consider when making the decision to lift your lighting to the ceiling is the appearance of the fixtures. A substantial majority of recessed fixtures are just plain ugly!

If that’s not enough to turn you off, consider the fact that you have to cut large holes in your ceiling and hope you have enough open area to safely install those recessed cans for your new lighting.

Don’t worry, you can still enjoy light from above. Pendant lighting, lights that hang a short distance from the ceiling, can provide all the light of a recessed lamp, with less installation hassle and a lot more style.

If you already have some idea what style you are looking for, you can find some pendant lighting available to order online.

Nobody likes to feel like they’re in a closet, especially when they’re not. If you have a room in your home that gives the illusion of being the sizer of a shoe box, try a few of these tips to make your room look and feel larger!

• Move furniture closer to the wall.
  • Furniture that isn’t against, or near, a wall can block walkways and interfere with your view of a space, making it feel smaller.
• Light it up!
  • Brighter rooms look bigger! Let in as much natural light as possible; light is the only thing you can fill a room with that doesn’t take up space.
  • If that doesn’t work, replace any light bulbs in the room with a good quality, high output compact florescent bulbs. This will not only make the room brighter, it will lower your lighting bill!
  • If there is only one source of light in a room, consider adding a lamp.
• Keep it clean!
  • If you don’t need it in the room, get it out of the room! If it must be there, keep it neatly tucked out of the way. The more open space in the room, the bigger the room will feel.
• Use a simple color scheme.
  • Use colors from the same color family.
  • Cool and light warm colors on most surfaces will make the room feel more open, dark colors will make it feel more cramped.
  • If you have to paint any walls, we recommend Freshaire Choice paint for its environmentally friendly properties and premium durability.
• Soften up!
  • Again, dark colors make a space feel cozy and intimate; in a small room, this translates to cramped.
  • Lighter, cooler colors can make the same room feel more open and airy.
  • Soft blue and green tones give the best effect.
• Check your coordination!
  • Your furniture will appear to take up less space if it blends in with the rest of your decor.
  • Contrasting colors break up a room, making it look and feel smaller.

Take these ides and run with them. Apply them to your smallest room first, then try them in your biggest room. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your house is bigger than it looked!

Keep telling yourself you’d quit dining out as much and start cooking more if you had a new kitchen? Putting it off because you don’t want to deal with the hassle of designing your new kitchen? Never fear, Home Depot has professional kitchen designers on staff!

You’ve been to Home Depot and seen the kitchen displays that have been painstakingly set up. Did you know that the designers at Home Depot can make your kitchen just as beautiful?

Next time you visit Home Depot, stop by and talk to one of the designers. Bring in a diagram of your kitchen, mark out the locations of windows, doors and outlets, as well as your existing plumbing and show this to them. It should be all they need in order to start building your dream kitchen and getting your family gathered around the dinner table, rather than the table at the diner.

Many paints on the market right now contain no VOCs, which is a good thing, since they’re harmful to the environment, as well as your health. Of all of these, only Freshaire Choice is colored with VOC-free tints. Using any other VOC-free paint means either having white walls or no longer having a VOC-free paint by the time you get it home!

VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds, can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination, as well as organ and nerve damage. These are not things you want in your home! Fortunately, Freshaire Choice Paint is available at your local Home Depot, which means no going out of your way to buy it.

Get started repainting today with 3 free samples of the 65 premium colors! For more information, click any of the links on this page or watch this informative video!

Frank Lloyd Wright’s drawings for Samara: Realization of a Usonian Dream will be presented at The Westcott House located in Springfield, Ohio until April 20th. The collection is a unique exhibition featuring the work from Wright, America’s most celebrated architect. The exhibition comes from The John E. Christian Family Memorial Trust.

Here is some history on Samara House:

• The original owners were John and Kay Christian whoe decided to build near the campus of Purdue University in 1950.
• The project took six years
• The exhibition features a collection of furnishings, textiles and other items Wright designed specifically for Samara, one of the late Usonian style homes he designed.

Planned lectures at the exhibit:

• Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Building will be given by Richard Cleary, Ph.D. on Thursday, March 13, at 7 p.m. Cleary will discuss Wright’s vision of organic architecture and his innovative approaches to structural systems and construction techniques.
• On Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. Margo Stipe, Curator and Registrar of Collections, at The Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, Taliesin West, will discuss Wright’s revolutionary reworking of architectural space, how he dissolved interior walls and opened interior spaces allowing communion with the natural world he believed was a great spirit.

The Westcott House is located at 1340 East High Street in Springfield, Ohio. Admission fee is $5; free for members of The Westcott House Foundation. For more information call 937-327-9291 or visit www.westcotthouse.org. 

(Article from www.Ohio.com, the Akron Beacon Journal’s online website)

From the Akron Beacon Journal’s Article “Area home sales freeze, down 29% in January”

According to figures provided by the Akron Area Board of Realtors, number of home sales in the area dropped a whopping 29% compared to January of last year. In total for 2007, the annual decline was 12% and things don’t look much better for 2008. The total value of home sales from 2007 dropped 28%. Not that it is good, but one number did go up, the average number of days on the market went from 91 days to 94 days. Well I guess there is some good news…the average sales price in January 2008 was $128,799 compared to $127,360 in January 2007. Don’t get too excited, that’s only 1% and there is more bad news. The National Association of Realtors announced Monday that national sales dropped last month to the lowest level in nearly a decade and is the fifth consecutive decline. Home values in Akron are reported to have dropped 3.8% over the past year according to the Zillow Home Value report. Can we say, “housing slump?”