A great idea is to get color inspiration from your favorite artist. You can look through books of their paintings, choose some that have colors you like and then look at the color combinations in the painting.

I’m considering using blue in a kitchen/dining room area.  This painting by Van Gogh has some great color combinations to use with blues… pale greens, oranges, yellows and a bit of rust and deep red.  They’re all very dynamic together!

The oranges, rusts and browns in the painting above can already be found  in my room in the hardwood floors.  The other colors can be added in elsewhere if I want to follow this color scheme.

Always consider your color scheme in relation to what’s already in the room like the floors, cabinets and the furniture you’ll be keeping.  Area rugs can be used in another room if they don’t fit your scheme.

Check out Color Inspiration from the Masters of Painting to see palettes from some other famous paintings.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 12th, 2011 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Painting, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

We have a living room that opens onto a kitchen. I’ve always painted the whole area one color. Now I’m yearning for a more varied palette. The plan is to use two different colors… one in the kitchen and one in the living room.

The question is, which two colors will go well together? Looking at photos can help plan… so off I went in search of photos of two colored rooms. Type into Google exactly that: “Images Two Colored Rooms”. Not all of the photos that come up in the search are of rooms, but most are and they can give you a starting point for ideas.

My painter had another suggestion. He said to go to a wallpaper store and look in the wallpaper books. They often show different color combinations that work well together. It’s another place to get ideas.

Good luck in your color search!

Lisa

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Painting, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Consider the permanent items in your room… meaning the floors and cabinets and possibly furniture.

2. Consider the lighting in the room throughout the day and year. You can put samples of paint on the wall (smoothly leaving no lines to show through later). Or paint a board (like a poster board) that you can move around the room to see how it looks throughout the day in the different lighting of the room.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 9:33 am and is filed under Painting, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

You can easily see lots of photos of rooms in specific colors online! This can help you choose paint colors.

Say you want to see yellow rooms, simply type into Google, “images yellow rooms” (or “red rooms”, “green rooms”, “orange rooms” or “blue rooms”, etc.).  When the search comes up you’ll see “images yellow rooms”.  Click the link to get pages and pages of photos of yellow rooms.  Then click on the thumbnail of any of the photos you’d like to see.

Of course you can do this with any color.

Good luck in your color search!

Lisa

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 7:04 am and is filed under Painting, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Wondering how to choose paint colors inside your house?  We’re about to do a lot of painting and have found a couple of useful tools.  Here are my favorite so far:

Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer – Has many colors to see on the walls of different rooms in a house

Pottery Barn’s Experience Colors – Allows you to see the Benjamin Moore PB Colors on the Walls in Specific Rooms

Ralph Lauren Paint Your Own – Lets you see their paint in specific rooms

Benjamin Moore Paint – Lets you see walls with different paint colors and create your own scheme

Glidden’s Color Palette – Lets you put different colors on a wall on the screen

Behr Paint- Behr’s paint picker tools.

Even if you prefer one paint brand over another, you can still try these different tools.  I found Sherwin-Williams’ tool to be very helpful, yet our painter prefers to use Benjamin Moore.

One tip by my painter is to always consider the floor color and cabinets if it’s a kitchen or bathroom.  Those are the items that won’t change.  So don’t see the walls on their own when considering the color.  See the walls in the context of the items that will remain in the room.  We have wood floors and cabinets, so that will have a big affect on making the colors we choose work.

Happy hue hunting!

-Lisa

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Painting, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Guest Blogger Eric Stevenson is passionate about restoring old homes.  He’s graciously allowed us to post this great article about the dangers that can lurk in these sorts of projects, and the precautions that can be taken to keep your family safe.

You picked the color pallet, watched countless hours of home improvement television and located the nearest home improvement retailer. Unfortunately, if you live in an older home, you have tougher decisions to make than which color to put on the bathroom floor. Especially if you live in a house 30 years or older, prying off those crusty tiles or old cabinets might expose problems you now have to deal with.

Older wiring is an unavoidable issue in older homes. Because newer appliances demand a higher electrical current, outdated systems often struggle to provide the required power, which can tax your system to failure. Frequent breaker trips can indicate this system weakness. In addition, many homes contain ungrounded, two-pronged outlets which need to be replaced with the three-pronged, grounded variety. Removing these electrical hazards that can lead to dangerous fires should be a major concern when families commit to updating their homes.

Heavy metals are another continued risk to homeowners, with one of the most widely-known of these chemicals, lead, continuing to pose a major threat today. Although it’s been recognized as a serious threat in older, deteriorating paints since 1991, it continues to be hazardous because it was also used in a variety of common household products. Gasoline, furniture and water-carrying pipes all historically contained lead, making its recognition difficult because it was such a common component. Devastating impacts to mental, physical and behavioral health are common with exposure to this chemical, especially in children because it’s more easily absorbed into growing skin. Arsenic, cadmium and mercury are other common substances found abundantly in older homes that can lead to serious effects like organ failure and neurological degeneration.

Another toxic chemical presenting serious risk during renovation is the historically-popular mineral, asbestos. Now an infamous carcinogen, asbestos was used frequently because of its high degree of insulation against heat, chemicals and electricity. However, asbestos continues to be found in older homes even after its ban, which makes this chemical another constant threat in the U.S. Unfortunately, without proper identification, families risk continued exposure to this chemical, leading to mesothelioma, which is the chemical’s specific form of cancer. Mesothelioma symptoms can take 20 to 50 years to appear and often mimic other diseases, meaning early detection and treatment of this condition is often impossible.  

Unfortunately, in a frenzy of motivation and excitement, homeowners will inadvertently intensify the risks they face from these materials. Asbestos is particularly dangerous to homeowners when improperly handled because it poses a health risk when it’s been damaged and released into the air they breathe. While you can live in a home for decades without receiving exposure to this material, beginning renovation projects without properly understanding the potential risks can have serious consequences.

Luckily, many private companies and licensed professionals now exist for owners of homes built before federal bans on these chemicals. These professionals can safely identify, remove and dispose of this material without risk to your family. While you can try to remove these chemicals yourself, the lack of professional experience and required equipment make it unadvisable if you’re an average homeowner. By having patience and investing extra time during the beginning of a project, you can ensure the final success of your renovation project and the safety of your family as you update, add value to and improve the efficiency of your home.     

Thanks Eric!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 13th, 2010 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Dangers, Remodeling overview, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The embedded video below shows some of the importance of becoming more energy efficient.

Tags: energy efficency

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you don’t know how important the air quality of your house is, read this. It will give you some tips to improve your indoor air quality and show why it’s important.

Tags: air quality

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you want some tips remodeling your bathroom, Hometips.com has some advice for you. They have advice on cabinets, countertops, faucets, showers, etc…

Tags: Bathrooms, hometips

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Here’s a great, independent resource filled with reviews and info about Laminate Flooring.

If you’ve every thought about laminate flooring, you can find information about the tools you need, how to hire a contractor, and how to maintain it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.