One of the greatest pleasures in life is having a place to call home. Some people are fortunate to own theirs while others are not. Whatever the case, nothing gives greater pleasure than to have a house you can call home.

When decorating our home we do so around a theme. Examples of themes are African, Country, Contemporary, Traditional, etc. As a result of this we buy motifs of this nature. For an African theme some things we may purchase are mud cloths and masks, Country theme: rocking chair and quilts, Contemporary theme: symmetrical furniture and abstract paintings, Traditional: antiques and other vintage pieces. Placing these items in various rooms makes them elements of the space. Adding color would totally compliment the room giving it more character. A room with character is a room that can speak to you. It can change your whole environment.

Color is one of the jost powerful tools we could ever have in our daily life. Why? Because it affects moods, thoughts, change actions and cause reactions. Colors can be divided into two main categories, warm & cool colors. Examples of warm colors are yellow, orange and red. These colors tend to advance, seem closer to the viewer than cool colors. The cool colors blue, green and violet do the opposite. These colors recede.  Usually we use cool colors to make a room larger and warm colors to make a room smaller. Unfortunately, it is not always that simple. This depends on the lightness or darkness and intensity of the color. Light colors are what make a room appear larger and dark colors make a room smaller. One of the first things you want to ask yourself when choosing color is, do I want my room to appear larger or smaller?

The next thing to consider is what kind of mood do you want felt in each room? The impact of color on space is always going to affect your mood. Bearing this in mind, you may want to add specific colors in different rooms. Picture your whole house for a minute. Imagine you could have a romantic bedroom, a refreshing bathroom and a cozy family room by just applying the right colors. The colors that you choose are colors that work with your personality, colors that say something about you. Simply knowing the color meanings and the moods they produce will help align your personality with your color choices. Let’s look at some colors to see how they work. Red is a dynamic and passionate color that speaks courage and has a huge emotional impact. In some cases it is know to raise blood pressure. Yellow exudes warmth, inspiration and vitality, and is one of the happier colors. Brown shows ease and contentment and also welcomes nature. Green is a color of life. It creates an atjosphere that’s calm and restful. Blue is a tranquil and harmonious color which sets a tension free environment.

To use more than one color in a room you must remember how the colors advance and recede. This is very important as it can change the whole perception of space. If using the same colors with a different tint (additional darkness or lightness in a color) you can use the lighter color to recede and darker color to advance. Mixing bright complementary colors gets attention, however it should be used with restraint. Without restraint it can cause discomfort. To hinder this from happening, you should outline each color with a thin neutral white, gray or black line. The outline separates the colors and prevents discomfort.

The same concept for choosing inside colors apply for outside. When outside we think nature and tranquility. Just like inside, outside you can have your themes. Tropical and English themes are just to name a few. For a Tropical theme you want to use vibrant hot colored plants like red gingers, birds of paradise. The English has more subtle colors of clustered hyacinths and roses. If you wish to stay with all greens, that too is very attractive. However, to make this work you may want to utilize different shades of green. Variegated greens can be useful.

The outside house color is the first thing you see when you pull up to your driveway. There is one major concern of the lightness or darkness of your house color that must be considered. Like jost light colors it extends a very cool feeling. When applied to outside walls it makes your home even cooler. However, when using darker colors it attracts heat to your home and can even increase your energy bill.

By putting all your color knowledge to good use you are guaranteed to be pulling up to a house you are proud to call home.

For more information contact your florist Karrelle Chang at Vintage Florist & Gifts

Tele: 754-423-4673