Want To Use A Bright Paint Color On Your Wall? Learn From This Home Depot Ad

Flipping through decor magazines is a great way to find inspiration for your next room makeover, and the ads can be as illuminating as the articles. 

This Home Depot ad shows a great example of a successful way to use a bright color on your wall (here, a clear Caribbean-style teal) without having an over-powering room. 

The key? Nearly every other element in the room is neutral. Natural woven blinds, pale grey couch, Sisal rug, white trim, brown and gold tables… Aside from the couch pillows that tie directly to the wall color, even the accessories are gentler, more muted versions of the bright teal wall color. 

Understanding this balance is useful in two ways: If you are burdened with a bunch of beige furniture that you didn’t really want, using a vivid wall color is a great way to create a lively room without investing in new furniture. Or if you are starting from scratch in a room, you know that you can choose basic, neutral furniture and pair it with a personality-filled wall color that you can easily change down the road with the times, or your mood.

Have fun decorating, and here’s to being happy at home!

Mood changing colors: Benjamin Moore's Soleil

The sun has come out this week in Seattle, and you can feel it in the brightness of people smiles.  It brings out the sundresses, the convertibles, and the iced lattes, and everyone is just a little friendlier than usual.  Just like the sun is able to brighten a person's mood, color can, too.  One of the most obvious happy-colors is, of course, yellow.

Yellow is the color of optimism, brightness, cheery attitude and mental clarity.  It can promote creative, clear, upbeat thinking and decision making, ease depression, and encourage laughter.  It's not for everyone, of course, and the wrong yellow, or yellow for the wrong person, can increase irritability and hyperactivity.  But as with any color, used well, it's lovely.

Benjamin Moore's Soleil lifts the mood atop of grey Sparrow and creates sunny harmony in this dining room.

One of my favorite yellows is Benjamin Moore's Soleil.  When a client tells me they want a yellow room, it is one of the first places I look and so often, it is perfect. I have used it to create a warm and happy dining room, a sophisticated and joyful bedroom, and an inviting and warm home office.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's quite yellow.  When you put it on all four walls you are not going to wonder if you ended up with a yellow.  But unlike the many (too many) yellow paint colors out there, this one won't scream CAUTION at you.  It won't get bitter or sharp.  It won't get babyish.  It's just... right.  Give it a try, or write to me for a couple of my other favorites.

Have fun, and don't fear color.  It's just paint!