Owners of historical homes know that choosing paint colors is a nerve-wracking and critically important decision. Ready-mix paints have been available since the middle part of the nineteenth century and from that time home owners have had to choose their colors without really knowing how their finished home will look. After all, a two inch paint chip looks very different from a 3,000 square foot house!

In a visit to New England in the 1840s, famed novelist Charles Dickens commented, "All the buildings looked as if they had been painted that morning … Every house is the whitest of white; every shutter is the greenest of green."

If you have an older home and want to choose colors other than green and white, here are some guidelines"

1. Light colors "advance" a home while dark colors cause it to "recede". This means that lighter shades will make your home appear larger and closer to the street, while darker shades make your home seem smaller and further away. If you want your house to blend in and be less noticeable, therefore, a darker hue is best.

2. Light dramatically affects how colors appear to the human eye. In cooler climates the light is diffused and bold colors are intensified. In southern climates, the harsher, brighter sunlight will cause pale tints to appear washed out.

3. If you want your gutters and downspouts to be less noticeable, paint them the same color as the house.

4. Make sure any mildew problems are solved before painting. Test suspicious spots with household bleach and if they change color, you definitely have a mildew problem.

5. Moisture problems must be eliminated before painting. If they are not, water will ruin even the best paint job.

6. Some paint manufacturers offer color ‘families’ to simplify choosing. That is, there are several colors that go well together and eliminate the agony of figuring out the exact right shade for the trim so that it will relate well to the primary exterior color.

7. It’s always possible to get expert help. This is especially desirable if you own a historical landmark and wish for it to be restored to its former appearance. Historical paint consultants are familiar with shades available at the time the home was built and can often do research to determine original colors. These folks understand chemical changes in paint and can usually figure out what the original colors looked like before they faded to today’s milder colors.

8. There is software available that allows home owners to scan in a picture of their home and then try out different colors without making an actual commitment. It’s powerful to see your home in Colonial Barn Red or Patriot Federal Blue before actually putting a drop of color on the outside.

9. You might consider staining your historical property, rather than painting it. Stain is cheaper and it won’t peel off or crack the way paint does. This is because it actually sinks into the wood, rather than coating it so it will instead weather and dim over time. Stain won’t cover up any imperfections in the wood the way paint does, however.

Owning and living in a historically significant home is a privilege and maintaining that house is a responsibility to take seriously. Therefore, avoid hasty color choices and take the time to choose wisely.

Read dozens of articles & constant new information on home decorating, furniture, unique home decor, home interiors & gifts, including a home blog, books on decorating and weekly specials. http://online-home-shop.com

With such a variety of Chandeliers available today there is always that perfect one for any home. With a range of styles, designs and finishes to choose from selecting a chandelier can be as much of a creative process as you would like it to be. Each chandelier adds a touch of class to any room and warmth or vibrancy into any atmosphere. Styles can range from elaborate and large to modern and aesthetically pleasing. Chandeliers complement other lighting well and will add value to your home.

When choosing a chandelier for a dining room, the Victorian style is highly recommended as this popular design will add tranquillity and calm to a room that can be chaotic at even the best of times. There are always popular choices to choose from with Wrought Iron and Crystal styles at the top of the list. Some chandeliers can be hung alone as a center piece feature that will dress up any room. Choose from the vast array of finishes and shade styles to find a design that will create a room of modern style with a touch of love for art. Chandeliers can range decorative styles to create a modern, dramatic, simple, elegant and formal look.

The styles of chandeliers available include Tiffany, Victorian, Art deco, South western, Tropical, Crystal, Transitional, Early American, Lodge style, Whimsical, Old world, Oriental, Traditional classics, Country cottage, Architectural and mission style. Each chandelier style can work best in it’s own setting whether for a modern look, shimmering elegance, relaxed or sleek and shiny. Find the perfect finish for your room and it will work wonders with existing furniture and style. The finishes range from white or beige, multi-coloured, polished gold or brass, crystal, polished nickel or chrome, wood, rattan, iron, brick, bronze, rust and antique or satin brass. The type of chandeliers can include centre bowl, no shade, pot racks, crystal and shaded candles.

Chandelier Installation

Before you begin the installation check the ceiling electrical box to ensure a new light will be securely supported. If the new light is around the same weight as the old light, then the electric box should be able to support the new light fixture. When hanging over a dining table, centre the light in the middle of the table with 30” distance between the tabletop and the light, to prevent any bumped heads. When buying bulbs, you should decrease the bulb wattage when larger numbers of bulbs are required. For example, a 2 socket light could be fitted with two 60 watt bulbs, whereas a chandelier with three or more light sockets is probably more suited to 40 watt bulbs. Once correct bulbs are installed, the chandelier should give off sufficient light coverage without blinding anyone. Dimmers are helpful as they allow you to adjust the light to your requirements.

Cleaning Chandeliers

It is always a good idea to clean your chandelier at least once a year to keep it looking clean and shiny. Before you start, turn the lights of at least 10 minutes before you begin so the bulbs can cool down. Never clean the chandelier while the lights are on, this could lead to a burnt hand. If you are going to remove the pieces then separate the light in sections or draw up a picture of how the light fits together so you won’t be frustrated and confused later when trying to put the pieces back together. Place a blanket or duvet under the light to catch any pieces of the light that may fall. Keep the fixture in the same place as you clean and do not turn it around as this may strain the power cable.

When you are ready to begin, remove the trimming such as pendants and place in container. Clean with mild detergent and then rinse in hot water. The hotter the water the less spots. When cleaning festoons, place under water at arm length to stop from intertwining. Always use mild detergents as harsh cleaning products can make the pendants brittle and blackened. Many darken with age but it is always good to delay this as long as possible. When cleaning the body of the light, it is recommended to use a dry, lint free cloth for the best possible result. Remember to dust the bulbs as well as these are give away to cleanliness of the light. Replace all light pieces on the chandelier and lightly polish it to remove any remaining spots.

Claire Calkin operates several websites covering home decor and chandelier lighting subjects. http://www.chandelier-lights.com

You are in the market for the ideal new set of bathroom lighting features and are not quite sure exactly what you want. Well you definitely have come to the right spot. Bathroom accessories is exactly what we are here to provide you with. We offers a wide variety of vanity lights, bath bars and mirror lights ranging from the contemporary bath lights to traditional bath lights. You will without hesitation be able to come up with some incredible idea’s on how you want to dress up that all important room. Often the hardest part is getting started.

Bathroom accessories is a broad term used to refer to all those small but important things, which you use daily in your bathroom. Quite often people think that accessories are just an unnecessary addition, it’s not so. Accessories today are a great way to add instant beauty to your bathroom and change the look in a few short minutes. You can add lots of stuff to really flange up this area. With today’s modern design , lighting and fixtures you will definitely be amazed at what your creativity can bring you.

Every little thing like the faucets, lightning, bath rugs can become significant in creating just the right bathroom for you. The trick to putting any bathroom together is to start with a theme or design and stick with it all the way through. There are a variety of different sized and shaped bathroom lighting that you can choose from. Your selection will depend entirely on your tastes and the size of your bathroom.

Amy-Jo Strutt is a successful home decorator and regular contributor to vanities-showers-curtains.com - An online resource to help you find the very best in all your bathroom needs. http://www.vanities-showers-curtains.com/bathroom-lighting.html

Color affects every facet of our lives. The way we react to colors is a combination of physiological, biological, psychological, social and cultural reasons. Color has the ability to soothe and also to stimulate us.

Approximately seven million different colors can be perceived by the human eye, so deciding what you want when decorating, and narrowing your choice down to one color family, still leaves you with millions of variations to choose from. So it’s important to understand the effects of the temperature of color, color components, color terminology, how light affects color and the tricks color can play on color.

A color is described as cool or warm depending on its position in the color spectrum and the hues of its nearest neighboring color.

Warm colors project the hot hues of sunlight and promote a feeling of warmth in a room. They advance space and are used to make walls appear closer. Cool colors reflect the fresh violets and blues of moonlight. They enhance the space in a room by making the walls appear further away.

Red, orange and yellow are warm colors, while violet and blue are cool colors. Green is said to be the most neutral color.

Colors are further categorized into primary, secondary and tertiary colors.

Primary colors are blue, red and yellow. These are pure colors that have no component other than themselves. Secondary colors are orange, green and purple. These are composed of the primary colors on either side of it on the color wheel. i.e. Orange = red+yellow, Green = blue+yellow, Purple = blue+red.

Tertiary colors are orange-red, orange-yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, and red-purple. Tertiary colors assume more of one color than the other.

Knowing the definition of words used to describe color will help you to indicate your color preference more easily, so some important terminology or jargon to keep in mind when describing color is hue, value and chroma.

Hue refers to, and is another name for, color. For example a blue-patterned carpet has a blue hue.

Value describes the darkness or lightness of a color. A color light in value has been diluted with white. For example, pink is a tint of red that has a light value, because of the white added to it. A dark value color is closer to black on the scale, because it’s had black added to it. For example burgundy is a shade of red with dark value. Chroma refers to the intensity of a color, how bright or dull it is. Scarlet and brick red are similar in value, but their intensity differs. Brick red is duller as it has a lower chroma than scarlet. Scarlet has a higher chroma so is more brilliant. Colors with low chroma have more of other colors added to them; those with high chroma are more pure.

Color complements are those colors that work well together. They are diagonally opposite each other on the color wheel. Each complement is made up of the two primary colors either side of it which balances the complement. Each warm color has a cool color as its complement.

Light affects color because in seeing color it’s actually light waves that our eyes perceive. Something has color because of the light it reflects. We all see color slightly differently depending on the perception of the light and color-sensitive receptors in our eyes. So the ability to see color is a sensation, just like smelling or tasting.

Color can play tricks on color. Just as warm colors can make a room appear smaller and cosier, cool colors have the effect of making a space seem larger, more airy.

One corner of a room painted red for example, may appear a different shade from the rest of the room. This is because colors reflect color and light, which slightly changes its appearance and the way our eyes perceive the color. Contrasting color painted on walls that meet in a corner can sometimes be changed so much that they are no longer in harmony with each other. It’s advisable to paint a test patch 12” wide on each side of the corner to view what affect your chosen colors have on each other, before painting the entire room.

Most colors are associated with certain emotions, and this differs somewhat from culture to culture. However I’ve listed some of the most popular color associations.

Red: power, passion, courage, vitality, excitement, strength, speed, love, heart and warmth.

Yellow: light, cheer, sunlight, happiness, creativity, confidence, self-esteem, intellect, innovation.

Blue: caring, devotion, trust, wisdom, peacefulness, serenity, loyalty, truth, coolness, harmony.

Green: nature, fresh, growth, abundance, life, youth, renewal, hope, fertility, peace, balance.

Orange: energy, warmth, contentment, fruitfulness, strength, security, sensuality, abundance.

White: pure light, energy, truth, perfection, serenity, harmony, loyalty, sincerity, clarity.

Black: formal, reserved, drive, dignity, reliability, authority, power, prudence, wisdom, glamour.

Take some time to consider the effects of color on the individuals who will be frequenting the environment you create when decorating. When choosing color take into account whether you are trying to soothe or stimulate, and be aware of the effects of color on the well-being of the inhabitants you are decorating for.

Nell Frances is author of the Step-by-Step Guide to Baby Room Projects Ebook and brings over 20 years decorating experience to her articles. She’s helped families decorate using miniscule budgets and zany ideas, to create baby rooms and child spaces that echo with squeals of delight! For all your Baby Room Decorating information and advice visit http://www.baby-room-projects.com

If you walk the paint aisles at any home center, you’ll see that there are more paint swatches than ever. Thousands of paint choices line the walls, but the fear of color remains strong, and that why most homes are a study in white. It’s because white is the can’t-make-a-mistake color. Of course a few brave souls will insist they have color daring because they went out on a paint limb and used a pale yellow or beige on their walls.

But, don’t you long for more color? Of course you do; we all do. If we didn’t, we’d all buy white furniture and carpets to go with our white walls. But, we don’t because the thought of color on furniture, carpets, or curtains isn’t nearly as terrifying as color on (heaven forbid!) the walls.

Exactly what is the fear that surrounds the decision of going with color? Most people say they’re afraid that they won’t like a strong color once it’s on the walls. But that fear is irrational, because paint, unlike a black sofa covered in green parrots, can be changed inexpensively. It’s hard to return a sofa and it’s very expensive to recover it.

In my own house, our media room is bathed in a deep sage color. And you know what? It’s the most popular room in the house when we have company and everyone fights to go in there. The dark color in this small room is very cozy and inviting and makes you feel like curling up for a movie marathon.

You can get this same feeling too by adding color in your own home. Remember: white walls are for tires. Now, let’s ratchet up your color daring. Try painting just one wall. If you like it, paint the rest of the room. Soon you’ll be hooked on color and your home will ooze design chic!

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."

kweber@redlotusconsulting.com

Some people seem to have a knack for decorating. At least that’s what you think. But the heart of a home is the people who live in it, and the best-decorated homes reflect their personality.

We’ve all heard about the effect color has on our moods. But there are so many options, where do you begin? Answer: Yourself. You provide the inspiration, and use your home as a canvas for your life. Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Think of your wall color as therapy. Start with the largest rooms, and pull colors from patterns in your existing favorite pieces. Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel can create calm and balance, great for a bedroom. Use opposites for a dramatic eye-catching contrast in the dining or living room.

Next, work on the smaller rooms, using shades that complement the other rooms. If you have large windows, don’t use colors that will distract from the view. By choosing colors that you see outside, you can enhance the beauty of nature and coordinate your interior with it. Try to create continuity with the outside and your house will flow much better.

2. You literally need to look no further than your nose to find the best colors for your home. Look good in warm colors? Open your closet and choose a few items from your wardrobe. Then go shopping for a rug, or some throw pillows. A couch in your best color would look great on you. But don’t forget to balance a warm room with some cool tones – candles, knick-knacks, small pictures - to keep a room from becoming overbearing.

3. Think back to your favorite vacation. You don’t have to relegate those memories to a photo album. Were you inspired by the blues of the ocean? The pinkish-orange of a sunset? Use those colors for your largest furniture pieces or wall hangings and recapture the feeling every time you enter the room. Make it your own paradise at home, and add photos and souvenirs of the trip to personalize it.

No one can decorate your home as uniquely as you can. Don’t be afraid to use color as much as you can and go with whatever colors make you look good and feel great.

Amy Snyder is the interior designer at Sun Pine Homes, a custom home builder and developer in Prescott, Arizona. Sun Pine’s current project is developing Granite Park, a residential community first founded in1905 and filled with 1.4 billion-year boulders. For photos and more information, please visit http://www.sunpinehomes.com

Pale but interesting is probably the most popular look when it comes to painting your house, and we often advise people on neutral colour schemes in our shop on the edge of the Peak District. Below are a few key points which our customers often find useful.

1. When choosing an off-white, it’s really helpful to look at the colour next to a pure white (use the whitest thing you can find, such as a sheet of paper from the printer or the back of an envelope, for example). This helps you to see any tendencies within a colour, which way a colour is going. What do I mean by that? For example, what in isolation seemed like a fairly neutral pale colour could suddenly reveal a strong hint of green, yellow or pink. As this might not be the effect you want, it’s important to establish this before wasting time and money on paint you don’t really like.

2. On a similar note, it’s particularly important with off-whites to buy a tester pot first and try it out at home. Put on two coats in small patches on a few different walls to establish the effect of different light (allow the paint to dry between coats - use a hairdryer if you’re in a hurry!). And if you’re trying out several tester pots at once, don’t forget to mark which colour is which… In an ideal situation, it’s a good idea to live with the colour patches for a few days so you can see how they look in the daylight and at night, and make sure you are completely happy with your choice.

3. Don’t forget that colours change depending on the colour they are next to. You can use this to your advantage. For example, you may feel that the colour you have chosen is perhaps a little pale once you have painted the whole room in it. Adding touches of an even lighter colour to your scheme (painting the skirting boards or doors in white, or even just adding a white throw or cushions) will immediately highlight the fact that the walls are actually a colour - pale but interesting nonetheless!

4. Neutrals are a great choice for a hallway, as you won’t have to worry about the colours of the rooms leading off the hall. They should all go with the neutral colour scheme you have chosen. Don’t worry about this being boring - it needn’t be! Try up to three different neutral shades. To give a concrete example, if you were using Farrow & Ball paints you could use White Tie no. 2002 on the ceiling, skirting boards and doors, Matchstick no. 2013 above the dado rail and Savage Ground no. 213 below. What if you haven’t got a dado rail? Well, just draw a pencil line at dado rail height and paint one colour above the line and the other colour below. It works really well and is a good way of adding interest. Another popular method of achieving this, of course, is to paint one wall in a different colour to the others.

By Lucie Storrs, owner of Period Features (http://www.periodfeatures.net/), a successful shop and mail order company selling domestic paraphernalia for period homes and gardens. Copyright 2005 Lucie Storrs, Period Features, http://www.periodfeatures.net/, 17 Broad Street, Leek, Staffordshire ST13 5NR. Telephone 01538 372202.

Are you ready to redecorate but have a limited budget? Do you have some great furniture but nothing matches? Do you love antiques but not stiff formal decor? Then think Shabby Chic, a fun decorating style that solves all these dilemmas and more.

Shabby Chic is one of the hottest trends in decorating, and for good reason. It is versatile, easy, and inexpensive. Shabby Chic is based on simplicity — simple color themes combined with your favorite furniture and art.

Shabby Chic can be anything you want it to be, and is a great way to bring your personal style to any room. Most Shabby Chic decor is based on a white-on-white or beige-on-beige theme. Soft pastels are often used as accent colors, but with a little creativity, you can add just about any color you want. A classic example of Shabby Chic would be to cover couches and overstuffed chairs with white slipcovers, whitewash your wood furniture and hang white airy curtains. Then hang your favorite painting or artwork in the most prominent place in the room.

Choose one or two colors in the painting as accent colors, and repeat the colors in throw pillows, flowers, soft throw blankets, and candles. Another great feature of Shabby Chic is the worn and well-loved look. That side table that has an interesting shape but has seen better days is perfect for Shabby Chic. Simply whitewash it and put a vase with flowers on top. Better yet, use an old china teapot or your grandmother’s favorite vase for the flowers. It’s the little details like this that make Shabby Chic work so well.

If you’re on a tight budget, Shabby Chic is a great choice. Make your own slipcovers with any durable white or beige fabric, and cover couches and chairs to match. Pick up interesting accessories at yard sales and flea markets, and paint them all the same shade of white. Pull out your favorite pictures and put them in frames painted white or coordinated accent colors. Throw in a few candles, flowers, and pillows, and you’ve got a beautiful Shabby Chic room.

Shabby Chic is also perfect for highlighting single pieces of furniture. Do you have a gorgeous, beloved antique but nothing else that goes with it? Decorate the room in Shabby Chic and let your antique be the center of attention.

Whatever your style, whatever your budget, whatever mismatched furniture you own, there’s a Shabby Chic look for you.

About The Author

Johann Erickson is the owner of Online Discount Mart (http://www.onlinediscountmart.com). Please email the author and include an active link to this website if you’d like to use this article.

marketing@4intrepid.com

Feng Shui is about balance and harmony in our environments. The bedroom is a very important room (we spend the majority of our day there), so many people naturally ask how to improve their bedroom using color selection according to Feng Shui. As we discuss bedroom colors, it is also imperative to recognize the importance of the other rooms in your house. Enhancing your bedroom without enhancing the other beneficial areas of your home does not provide you with the full benefits of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is about balancing the energy in your complete and total environment.

With that said, here are some Feng Shui tips to consider for your bedroom…

Don’t overdo the bright colors in your bedroom. Bright colors are alive and moving, so the more bright colors that are used, the harder it will be to stay asleep. This also applies to plants and especially water. Plants and water manifest yang energy, and cause the same issues in the bedroom as bright colors. The colors associated with plants and water are green, black, and blue. Bright colors to avoid are reds, strong oranges or bright yellows. Florescent colors are out of the question!

Pictures of moving water can also cause problems. If you’ve got a picture of a waterfall, river, or ocean in your bedroom, it’s a wise idea to move it. Unfortunately, aquariums in the bedroom can also cause sleeping issues and should be moved. Although you should avoid red in the bedroom, a little touch of red can spice up your sex life! (Red is fire, so lit candles count as red.)

Dark colors (shades of brown) should be used in the décor of the bedroom, but not on the walls. Painting the bedroom walls a dark color might help you sleep, but won’t help you feel rejuvenated in the morning. Darker colored décor should be used to the point of tilting the room’s ambiance yin, without making you feel like you’re party to a funeral. You don’t have to just use browns, pick darker colors and designs that are relaxing for you.

If you’re room is already very dark (wood paneled, for example) and you can’t make changes to it, you might want to consider changing any “yellow light” producing light bulbs to brighter, whiter bulbs. Opening the blinds during the day will also dramatically improve the rooms feeling. If it’s dark at night, balance it with brightness during the day. (Clearing any room occasionally by opening all the blinds is extremely beneficial.)

In painting the bedroom, using pastel colors is your best bet. The best colors to use depend on the compass direction of the room’s location. To determine the compass direction of your home, draw your house’s outline on a piece of paper, and split the home into 9 equal sections (3 down, 3 across). Use a compass to find which direction is north, and label each box according to that compass direction (North can be in a corner). Here are the color combinations:

- NE, Center, or SW: Rooms located here should be painted pastel earthy colors, including light shade of yellow.

- NW or W: Rooms located here benefit from metal, so use a shade of white.

- SE or E: The SE and East benefit from the color green, but you may want to only use these colors if the room will be used as a study. Then a shade of green would be perfect. Otherwise, use pastel earthy colors including shades of yellow. White is not helpful here, as it destroys the productive properties of the SE and East. These directions are associated with wealth.

- S: The South benefits from red. If you want to use red here, use it sparingly as too much will cause restlessness in bed. Use shades of white for the walls.

- N: The north benefits from blue and black (water). Since you can’t use water, try white instead, as white (metal) will help with the benefits of water without using water.

I know this might be a letdown, as some of you reading this were hoping to hear painting a room florescent orange would make you an international movie star overnight! But Feng Shui is about balance and harmony, so using light, pastel colors is your best bet when painting the walls.

There are some other critical Feng Shui tips that you should be aware of, including determining which compass directions will bring you the most luck - and which ones you should avoid at all costs. Visit http://www.fengshuibytroy.com to learn more.

Troy Doucet is a Feng Shui guru living in South Florida. He answers Internet questions FREE at http://www.fengshuibytroy.com!

If you feel helpless when it comes to picking and blending colors, your answer could be as far away as your nearest pillow. Check out this quick way to create a color scheme for your home with our PICK - SEE -LMD method.

PICK a Pattern: Starting with a pattern is the easiest way to create a color palette for your decor. Choose a pattern from any object you already have and love such as a pillow, picture or piece of furniture. This will be your color palette !

SEE 3 Colors: Select a light, medium and dark color from your pattern to be used as your foundation. You may want to go to a hardware store and select color chips from the paint department that match your pattern to carry with you in case you come across a great find and need to know if it matches.

LMD: Light, Medium and Dark - How you use these colors can affect the overall appearance of your room.

Light- Is the Background- this is usually easy to achieve since most rentals are equipped with light to off-white walls.

Medium- Large furniture and windows - Since the color of these objects will blend with the above lighter selection, the medium furniture will ground the room and give it a foundation.

Darker- Accessories. Since your eye is drawn to a darker more intense color you will be able to arrange you accessories in a manner to guide the eye flowing through your room.

PICK - SEE - LMD a formula to live by !

About The Author

Tammy Jo Schoppet is the founder of Rental Decorating Digest, an online publication focused on helping renters live with style while staying within rental guidelines. She is also the author of Decorating Your Rental Space - A Do-It-Yourself Guide for Apartment - Home - Studio - Dorm

http://www.rentaldecorating.com