Working with
What You Have and Small Economical Changes: Part 2, Color and Paint (Please see
product, and site, links at the end of each section for additional information.)
Concealing Imperfections
Do you have a wall that is less that perfect condition? An inexpensive way to conceal
imperfections is to apply a wash. Mix latex paint with water, until it is a translucent
tint, then stroke it, or dab it, on with a sponge. If you don’t feel confident about
diluting you own paint, buy a pre-mixed wash kit. (See Below.)
You can create the feeling of an Italian Villa with this technique. And, by applying the
mix in a "C" shape, you produce a French wash, also know as parchment.
- Pottery Barn: Color Washing Kit, link to catalog request page: http://www.potterybarn.com/catalog/catalog.ehtml
- Additional Instructions And Links On Color Washing on DecoratingPlus.com:
http://www.decoratingplus.com/page_one.htm#Colorwashing
Feeling Insecure About Color Selection?
When you are feeling tentative about a color, try painting a small room first. (By small,
I mean a powder room, a laundry room, or a hallway.) "Trying-out" a color this
way will save time and expense.
Another way to increase your confidence is to use designer color scheme cards. You can
find mix and match pre-coordinated sets at Home Depot (Ralph Lauren) or Kmart (Martha
Stewart). These cards are a great way to introduce color with confidence. Each paint card
has approximately four colors. You can do an entire home with one set. Choose one color
for all your trim, then go from there, making changes from room to room, or wall to wall.
These are guaranteed not to fail.
View Ralph Lauren paints online: http://www.wallsalive.ca/lauren.html
View Martha Stewart paint colors online: http://www.finepaints.com/html/martha_stewart.html
Trade Secrets
The following are inexpensive trade secrets that apply to color and paint. They will help
bring your interior together, or provide a special effect.
~ A home feels coordinated when the trim, i.e.: base, crown, window and door frames, are
painted the same color. You should also apply this principal to your ceilings. (Trim and
ceiling colors do not have to be the same.) This approach reduces the number of cans of
paint, and therefore costs.
~ Painting the ceiling and the walls the same color pulls the ceiling down. If you want to
heighten a room, then use a different, lighter color than you plan to use on the walls.
Sky blue and sunlight yellow are especially uplifting because of the natural elements they
emulate. In addition, vertical stripes (painted or in wall covering) make a ceiling appear
higher
~ High gloss paint, on the ceiling, will bounce light and add gleam.
Creative Wall Finishes and Borders
Here are some unique ideas, and applications, for wall finishes and borders.~ Have you
every thought about stenciling your favorite saying across a wall in one room? How about a
quote from Shakespeare?
A continuos saying, around the perimeter of a room at chair rail or crown molding height
is also a beautiful and inexpensive embellishment. Perhaps a
nursery
rhyme, or lullaby,
could decorate your child’s room?
Stencils for Lettering:
http://catalog.craftsetc.com/viewProduct.cfm?item_id=29329
Pre-made Sayings:
http://216.149.252.2/index1.htm
Other Types of Stencils:
Amazon.com
Stencils: Add wide variety, ranging from flowers, to birds, to lighthouses, etc.
Periwinkle Stencils: http://www.cybertours.com/periwinkle/home.html,
primarily floral.
http://stencilease.com/: Architectural, children's,
murals, etc.
~ Another creative idea for a blooming (or closet) artist is a wall finished in
blackboard paint. Terrific for a child’s room (they can get out their doodling
obsessions), a recreation room (Bill Madden’s play-by-play), or in a niche in a
kitchen (for phone messages and schedules).
Blackboard paints: http://www.benjaminmoore.com/h/crayola/cray-intro.html
~ Have you ever thought of cutting away the void spaces in a wallpaper
border to create a 3-D affect before applying it? This technique creates a dimensional
quality that the regular boarder can not achieve. (Best done with a very exact utility
knife.)
~ Rather than a wood molding at chair rail height, try a wall paper border. Other
unusual and effective uses for borders are: surrounding a window or a door, and using a
border to create vertical stripes spaced at regular intervals across an entire wall or
around an entire room.
Borders: Variety
http://www.eisenwalls.com/pages/borders/arch/arch.html
Previous Articles In this Series:
Part 1: Work with What You Have: Determining
Likes and Dislikes, Scale, 2nd Opinions, etc. |
