Choosing a color to paint a room in your home is just plain overwhelming!  As a decorator, it is not unusual to find several barely used gallons of paint in a clients home that were just not quite right on the wall.  Thank goodness for the small sample sizes now available from some manufacturers.  They save buying gallons of the wrong color paint, but don’t really do much to narrow down the choices. 

 Decorating starts with color.  It is one of the most important aspects of planning a room.  It can make or break your efforts and it is the most challenging.  Color affects us visually, physically and like music, emotionally.  There is a whole psychology about color and many books have been written about it.  You can choose a color based on the light or function of the room, to match the furnishings or based on an inspiration piece or photograph from a magazine.  You can even choose a color based on your personality.  If you want to have a little fun with color, I recommend reading “The Language of Color” by Dorothee L. Mella.  This book talks about color and personality and includes several quizzes that reveal the meaning of colors in terms of your personality.

 Typically, in a room where you sleep, you want a palette that is restful.  In an area where you entertain, you may want a palette that stimulates conversation or even the appetite.  Here are some examples of emotional responses to some basic colors.

 Red.  Red is the most emotional color.  It can actually stimulate a faster heartbeat; boost blood pressure and breathing rates.  It can stir up confrontation like the red cloth in a bull fight.  It can stimulate conversation, appetite and raises a room’s energy.  Red is a warm color, but it also has cool versions.

 Yellow.  Yellow is a happy, cheerful color.  It can be warm and welcoming, friendly and energetic.  It is said to enhance concentration but is also credited with causing people to lose their tempers.  Yellow is also a warm color with cool versions.

 Blue.    Blue is calming, cool and peaceful.  It can bring down blood pressure and heart rate.  People are said to be true blue when they are good, trustworthy and loyal. It is a color that signifies confidence and professionalism.  People are sometimes more productive in blue rooms, wear blue suits to interviews. You can also have the blues and be sad or melancholy.

 Green.  Green is the most calming and relaxing color.  It is quiet and soothing.  It signifies nature, renewal, growth and things that are good for you, like vegetables.  Green is easy on the eyes.  It is no accident that surgical gowns and hospital rooms are often green.  Green is a secondary color, made from yellow and blue so it can be warm or cool but is usually considered a cool color.

 As you mix the primary colors; red, yellow and blue with the secondary colors; green violet and orange, there are an infinite number of colors to choose from.  The more colors that are mixed together, the more possibilities exist for new colors.  Often the complex color mixes are much more sophisticated looking and design oriented than the basic colors.  They are typically the colors we gravitate to when looking at all the samples in the paint display.  They are beautiful, but because of the complexity, it can be tricky to know what they go with.

 Take white for example.  Is it a color or the absence of color?  It is most definitely a color when you are choosing paint, furnishings or accessories and there are a staggering number of whites.  White signifies purity.  It is clean and simple or is it?  White goes with everything, but white paint is usually tinted either warm or cool so be careful to choose the right white to compliment the rest of your color choices.

 Black is also a color.  It is powerful, dramatic and grounding.  It can be classic, exotic (think animal prints) or modern.

 So how do you choose a paint color for a room?   It is best not to choose one color, but to develop a pleasing color palette of a number of colors to create the feeling you are trying to get in the room.  There are numerous suggested color palettes at your local paint store to get you started or you can talk to a professional to create a custom palette just for you.

 The holidays are fast approaching.  If you are like me, this is the time of the year when you start purchasing magazines to get all the great holiday decorating ideas and recipes for the season.  I’m a planner so I enjoy the act of planning all of the parties and holiday gatherings I’m going to have this season almost as much as having the parties.  Let’s see. . .a mock Oktoberfest, a football game tailgate party around the TV, then there is Halloween.  That’s October.  Now in November we can have family and friends over after we watch the Plymouth Thanksgiving Parade and have an old fashioned family Thanksgiving.  For December how about a holiday open house and now that I have grandchildren, I’ve always wanted to do an old fashioned mother daughter granddaughter Christmas tea.  And then it hits me.  My house is in CHAOS!   I have the dreaded “Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome”. 

How can I possibly entertain this season?  My house has that well worn style and lived in look.  Where would I seat everyone?  Where would all the games and kids toys go so I could make the place look somewhat adult like?  How about those stains on the sofa?  I can’t afford to buy a new one before the holidays.  No way.  I can’t have anyone over.  I don’t even like to open the door for the UPS man.

You can proudly entertain in your home this season with these 3 ways to eliminate holiday “CHAOS” “Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome”.

1. Eliminate Clutter.
2. Clean it up.
3. Think Decorating not Décor.

Eliminating Clutter is the first step toward getting your home ready for guests.  Controlling the clutter makes your home look neater and helps you gain space, both visually and actual physical floor space.  And here is the best news; you only have to declutter four rooms:  the kitchen, living room, dining room and family room.  So right away, we have decreased that overwhelming, where to start feeling by cutting the job down to 3 or 4 rooms.  Now attack one room at a time and go for the biggest impact areas.  You don’t have to go through every book on the bookshelf, for example, just get rid of all the paperbacks and neaten up the rest.  Think big picture and spend no more than one day in each room.  Four rooms, four days.  Will it be completely decluttered?  No, but you will be able to make a serious dent in the task and it is manageable.  

Clutter is best handled with a two step process:  Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of and then finding a neat way to store what you are keeping.  There is an abundance of creative storage solutions available at reasonable prices to help handle the task.  If you are struggling with a need for extra seating, there are some storage solutions that double as ottomans or benches and can provide extra seating.  Be Creative.

Clean it Up.  I like to hire a cleaning service to come in and do a thorough cleaning in the fall, including the windows.  I hate to do it myself and I’m not terribly good at it (my windows always have streaks).  For a few hundred dollars and in a few hours the whole thing can be done including the bathrooms.  Things will continue to sparkle and shine right through the holidays with just a little maintenance on your part and trust me; it will be money well spent.  The house will look great and you will feel great.  Give yourself that present for the holidays.

Finally, think decorating not décor.  Decorations done right will bring the eye around the room to rest on the decorations not the décor.  It will create just the right mood for your gathering when you include the season’s colors, lighting and music.  Decorations need to be planned out and need to be the right proportions for the room.  The use of color is key when developing a scheme for your decorations.  Your tablescape is the most important decoration in the dining room.  Even if you are not serving a formal meal, set your table.  How you display the food, especially the appetizers is an important decoration for the kitchen bar or family room coffee table.  Get creative and think about creating a coordinated look.  Everything doesn’t have to match, but it does have to be coordinated by theme or color or style to give you that amazing look.  If you have a fireplace, that is an important decoration.  Clean it, light a fire with one of the 3 hour logs and decorate your mantel.  Use what you have and embellish it.  You don’t have to run out and purchase a lot of commercial decorations.  One of my favorite ways to decorate is to visit my yard for branches of yellow maple leaves, dried hydrangeas and bittersweet or snips of holly with berries, boxwood or sugar pine branches.    Stop, look and enjoy the season and your CHAOS will disappear.

Interior Decorating AND Home Staging

Most homes have a family room or great room where the family congregates.  Often it is the place to watch TV, play with toys or video games, hop on the computer, sit and read or entertain friends.  It is the one room in the home that has to serve many people and many purposes.  Many families find a multipurpose room a major decorating challenge.   As a result, some families do no decorating and a few just let the style evolve until the walls are lined with kids’ toys, or there are more wires and gaming equipment than you find at Best Buy. 

It may appear that a Lego land family room serves the kids well, even if at the expense of being a neat, quite and stress free place for adults to relax or entertain friends.  However, children need a sense of order and appreciate a stress, free environment as much as adults do.   The old adage, “a place for everything and everything in its place” helps to teach children how to be neat and care for their things.  It helps Mom and Dad cultivate helpers so “picking up” is not such a tough task.  Children take pride in their homes and enjoy having a place they are proud to bring their friends, just as adults do.

Many young families wait to decorate their homes until the children get older as a way around this dilemma.  But you don’t have to sacrifice style and a beautifully decorated room to have a family room that suits the whole family.  With just a little planning, you can have both.  Here are 5 tips to get you started.

1.  Make a list of how each family member uses the room.  Be sure to consider the activities each family member enjoys in the family room and the time of day they use the room.   What furniture, lighting, floor space and accessories are needed to support those activities?  Involve the whole family and make it fun.  You will have more help keeping the room neat and things in their place if each family member has some input into the process.
2. 2.       Create a planned area within the room for each major activity.   The room needs to be laid out carefully so there is plenty of space and the right environment for each activity.  If you have a game system such as an Xbox or Wii, make sure to allow enough floor area for playing when selecting and placing furniture.  Consider where electrical outlets and other utilities are so wires are kept to a minimum.  Where will the accessories necessary for the activity be stored when not in use? How can the space be structured so more than one activity can take place at a time? 
3. Clear the clutter.  Remove things that aren’t needed for the activities you outlined in step 1.  The room should no longer be a catchall for all of the items you don’t know where to put.  Only the items and accessories that support the activities you identified should be in the room.  Find a place for the mail, shoes and recycle those old magazines and newspapers.  If there are magazine articles you want to save, consider a scanner and save them electronically.  An abundance of stuff lying around makes it difficult to use the space and creates visual “noise” which is stressful.  Reduced clutter makes it snap to keep the room clean.
4. Allow for plenty of storage.  Make use of clever storage pieces so things are readily available for use but kept out of the way for a neat look.  There is an abundance of baskets and other attractive pieces of furniture and accessories that can be used for storage.  If your accessories can do this double duty, you will be well on your way to a pulled together, stress free room.
   1. Don’t wait to buy furniture.  All furniture wears out.  You don’t have to wait until the kids are older, but make smart purchases.  Select good quality furniture with sturdy frames, durable fabrics and tough finishes that will stand up to heavy use.  Consider a style that includes a distressed look or painted pieces which will help hide those bumps and bruises that are going to happen.  Select fabrics that can be treated with stain resisters so spills can be handled easily.  Even adults create spills.

Finally, have the room of your dreams and relax and enjoy it.  That is the recipe for making it a place where your family enjoys wonderful times and memories are made.

Nancy OKeefe is an Interior Decorator, Home Stager and owner of Picture Perfect Home Interiors in Plymouth.   She specializes in transforming rooms for families on the South Shore using One Day Decorating, Room Redesign and a Patented Color Selection Process.

Interior Decorating AND Home Staging

Planning to Paint, Redecorate or Redo a Room This Fall?

Get a jump on fall decorating projects now.  Book a

Decorating Power Hours in home consultation in your South Shore, MA home in August.  Spend the time on one room or the whole house, on a specific decorating idea or several.  The Power Hours are yours to use for any home interior decorating or staging topic.

Decorating Power Hours is A Two Hour Session with a Professional Decorator in your home 

 Cost:  $250.00  (Valued at $350.00)

Get ideas.  Get Advice.  Get Inspired. 

Call Picture Perfect Home Interiors (508)728-9100 to book today.  Offer Expires 8/31/11

www.pictureperfecthomeinteriors.com

On The Spot Home Staging

Picture Perfect Home Interiors, an Interior Decorating and Home Staging Firm serving Southeastern Massachusetts is now offering “On the Spot Staging” for Realtors and Home Sellers.  This two hour session, done in conjunction with the agent and homeowner, is a hands on, roll up your sleeves, on the spot staging session.  During the session, as much of the home as possible is staged.  This service is for those homes that do not need a lot of  repairs, decluttering or a full staging but are very close to listing ready and just need a few minor changes and a home stager’s touch to look their showing best.  The service is designed to help Realtors and Homeowners get their homes ready for listing quickly and inexpensively.  For more information about “On The Spot Staging” contact Picture Perfect Home Interiors through the website:  www.pictureperfecthomeinteriors.com

Spring is peeking around the corner

Spring is right around the corner and it is traditionally the time for Spring cleaning and sprucing up around the home after the long winter.  And what a winter it was in the Northeast!  What better way to spruce up your home than with a room makeover for one or more of the rooms in your home.  Everyone deserves a stress free, beautiful living environment, no matter what the budget.  A room makeover can transform your room from ordinary to extraordinary in just one day.

Whether you want to start from scratch or work with some or all of your existing furnishings, working with a professional decorator trained in One Day Decorating and Re-design can help you translate your vision for your living spaces into a design that gives you that magazine look in a space that is for real living.  It is a true customized interior decorating experience that is fast, affordable, fun and gives you that decorating boost we all look for in the Spring time.  Whether it is a living room, family room, bedroom or outdoor room, consider a professional room makeover by a decorator who is certified in One Day Decorating or Redesign and take your room from ordinary to extraordinary in just one decorating day.

Interior Decorating AND Home Staging

Home Staging is still not well understood in the real estate market. Some sellers say they do not know what it is; others may have heard about it, but have never experienced it or worse, have the wrong idea about what it is or what it will cost.   So, when I say that I do Home Staging I often hear: “Oh, so you are an interior decorator!” and the immediate perception is that interior decorating has nothing to do with selling a home and is too expensive.  ”I need to sell my house”, they think.  End of conversation, right?  Wrong.

Yes, I am an Interior Decorator which done the way I do it,  is affordable for anyone, no matter what their budget.  But, I am also a trained and certified professional home stager; and they are two completely separate functions, with separate goals, separate results and distinctly different audiences.   

So, what is the real difference between Home Staging and Interior Decorating?

Interior Decorating (not to be confused with Interior Design) is the art of decorating a home according to the personal taste of the client. An interior decorator will take into account the desired mood, function of the space and style preferences of the person using the space and will create an individual setting focused on the client’s vision.   The goal of the Interior Decorator is to create a custom environment that will contribute to the happiness, peace and contentment, needs, functionality and productivity of a specific person or family. 

Home Staging is the art and science of preparing and showcasing a home and all of its features for sale in the real estate market.  Staging techniques focus on improving a property’s value and attraction by transforming it into a welcoming, desirable  product that appeals to a general target market of potential buyers.  The goal of Home Staging is to make a home appealing to the greatest number of potential buyers possible, generating more buyer traffic which results in a faster sale, sometimes as much as 78% faster, and for more money.   

The 5 main differences between Interior Decorating and Home Staging are:

Decorating: to decorate according to your personal taste.  Home Staging : to neutralize to appeal to as many as possible.

Decorating: to make the home a comfortable place you want to return to after a hard day. Home Staging : to make the home a buyer must see, to differentiate it from other listings and increase buyer traffic

Decorating: to create personal comfort and functionality and add personal touches. Home Staging : to accentuate the features of the property not the furnishings of the home.

Decorating: to freshen or remake the space by re-styline, buying new furniture and accessories.  Home Staging : to use primarily what you already own to showcase the space adding only what is necessary to showcase the home.

Decorating: to make your house your home.  Home Staging : to help the buyer envision your house as their home

While Home Staging,  I am not creating the house of your dreams, I am creating the house of your buyers dreams.   It takes special knowledge and experience and an understanding of the buyer and the market, the skills you get when you use a certified professional home stager.   So, am I an Interior Decorator?  Yes, I am.  I will creatively and artistically decorate the house that you live in.   But, I will professionally stage the house that you have for sale.

High End Hotels Like Westin are Famous For Their Luxury Beds

There is nothing better than lying down to rest after a long, hard day in a comfortable bed made with luxurious linens.  Aside from getting a great nights sleep, you feel like a queen (or king), surrounded with clean, fresh, soft, warm bedding you just sink down into.  Many of the high end hotel chains have made large investments in inventory and marketing around the luxurious and well appointed bed!  The good news is that you don’t have to stay in a hotel every night to experience this luxury.  There are great bedding products available in readily accessible stores at reasonable prices.  You just need to know what to buy and how to put the bed together.