by Hannah Kampen

Created on: February 20, 2009

Well, since you're reading this, I can correctly assume you're thinking about painting one or more rooms in your home. Congratulations! Research is the first step to improving yourself, your house, your life!

The second step is to assess what you want to do. You want to paint your home for decoration, you say? Great! Do you want it to reflect your personality? Do you want it to reflect someone's personality you love (therefore making a room you will enjoy even more because it makes you think of that person)? Do you want neutral tones, or something that screams for attention? Do you want things painted on it, such as a mural, something for a nursery (for example), wainscotting, dual colors, baseboards, crown mouldings? The list goes on. This all plays an important part in choosing the right color. If one tiny little detail isn't right, you may feel that something is wrong when you're finished, and may not be able to dissipate that feeling. How horrible would that be - to have a room in your home that doesn't make you feel comfortable because it didn't turn out the way you imagined!

So, what colors and/or style are you thinking of? Picking a style you want to decorate in can help with the colors. For instance, traditional normally refers to earthy tones, ie. reddish colors, brown colors, sometimes green or floral. (I wouldn't suggest painting giant pink flowers on your wall, though). If you just want a color, pick what color(s) you like, or what defines you. This is where a color wheel comes in handy.

A color wheel shows what colors mix to make what, what colors go good with each other, and what colors are opposites. It's very easy to assess this without a color wheel, though. The three basic colors are magenta, cyan, and yello. (Red, blue, yellow). Red and blue make purple. Blue and yellow make green. Voila, opposite colors on the color spectrum. (Although sometimes, when choosing pastels, opposites go very good together). Now, take red and yellow, and that makes orange. Red, orange, yellow. What do those colors make you think of? Heat. These are "warm" colors. Also the same with blue, green, and purple; these are "cool" colors. If you're going for more in depth colors, though, a color wheel is a very good choice.

Is there something you have that you absolutely LOVE the colors on it? Is it really ratty tatty and needs to be thrown away, but you just can't do it because of the color scheme to it? Maybe a rug in your home, or a sofa, who knows? Something has kept

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