From the category archives:

Easy Color Tips

Dining Room Paint Colors Brown and Green

by Painter Lady

Have you considered painting your dining room 2 tone? What about Brown and Green as your paint color choices?

I always get your e-mail newsletters and enjoy them very much..now I finally have something to send you back.

I painted my dining room today..I picked out the chocolate brown paint color and let my 8 year old son pick the green paint color..I think he did a great job.

Thanks for all your inspiration to start doing thing’s to our house.

We moved to Cumming, Ga 18 months ago from Las Vegas. We bought a 10 yr old home..going from tons of upgrades..to none.

We are finally starting to make this our own.

Take care, Amy

We didn’t have a lot of money to spend..so we went to Ikea..bought butcher block countertops, new farm sink & faucet..$800.00..then to Lowes and bought the Roma Stone (for floors) with a little liquid nails we used it for a backslash..I’m really happy with how it turned out..mini kitchen remodel on a budget..

Do you have any ideas for the kitchen cabinets?..I really do not like the white..Thanks Debra! Amy

Paint, Color, Gorgeous Choices (homedesign.marthastewart.com)
Ideas for Bathroom Renovation? Good Questions (apartmenttherapy.com)
Jennifer’s Smart and Thrifty RentalHouse Call (apartmenttherapy.com)

Do you just love the brown and green dining room paint colors? I do! And what a great budget kitchen remodel!

Thanks for sharing Amy… Anyone have any ideas for Amy on Cabinet Paint Colors?

Technorati Tags: Dining room, Home, Home and Garden, Home Improvement, paint

{ 0 comments }

Decorating The Hallway With Black And White Photographs

by Painter Lady

I’ve always lined my hallway with family photographs. But… it never really made a design statement. The photos were mostly colored photos – some portraits and some are snapshots… but all were a colorful mish-mash.

The frames were never cohesive either… I had wood, plastic, ceramic and metal frames of various sizes and states of dis-repair. All in all – not pleasing to the eye. It just didn’t make anyone want to stop and look… which is really the purpose.

I’m not a huge fan of displaying family photos in every nook and cranny of my home. I have a few on display in the bookcases and of course we often have a collection plastered to the refrigerator… but I’m not a “put a group on the piano” type of decorator.

Black and White Photos In Hallway I’ve always loved the idea of grouping black and white photos into a larger “unit” to make an impact… but now I’m working on this idea for my own hallway.

I set out Decorating The Hallway With Black and White Photographs.

I have generations of old photographs that are very personal to our family – and now they will be shown in an organized manner instead of a hodge-podge. The idea is to group each generation together so that one can view the family line in order.

Plus – I’ll need to have a group for friends… and a group for more current snapshots that have captured a memorable moment. It’s sort of like scrapbooking for the walls.

I don’t want to have all the frames the same size… I like variety. Having all the pictures in black frames with a white mat will look stunning and by digitizing all the photos and printing them in black and white… well you get the idea of the huge impact this will have. I think this idea will make a huge difference in the decorative impact as well as the personal gratification of seeing visitors actually want to wall the hallway.

How To Hang Black and White Photos I just read a great tip about choosing the color of your walls to best show off your black and white photographs. The walls should have a deep (doesn’t have to be dark) wall color.

I’ve already painted my hallway with something close to Glidden’s Honey Beige… but shades lighter. I can see that I should have picked a color with more depth of color. The changing of hallway colors will have to wait.

I did purchase a slew of new Frames in a Box Set. To keep the costs down – I also purchased a few cans of black spray paint to revamp some of the old frames.

black and white picture wall I scanned in the color images and used “remove color” or “gray scale”. This type of tool is available in almost all of the computer image refining programs.

It’s easy… but you will want to print in high quality and use photo paper to get the clearest sharpest images. You can also take a pile of photos to your local copy shop and have them do it for you.

Decorate Hallway with black and white photos This project is time consuming – so I’m doing it in stages. It’s fun to see the hallway looking more like a gallery instead of a disarray of bad decorating. I look so talented!

Vintage and New Photos Mixed in Hallway

Brown Hallway Photo From MarthaStewart.com

Blue and White Hallway From style-files.com

Black And White Picture Wall With Old Frames

{ 4 comments }

What Proportions To Use For Contrasting Colors

by Painter Lady

room color combinations In the use of one color with another of contrasting character the question frequently arises, what proportion of each should be used to obtain the best effect?

Illustrative color sample books usually show samples of colors of the same size, leading you (unconsciously) to the conclusion that contrasting colors should occupy the same (equal) surface area.

In every room there must be a prevailing or dominant color, and the use of a contrasting color must be limited to proportions which give simply a pleasing emphasis.

For instance… a room that has the same green color in the trim, drapes and furniture. To paint all the walls in red of a direct contrast would be ineffective.

If a rule can be applied we would say that no strong normal color should be used in large surfaces.

If we were dealing with pigments we would say that if one-sixth of a room is devoted to a specific green, the balance of the wall space should be treated with the same amount of red, mixed with the same amount of gray.

7 room color combinations

COLOR IN LARGE OR SMALL ROOMS

For a large room that is full of natural light, yellow, red and orange in delicate shades are not as desirable as orange, violet and russet in light shades.

This rule, however, may be reversed for a large room that is dimly lighted.A superabundance of light gives an uncomfortable glare.

For a room that is small and filled with natural light… the fresh tints are not as desirable as the grayed shades of colors.

We would emphasize that the influences of color is very largely the result of studied proportions. The foundation of choosing colors is based on a sound understanding of color theory and theory of scale. Scale is mechanically determined.

If red is lightened by the addition of white, or darkened by the addition of black, it is removed to another scale, and can only harmonize by contrast with its complement by adding to green the same amount of white or black that has changed the character of the red, and this should be mathematically accurate.

To place white by the side of a color heightens or intensifies the tone of that color.

To put black beside a color has the opposite effect. It weakens the color.

Every woman looks better in white, hence white is the universal wedding gown, the universal party dress for children, and, wherever practical, the universal Summer dress for adults as well. White is worn universally by men and women next to the face, in collars or in neckwear, and the reason for it is that the contiguous white intensifies whatever color they may possess. Black, on the other hand, lessens the color or lowers its tone.

Gray is a medium between the two. While it renders an adjacent color less brilliant, it takes to itself at the same time a tint that is a complement of that adjacent color. In other words, gray by the side of green appears faintly pinkish.

Back is always desirable as an associate with luminous colors. Black does not associate as well with two colors, one of which is luminous and the other sombre, as when associated with two luminous colors.