Beautiful Home

I love color, and having been in many homes that were painted almost completely white on the interior, my love of color is even more deep than it was before. There is something about finding the perfect color for any room that can lead to immense satisfaction. Colors give off a different feel, and of course, a different look. However, finding the right color schemes can be hard. Some people have a knack for it, and others don’t. Sadly, though I know which individual colors I like, I am one of the ones that has a hard time tying them all together in a room.

Short of hiring an interior designer, there are some things that folks like me can do to find the right color schemes for their home. One of the best things to do is guess, but make it a guess that you have put some time into. One of the easiest ways to find good color schemes is to steal them from someone else. Looking through home and garden magazines is a good start. You may find something there you like, or you may find something you can tweak to fit the feel you are looking for in a room.

You can make up your own color schemes by starting with the colors that you like. All paint stores and home improvements stores have paint samples. These are free, and you should take advantage of that when you are looking to put together color schemes. Take the colors that you like, and then some that you don’t know if you like. You can then lay them out with each other and see if anything goes together in a way that pleases your eye. You may come up with some of the more common combinations, or you may come up with something that works just for you.

Remember that the color schemes you choose have to be right for you and only you. If you have ever watched Trading Spaces, you know that even the designers of the world often get it wrong. There are times they choose something they like, but the home owner is not happy. It doesn’t mean the color schemes are bad, it just means they are bad for that particular family or person. You have to live in your home, so you should be happy with what you do, even if others aren’t sure they like it. Making your home your own is important, and this is just one way to go about doing that. 

Tags: color schemes, home paint, interior designer

Picking out the right ceiling lighting is almost an art for me. You see, ceiling lights have to accomplish two things at once. On the one hand, they have to be functional. Ceiling lighting has to illuminate a room well enough that you can see what you need to. It needs to fill up every corner with an adequate glow to establish the proper visibility and the right mood. On the other hand, ceiling lights should be beautiful. They are part of your built-in ceiling décor, and as such they have to be carefully chosen. The lighting for your ceiling should go along with every aspect of your room decoration. It should match the period, style, color composition, and other aesthetic characteristics of the rest of the room.

Needless to say, this is not easy to do – especially if you are the type of person who likes to change your decorations around from time to time. When I was first getting into home décor, I made some pretty drastic mistakes with ceiling lighting. I figure that my tastes would stay the same, and bought ceiling lights that fit my particular momentary interests but were not very versatile. When I changed from modernistic designs to a more classical looks, they were entirely out of place. They seemed harsh, angular, and ascetic compares to the voluptuous classic art that adorned the walls. Suddenly, I had to start all over. And you know that new ceiling lighting isn’t cheap enough to do that frequently!

That is why I now like to use a combination of ceiling lighting and floor and table lamps. Usually, I find a few ceiling lights that I really like and feel will last in a particular room. I find ones that have a sort of universal appeal that won’t get old. Then, I let myself get more whimsical with my floor lamps. I buy lamps that match my particular decorative tastes at the moment as opposed to ones that I think will last forever. That way, when I change things around, I can move old lamps out of the room into storage and bring in a few new ones. If I decide to change back, I still have those old lamps sitting around.

To my mind, LED lighting is one of the most important new technologies to come around for home decoration. It has already changed the way that I think about ceiling lighting. LEDs only infrequently need to be changed, and can last for a decade or more under the right conditions. I fully expect that they will completely replace all other lights within the next few years because they are so energy-efficient. They have a completely different look than most kinds of ceiling lighting, however, and require a fresh new approach.

Tags: ceiling lighting, lighting