With apologies to Paul Simon, when you are getting your house ready for sale, one of the easiest and best ways to change the look of any home is to add color. Here are some great, easy guidelines to help teach you how to choose colors for your home.
* Identify a feeling that you want to convey in the home. This will go a long way towards helping you choose the right color scheme. If you are looking for a warm color scheme that wraps you in comfort, try deeper colors in warmer shades such as reds, gold, browns and some greens. Want a light, uplifting feeling? Sunny yellows might be just the ticket. Looking for a calming, serene atmosphere? Pale sky blues, spring greens and lilacs are what you are looking for.
* Find a perfect color scheme by borrowing the colors from a major fabric pattern, rug or wallpaper in the room. My best friend selected colors for his entire house based off one small area rug.
* Don’t feel you have to paint every wall in a room. To save time and money, especially if you are unsure of your color choice, paint just the focal wall in the room. It will give you the impact without all the time and expense of an entire room redo.
* To expand space in a small home, keep all walls that can be seen at the same time the same pale, cool color. This works great for open plan homes. Ask me how I know.
* Colors can have a psychological effect. Here is a quick run down of the most common colors, and how they affect those in the same environment.
Red – The color of love and passion, red tends to cause a lively feeling to any room. It can enhance appetite and feel energetic. Yellow – The color of optimism. You can’t help but to feel good in a sunny yellow room! Blue- Seen as trustworthy, loyal. Blue is a calming color that feels like sky and water. Green – The color of nature and peace. Soothing color that is easiest on the eye. Some greens are now used as neutrals in a room.
Purples – The color of royalty and luxury. It can be both uplifting and calming at the same time, depending on whether there is more blue or red in the undertone.
Remember that paint is relatively inexpensive, and if you don’t end up liking the final result, you can always repaint....a whole house palimpsest.
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