How to Deal with Bad Furniture Selection

Problem: My brand new sofa now seems too big for the room but I don’t want to take it back. What can I do?
If you’re dealing with a big sectional or other large sofa that dominates your living room, here’s an idea for making it seem a little less imposing. Choose a wall color that [...]

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Does Your House Need Shutters?

If light fixtures are the cuff links of the house, shutters must be a nice silk tie– a great way to add a little more coordinating color to the “outfit.” But sometimes a tie is not necessary and the same goes for shutters.
If your house is a classic colonial with six-over-six, double-hung windows, it is very typical [...]

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Stained Solid Wood Doors

Many of you, after reading about how garage doors are painted the house color and how front doors should be a stand-out color, have written in about using stained solid wood doors. My comment to that is, whenever your budget allows for solid wood doors, go for it. There’s nothing like the richness of wood, [...]

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Avoiding the Clash of Colors

Every day I drive by this office building, a big brick square structure along a main road. And every day I wince when I see the annual flowers in the huge bed along the driveway. The brick building is, well, brick. It has rusts and browns and taupes and rusty reds and all earth tones. [...]

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Color Your Walls

 
Color is hot. Whether it’s chocolate brown for your bedroom walls, spice for your kitchen, or lime green for your guest bath, color is going up on the walls all over. People move into wonderful new homes with painter’s white walls and wonder why their homes feel so cold. Remedy? Add color. 
Sometimes people are [...]

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Decorating with White

When it comes to color selection, remember white. Although it’s technically not a color, it certainly helps make colors “pop.” If you’re into lots of saturated color like you see in San Antonio, for example, with reds and yellows and oranges and purples on everything from textiles to houses, the addition of white will give [...]

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Color Subtleties: What I learned about green from a cactus

There are times when I catch myself staring at the cactus sitting on the kitchen windowsill. It’s one of those tall cacti, about 30 inches,  whose growth shows up in rings of color moving up the long stalk. If you stare at the cactus long enough, you can appreciate the gradation of greens from the olivey [...]

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Cottage Colors: Back from the Lake

My apologies to anyone who surfed over this way only to find empty posts and no comments for two weeks. I’ve been at my dad’s cottage away from all civilization (including my trusty computer) for two weeks. Although it was restful, the pile of emails and assorted communications that went unanswered is daunting. But I’m [...]

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