Numerology and Colour?

House Beautiful, an American decorating magazine, has developed an iPad application for home colour schemes. You can scroll through almost 700 colours and mix and match them up on the screen, saving your favourite applications in your Paint Box. You can also type your name in and see the perfect colour for you -- accordingly to numerology.

There is an immediate implausibility to this idea, of course. Are we really prepared to say that every woman named Emma Williams should ave the same colour scheme? And what are we to do about the married women?

But it's a fun idea, and you might as well find out your perfect colour according to numerology -- maybe it will turn out to be the perfect colour for you for other reasons as well.

Emma must find all the numbers of her name and add them together:

• 5 for E
• 4 for M
• 4 for M
• 1 for A
• 5 for W
• 9 for I
• 3 for L
• 3 for L
• 9 for I
• 1 for A
• 4 for M
• 1 for S

The total is 49, so keep adding: 4 plus 9 equals 13 and 1 plus 3 equals 4. Emma's lucky colour is green -- and lucky Emma, since green is a popular colour for home decorating this year, she'll have plenty of choices. 

If Emma marries Jack Smith, an 8, she'll need to combine rose with that green, creating a nice colour combination for a bedroom or bath. Doing up the whole house in this mixture might be too feminine for Jack.

Go ahead: figure out your colour destiny and see if you agree!

Summer Dreams in Winter

There are two approaches to winter decorating: you can go cosy, with wooly throws and deep, rich paint colours, or you can go into decorating denial and make the inside of your home an oasis of summer warmth.

Some things hold true whichever route you take:

• Warm colours make a space feel warm. Icy blue and white may be pretty, but warmer shades of teal and terra cotta feel warmer. In the picture above, the greener shade of blue in the ocean, warm terra cotta tile, and golden rattan chair give a general feeling of warmth. Use these colours to give your home a sunny, warm look that will make winter more bearable. 
• Textures add warmth. Use lots of different textures: deep knitted cables on an afghan or throw will work perfectly with a nautical theme while also keeping your toes toasty. Thick sheepskin rugs or sisal squares, nubby cushion covers in linen, raw silk, or matelasse, and rough pottery keep a beach house feel while keeping the room's temperature up. 
• Close off areas. Make your heating more efficient by closing off rooms, hanging heavy draperies, or setting up dividers to keep more warmth in your living spaces. Smaller spaces feel cozier, too, even when the smaller space is an illusion. Bead curtains or bright screens can do the trick while looking summery. 

When the weather gets warm again, you can pare down the extra items and keep the colour scheme for a year-round beach feel. 

Feng Shui and Your Office

 

We're not experts on feng shui and we make no claims for its truth or value, but we were interested to see some claims about the effects of paint colours in your office, according to feng shui principles. 

Green is for growth, and is said to stimulate learning and emotional development. 

These green shades from the Dulux Re-vive palette could make your office a place of growth and prosperity. 

Red is said to distract people and make it hard to focus, but it is the colour of luck and wealth, so you'll want some red in your office. Don't mix it with purple, another hot, distracting colour in feng shui, or you may not be able to focus well enough to get your work done.

Instead, mix reds with grey -- a colour that promotes incisive thinking -- as Murobond does in their Atelier palette. Touches of gold are auspicious, too.

Don't choose red or gold for rooms in which you conduct negotiations. Aggressive colours can make it harder for people to agree. Instead, choose blue, a soothing colour that is good for your career prospects.

The Mirage palette from Dulux offers myriad blue tones -- one will surely be the perfect colour for your board room or office.

House Painting: Change a Little or Change a Lot?

Do you like to change your paint colours often? Or do you want to paint once and have done with it, repainting in the same colours only when the old paint job shows signs of wear.

It's an important question, and one that can help you decide what colours to choose next time you paint your home.

If you like change...

• You can take advantage of trends in home decorating, changing your look as trends change. For the coming season, we're still seeing spicy pinks and golds, creating romantic boudoir looks and exotic effects in living and dining rooms. If you're willing to make changes, you can warm up your winter home with these hot colours, and change in a year or two when decorators strike out in another direction.
• You can use less durable materials and techniques. Some paints and paint finishes are harder wearing than others. If you want to go for a decade in between paintings, you can't use delicate finishes, however much you like the look. Frequent redecoration lets you use matte finishes, trompe l'oeil effects, or suede finishes. 
• You can experiment. Maybe you won't love an all-black room or an aubergine floor, but if you know you'll be redecorating in a year or two, you can chance it. A decade or two with a look you don't love could be depressing. 

If you don't like change...

• Choose classic looks. Colour trends come and go, but neutral shades will always work on your walls. If you choose a special, unusual colour and are determined to stick with it, you'll have to have it custom mixed when you repaint.
• Choose versatile colours. Sticking with one colour for paint doesn't mean you can't freshen up the look of your home. White walls will complement your furnishings now and look good with other furnishings, too. White walls with white furnishings is a completely different effect from white walls with red and turquoise furnishings.
• Don't ignore wear. Just because you don't want to change colours, don't let your paint get shabby. Paint protects your surfaces, as well as producing much of the effect of your decorating. No paint job lasts forever.

It's a matter of taste and temperament. However, if you hesitate to change paint colours because you find it difficult to decide, don't forget that you can hire a colour consultant to help you with the all-important decision.
 

Does Your House Colour Draw Insects?

 

Winter's settling in, but we still have some  issues with insects in Sydney as the remaining bugs move into the warmth indoors. And of course if winter comes, spring will surely follow, with wasps, bees, mosquitoes, and all the rest of the buzzing hordes.

You might not know that the colour of your house can affect the degree to which you have insect troubles. 

White and yellow exterior paint draws insects, especially those that feed on flowers. Blue, on the other hand, is invisible to most insects. Tan and biscuit shades are also less appealing to insects. If you want to discourage bugs around your house, consider a pale grey-blue shade for eaves and doorways.

Paint Your Floors!

Painting your floors is an inexpensive way to liven up a room. Choose the right paint for your surface and prepare it thoroughly. Chances are, it will need a complete cleaning as well as priming.

You can paint your floor all one colour, from white to soften and cool a room's look to black or deepest aubergine for drama. But floors are fun to paint in more elaborate patterns, too. Stripes are a natural with floorboards; you can simply paint one or more boards in each colour. Still, it's wise to use painter's tape to keep your edges clean.

Checkerboards and parquet patterns are just a little more difficult. You can even choose a decorative pattern and transfer it to the primed floor and paint in the pattern. It's less taxing than doing the same on a wall.

With any decorative treatment, you can do the entire floor or create a faux rug by painting the design only in the center of the room.

Finish up with a coat of varnish.

If you want a similar effect with less permanence, paint a canvas floorcloth. Use interior wall paint and varnish the canvas before laying it onto your floor. You can even do this first and live with it a while before painting the floor itself.

Naturally, a floor gets more intensive wear than a wall or ceiling, since people walk on it, so your paint job won't be as durable as the paint on your walls. Nonetheless, it's a fun way to dress up a room.

Decorating Ideas from Decorating Shows

It's fun to watch decorating shows. You can see what's going on at Sarah's house and feel inspired to make some changes at yours.

There are some things you need to keep in mind, though:

• They have a crew. When the host picks up that paintbrush and then turns around and has walls in a brand new colour (with special touches on the mouldings and cornices), that doesn't mean that he painted the room in the time it took to change camera angles. There's a crews of trade professionals on that programme.
• They have more time than you see. We love they way they stroll into a secondhand shop and find the perfect accent for the room, but the reality is more like three assistants scoping out the shops for weeks ahead of time. Same with the transformations we see. Count it in man-hours (remember, they have a crew), and it's really not a weekend job.
• They have sources you don't. Decorators have access to sources of goods and services that aren't available to the average homeowner. There's nothing wrong with that, but you should take it into account. You may not be able to duplicate the show's results, or you may need professional help in order to do so.
• They have great photography. Camera angles and lighting can make all the difference. Sometimes you can copy a simple touch from a show and it'll look like... a simple touch. The amazing improvement it made on the set was largely illusion. 

That doesn't mean you can't get plenty of inspiration from your favourite TV decorator. Your results may not be exactly the same, but there are always lots of good take-aways with shows of that kind. Grab the ideas and run with them. If nothing else, you'll benefit from the motivation you get from watching the transformations on the screen.

Focus Walls

Call them focus walls or accent walls, a wall with a different colour of paint from the rest of the room can be a great look. 

Some of the things your focus wall can do for you:

• Bring a colour from another room in to increase the harmony among the rooms of your house when you want to use different colours.
• Try out an eye-popping colour before committing to it completely. Do you really want pomegranete walls in that room? Find out with one wall first. 
• Tame that eye-popping colour -- it can be completely different in a smaller dose from the effect it has on all four (or more) walls. 
• Liven up a room without repainting the whole room. You can do this a couple of times if you like to redecorate more often than you really need to paint. 
• Draw attention to one wall, either because it has the great architectural features you want to focus on or because your room doesn't have any architectural features to focus on.
• Create a special backdrop for a piece of art or furniture that calls out for special treatment. 

Just be sure to choose paint for the focus wall that responds to the same cleaning as the rest of the walls -- having to give your special wall special treatment will get old fast.

Black Paint?

One of the newest trends for house painting, both exterior and interior, is black paint.

An all black building doesn't have to look like a haunted house. It can look chic and elegant. However, there are factors to consider before you decide to go with black for the exterior. First, consider the homes around you. If all your neighbors are in light bright colours and your place is black, you will certainly look spooky.

You're also at risk for fading. Not only will the sun fade your black exterior paint, but it will fade it differently on different sides of the building. In only a year or two, your southern elevation and the northern will be two different shades.

Interior paint isn't subject to so much weathering, and it won't be affected by the neighboring shades. If you're determined to follow the fad for black paint, that might be a better option. Black interiors, either relieved by white  or in a monochromatic look with colour accents in furnishings and flowers, can look very fresh and sophisticated right now.

You can choose something not quite as stark as black. Klavier from Dulux is very dark, but with Fair Bianca, a pale cream, the room will have a warmer look than stark black and white will give it. The very deepest shades of green  look nearly black, but again have greater complexity than flat black. A deep charcoal grey with very pale grey accents is a serious yet chic look for an office.

If you decide to go with black walls, remember that they will tend to make your room look smaller. A large room can look cozy with very dark walls, but a small room can turn claustrophobic. Use a paler colour on the ceiling and add light or bright artwork and furnishing to keep the black walls from closing in on you.

Dark walls can be just as tough to clean as light ones, so don't think they're the solution to cleaning dilemmas. Glossy black walls can even show finger marks. That's not a reason to give up your darn dream -- just schedule a little extra cleaning time.

Planning Your House Painting

The process of planning to paint your home can be a lengthy and complicated one. You read magazines, visit websites, watch decorating shows, consider inspiration pieces, think about fabrics and furnishings, ask your mum's opinion...

At some point, you need to follow through.

Sometimes it isn't easy. After all, choosing one colour scheme means giving up all those others. It means getting down to the details of budget and timing. It means living with inconvenience instead of just with fantasies. Still, the more time you spend planning, the less time you have to live with the beautiful results.

Here's how to get from the dreams to the reality:

• Organise your thoughts. There are lots of great ways to do this: a bulletin board or scrapbook with your favorite magazine pictures grouped together, a fabric or work of art that includes all the colours you love, a visit with a colour analyst or professional decorator. Any of these approaches can help you narrow down the possibilities to something you want to live with.
• Get on the calendar. Call your local Master Painters and book an appointment. Having a deadline can help you make decisions. Your painters can also help, showing you examples that incorporate the colours or characteristics that you've admired in a realistic way. If your difficulty is that you like a lot of different ideas and can't choose among them, your professional painters and decorators can help you find ways to incorporate the aspects you love into one coordinated look.
• Remember, it's not permanent. Paint is an economical way to redecorate. Unlike taking out walls and buying all new furniture, painting can be a temporary choice. If you decide that you've made a mistake or you fall in love with a whole new look next year, you can change it. Being aware of this may help you if you feel paralysed by indecision.

Don't let those enjoyable decorating fantasies rob you of the satisfaction of having a beautiful home.

Getting Ideas for Painting and Decorating

When you're ready to redecorate, you have many options for finding inspiration.Touring homes, visiting museums and galleries, and watching decorating shows might be some of the ways you stimulate your creativity. Still, leafing through decorating books and magazines is probably one of the favorite starting points for a redecorating plan.

Can you just copy a room that you admire? There are some factors to consider if you're tempted to do so:

• The room in the photo may not be used in the same way yours is. If you're admiring an ice-blue and white confection of a drawing room and you have four kids and a Great Dane, you might as well admit that your home would only keep that fairy tale prettiness for a short time. If your living room is used for watching matches, homework, arts and crafts projects, and parties, then the music room you admire in the coffee table decorating book might not work for you.
• The look of the room may have a lot to do with photography. A charmingly bijoux room in a magazine has often been shot from an unusual angle with a special lens and then fixed with Photoshop. It might look stunning with deep crimson walls, but your tiny bedroom, in real life, might be claustrophobic. Just as fashions on the runway can inspire everyday clothing but might look bizarre if you wore them to work, room designs in shelter magazines can inspire your everyday room but might not look as good if you copy every feature.
• Your own furniture and belongings will affect how the room looks. That canary yellow and coral room may be very exciting as it's photographed, but how will it look with your blue living room suite in it? Will your sports gear look great in the room you're looking at, which has not one single personal item in it? Be realistic about how your home will look with the colour scheme you're admiring.

Instead of simply copying, isolate the qualities you're admiring. Tear out the magazine photos you find exciting and look at them all together. Are you seeing dramatic rooms? Sweet rooms? Rooms with understated elegance? Then consider how that characteristic could play out in your own rooms.

Or it may be that a particular colour or style turns up in all the pictures you love. Is it an Art Deco vibe that brings all the looks together? Do you really love the look of white and yellow together? Identify the thing that all the looks you love have in common, and use that as your starting point.