Cool Off Your Home for Spring
with the Hot Colors of the Season!
Spring Decorating with Wallpaper
(ARA) - Spring is in the air and soon color will be everywhere. Forget the dreary gray skies of winter, put away your dark wool coats, and lift the shades to welcome the season's sunshine and warmth into your home. Once you've completed the customary 'spring-cleaning' of your closets, take a look around you. Is your home ready for spring? Could your bedroom, living room, kitchen or even your bathroom
 walls use a little spring-cleaning as well? If you are considering ushering in the new season with a little re-decorating to spruce up your home, wallpaper offers a practical and economical solution.
Today's wallpaper comes in a variety of colors and patterns and one positive use of these colors and patterns is to create a home that can actually make you feel cooler as the weather begins to warm up.
Using Color to Create a Cooler Atmosphere
Color is one of the most critical considerations when decorating and can have a significant impact on the final result. Using light, bright colors on your walls can actually make a room appear larger but more importantly, by using colors that are fresh and clean, one can effectively transform the temperature of a room. According to interior designer, author and Wallpaper Council spokesperson, Sharon Hanby-Robie, the new 'hot' colors of the seasons can accomplish this. They are ethereal, spiritual, softer and even transparent influenced by nature - water, earth, sun and sky. Light colors reflect the day's sunshine and don't hold the heat in a room long after the sun has set the way dark colors do.
The coolest colors for Spring 2001 are soothing aqua's,
Capri blue, and vin rouge the color of Chianti wine. Mid-tone purple is also making its way into the season and helps to add a touch of sophistication. All of these colors serve to create a crisp, light, airy feeling that welcomes the outside into one's home. One can achieve this by using wallpaper borders, a great way to change the look of a room with minimal effort. If you are looking for a little "punch" to your color scheme, add complimentary colors to the room. For example, if the dominant color on your walls is red, add a coral or pale yellow border.
Stay away from white paint. White, the usual trademark color for a clean, fresh look can be deceiving when used on one's walls. Pure white walls can be tricky because the human eye has trouble adjusting to the contrast it gives to other items in the room such as the sofa or carpet. If you must, try using new sheer whites this season with just a hint of color.
Remember the Rules of Decorating
Color and pattern should be used to create the right environment in our individual spaces. By doing so, one will not only have a beautiful home, but also a life-enhancing home. You can incorporate the color and styles of the moment into your home without compromising your own tastes. When choosing wallpaper and borders, Ms. Hanby-Robie suggests you remember the rules of decorating and follow these simple tips:
Using light, bright colored wallpaper can make a room appear larger and more airy.
Using large patterns - such as the newly reproduced historic patterns that are making a comeback in
wall coverings - can create a cozy, more comfortable feeling.
Wide stripes are also making a comeback and vertical stripes can make a small room appear taller and therefore larger.
Detailing is hot for Spring and using smaller, more detailed patterns on
wall coverings can create a feeling of more space.
Wallpaper as a Solution
Wallpaper offers solutions to any of your decorating problems. It is no longer about just figuring out how much square footage and the number of rolls that will be needed to cover it. Instead, consumers are detailing, cutting, pasting, combining and incorporating wallpaper with other elements, such as wainscoting, into wonderful unique patterns designed for specific spaces reminiscent of Victorian-style decorating.
Ceilings are also becoming an important design element with the use of wallpaper. For the past several years there have been some beautiful architectural elements incorporated into ceilings and consumers have begun to add the detail of wallpaper to these elements.
Whether you have lived in your home for over 20 years or have just purchased your first, wallpaper can help to transform your space into the perfect one for you. Spring is certainly a time of cleaning out the old and bringing in the new, but you should be looking at your surroundings year-round and see where you can bring new life to tired walls. Your home is a reflection of you and your family and creating an inviting, stylish and comfortable home should start with your walls.
For more information on decorating with wallpaper, contact Lara D'Onofrio at (212) 387-9588.
Courtesy of ARA Content, www.aracontent.com, e-mail: info@aracontent.com
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