Home Decorating For Dummies
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If you don’t have the funds to redo an entire room, consider revamping just the walls. In the best of all decorating worlds, a terrific wall treatment almost magically makes problem areas vanish. Consider some of the decorating tricks in the following list:

  • Cut too-high walls down to size by dividing them into three horizontal bands. You may even decide to paint ceiling moldings a different color and make the ceiling appear lower by adding color to it, too. Or you can bring the ceiling color down onto the ceiling molding and even several inches below the molding along the top of the wall to achieve a stronger effect.

  • In a Contemporary room, create three distinct areas by applying two horizontal bands of wood or metal molding. Paint the areas between the bands contrasting colors.

  • Make too-low walls seem higher by keeping the wall all one light color. In Traditional rooms, keep wainscot paneling, a narrow chair rail, and the paint above the chair rail all the same light color. If you use wallpaper instead of paint above the chair rail, choose a narrow stripe with a light background color that matches the light-colored paint used on the chair rail and paneling. Use a simple narrow baseboard and ceiling molding.

  • You can also stretch any short wall to new heights by adding vertical lines from the floor to the ceiling. Do this by painting stripes, applying striped wall covering, applying planks vertically, or installing bead board (a paneling that looks like narrow planks) vertically.

  • Transform an awkward rectangular room into a more graceful square by painting the shorter end walls a much darker, warmer color than the two longer side walls. This technique makes the end walls seem to advance toward the room’s center, and, as a result, the room seems less rectangular.

  • Make a square room seem less static by painting one focal wall a brilliant color. For small rooms, keep your palette light and cool, such as an apple green and crisp white. For large rooms, go for warmer, darker colors, such as Venetian red against gold.

  • Calm down busy walls by painting all the moldings and trims (including the mechanical devices, like vents) the same color as the wall.

  • Create interest in an otherwise dull room by outlining moldings in a color that’s complementary to that of the wall.

  • Eliminate the feeling that a room has too many doors by painting the doors and trim the same color as the walls. (Unfinished wood doors and white doors can be sore thumbs.)

  • Accentuate beautiful doors and make the surrounding walls recede by painting the walls a plain neutral color and the doors a strongly contrasting antique color. An antique color kit can achieve this effect.

  • Make unattractive trim around the doors and windows less obvious by painting it to match the walls.

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About the book authors:

Katharine Kaye McMillan, former senior editor of a New York City-based national magazine, is a writer whose work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to internationally circulated Florida Design Magazine. She is the co-author of several books on decorating and design, including Sun Country Style, which is the basis for licensed signature collections of furniture and accessories by three leading American manufacturers and importers. A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, she holds a masters degree in psychology and is a doctoral student in psychology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

Patricia Hart McMillan is a nationally known interior designer, whose interior design work for private clients, designer showcases, and corporations has appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York Times and USA Today. Known as a trend spotter and for clearly articulated views on design, she is quoted frequently and extensively in both trade and consumer publications. She a ppears on TV and talk radio. A prolific writer, she is coauthor and author of seven books on interior design and decoration, with Sun Country Style signature collections of furniture based on two books. She has taught decorating courses at several colleges and conducted numerous seminars across the U.S. She is decorating editor for Christian Woman Magazine and reports on design trends for The Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has been editor-in-chief of two publications and was head of a New York City-based public relations firm representing some of the most prestigious names in home furnishing and building products. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in art history (with an emphasis in architecture), from the State University of New York (New Paltz). She was awarded a certificate from The New York School of Interior Design.

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