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| Decorating > Articles > Decorate Like a Professional |
Decorate Like a Professional
Transform any space into your dream room with professional decorating points and tips on how to develop a colour palette. Then coordinate colours and accessories for a pulled together look that is your own personal style.
Starting Points for Decorating a Room
- Draw up a list and start writing down the basics - which key elements (couch, rug, flooring) will stay, and which will go.
- Determine a budget. Consider which changes make the most impact for your dollar, such as paint, slipcovers, and fresh accessories.
- Generate ideas by creating a portfolio that appeals to you. Collect images from magazines, fabric, and paint swatches, pictures of favorite vacation spots, flowers from the garden - anything to which you're drawn. Don't worry about creating a theme or coordinating colours just yet.
Determining Your Colour Preferences and Developing Your Colour Palette
- How do you want to feel in the room? Calm? Energized?
- Are you drawn to colours that are warm (reds, yellows), cool (blues, greens), or neutral (whites, beiges, grays)?
- Where do your colours fall on the colour wheel?
- Do you prefer many colours or various shades and tints of a single colour?
- How does your colour selection work with existing elements in the room, such as the floor or large furnishings?
Begin grouping colours to see which ones appeal most to you.
Editing Your Collection of Ideas
- View all samples together in the room to see how things will look with existing elements and actual lighting conditions.
- Consider the size and scale of your room and its furnishings.
- See the following pages to determine which colour scheme (monochromatic, complementary, analogous, or triad) dominates your collection. You can use this scheme as a base concept for creating a colour palette for your room.
- Sample paint colours on the walls to see how they work with the other decorative elements in the space, and to determine the overall feel or mood of the room.
- Keep the concepts of harmony and balance in mind when editing your ideas.
Your final choices should please your eye, feel balanced, and create the mood or feeling that you want. |
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Sheen Selection
Paint comes in different sheen levels that impact both the aesthetic and functional aspects of a room. Sheen affects the amount of light reflected from the painted surface, hiding or highlighting imperfections and affecting colour perception. Sheen levels can also affect the washability of a surface, so traffic and usage can play an important role in determining sheen choice. Benjamin Moore offers five sheen levels: flat, matte, eggshell, pearl, and semi-gloss. Generally, the higher the sheen level, the easier the surface is to clean. However, the proprietary formulation of Benjamin Moore paint allows for all of our finishes to be washable and remain beautiful in any room of your home. Some tips on sheen selection include:
- A flat or matte provides excellent depth of colour and is ideal for less-than-perfect surfaces and easy touch-ups. Flat is also the preferred sheen for ceilings due to its nonreflective qualities.
- The subtle sheens of eggshell and pearl reveal colour with a softly polished glow and provide an easy-to-clean surface that is ideal for kitchens and baths.
- Semi-gloss is particularly durable and stands up well to repeated cleanings - a must for moldings and trim. Its soft sheen provides a beautiful frame to a flat or matte wall, adding a subtle touch of reflective light to any room.
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